Study of an orchid, "Vanda Roxburgia"

James Sowerby

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Sowerbys were an English family of naturalists, collectors, artists, and publishers who offered the public, amateur and professional alike, a large selection of important, original, illustrated works on natural history. James Sowerby, who drew this striking image of an orchid, founded the dynasty and is known for his illustrative work in the thirty-six volumes of James Smith's English Botany (1790-1814). For his pupils and other "Young Beginners" he wrote An Easy Introduction to Drawing Flowers according to Nature.

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