Near Glaris [Glarus], Switzerland

Francis Towne

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

After a year in Italy, Towne returned to England through the Swiss Alps, sketching this steep tree-lined slope near Glarus, the capital of a mountainous eastern canton. The sheet was part of a large sketchbook, a format that allowed the artist to draw outdoors and move rapidly from pencil to brush to pen, capturing the essential qualities of the site. Working outdoors with wash was unusual at the time; most artists simply used pencil. Towne carefully record the date, time, and conditions on the verso: No. 25, Near Glaris, light from the right hand in the morning, September 2, 1781.

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.