Carmarthen Castle, Wales
Thomas Rowlandson
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Rowlandson produced this expansive view of the rivertown Carmarthen as he toured Wales in 1797. He traveled with the caricaturist Henry Wigstead and they later published "Remarks on a Tour to North and South Wales in the Year 1797 by Henry Wigstead with plates from Rowlandson" (1800). This is one of a series of watercolors Rowlandson made across an open sketchbook to record notable sites. In the related book, Wigstead describes Carmarthen as "a very handsome town...The goal [jail]...situated within the ancient walls of the castle. A stone bridge crosses the river Tovy [Towy]; which is very narrow and inconvenient here. People are seen on the banks of the river, launching their corricles, which they carry, as Indians do their canoes, on their backs, from place to place.This kind of boat is made of light wood, with horse's hide; and each contains just one fisherman, who, with a paddle, guides the vehicle with wonderful dexterity through the most rapid passes." The ruins of the 12th century castle, dismantled in the 1600s at the orders of Oliver Cromwell, are seen here in the center distance and two corricles navigate the river at right. Two years later, Rowlandson designed an aquatint that poked fun at the arduous conditions he experienced on the trip. "An Artist Travelling in Wales" (59.533.654) shows a small horse carrying a tall thin man, possibly Wigstead, and his bundled equipment through mountainous terrain in driving rain.
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.