A view of Lambeth Palace from the river at Whitehall Stairs

A view of Lambeth Palace from the river at Whitehall Stairs

Wenceslaus Hollar

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

London Thames view, looking upriver towards Lambeth Palace (the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury) from Whitehall Stairs. Lambeth is seen in distance at left, on the south bank of the river. In the foreground are gabled buildings, with a range extending closer to the river, and then a short building on piers over the water. In front of this, a wooden walkway ends in a dock and a cluster of ferry boats.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A view of Lambeth Palace from the river at Whitehall StairsA view of Lambeth Palace from the river at Whitehall StairsA view of Lambeth Palace from the river at Whitehall StairsA view of Lambeth Palace from the river at Whitehall StairsA view of Lambeth Palace from the river at Whitehall Stairs

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.