West Front of Houghton Hall in Norfolk, Perspective

West Front of Houghton Hall in Norfolk, Perspective

Thomas Ripley

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The drawing shows Houghton set within its park, with figures and dogs on the lawn in front and deer seen roaming the grounds behind. The title is framed in a cartouche at lower center with a perspective plan below. The image relates to Isaac Ware's and Thomas Ripley's book "The Plans, Elevations and Sections, Chimney-pieces and Ceilings of Houghton in Norfolk" (first published 1735; second edition 1755 with added "Description of the Pictures at Houghton" by Horace Walpole).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

West Front of Houghton Hall in Norfolk, PerspectiveWest Front of Houghton Hall in Norfolk, PerspectiveWest Front of Houghton Hall in Norfolk, PerspectiveWest Front of Houghton Hall in Norfolk, PerspectiveWest Front of Houghton Hall in Norfolk, Perspective

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.