Bamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, Northumberland

Bamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, Northumberland

John Varley

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This evocative view encapsulates the type of finished landscape watercolor that made Varley's reputation. Picturesque details in the foreground include a family of fisherfolk walking towards their small vessel on a broad sandy shore, with the scene overshadowed by the impressive fortress of Bamborough (or Bamburgh) Castle, Northumberland. Rising over the North Sea, this landmark is accentuated by an open patch of blue sky, and its form echoed in miniature by the tiny silhouette of Holy Island in the right distance. Varley may have exhibited this drawing at the Old Water-Colour Society in 1828.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, NorthumberlandBamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, NorthumberlandBamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, NorthumberlandBamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, NorthumberlandBamborough Castle from the Northeast, with Holy Island in the Distance, Northumberland

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.