Windsor Great Park

Paul Sandby

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sinuous tree trunks frame this view of a dense wood where a bull drinks from a sunlit pond and a figure stands in a distant glade. One of the eighteenth-century's most accomplished topographical painters, Sandby likely made this watercolor for his own pleasure while visiting his elder brother Thomas, the Deputy Ranger of Windsor Great Park. The confident execution places it during the 1790s when the artist was at the height of his powers. A variety of techniques enliven the scene--calligraphic strokes of fluid watercolor; deft, precise touches of wash and gouache; and rough passages of brightly colored gouache applied with a stiff dry brush.

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