The Valley of Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland

John Ruskin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

When the celebrated Victorian critic and amateur painter Ruskin first saw the Alps in 1833, he responded to them as sublime records of divine creation and scientifically relevant geologic formations. A later journey produced this image, in which sunlit trees at left contrast with steep, shaded rows of pines at right. Ethereal blue washes form a haze that envelops distant peaks, while nearby slopes are articulated using dry brushwork over fluid passages of wash, with ink applied to describe trees and tiny buildings. Ruskin may have sought this vantage point from Unspunnen Castle in the Lauterbrunnen Valley, near Interlaken, because of Lord Byron’s well-known poem "Manfred," which mentions the site. This watercolor came to the Museum from trustee George Dupont Pratt.

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