The Rainbow

John Glover

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Glover recorded the effects of a passing evening storm in the year he moved to Lichfield, Staffordshire, to work as a drawing master. In the foreground, the subtle greenish blue tonalities of trees bordering a meandering stream are executed with delicate, softly brushed watercolor strokes. Warmer tones are introduced in the background, where breaking light bathes distant hilltop ruins and produces the rainbow overhead. This drawing predates Glover's 1795 debut at the Royal Academy and the resulting rapid growth of his reputation. In 1804, he was made a founding member of the Society of Painters in Water-colours, and he established himself in London the following year.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art