Chepstow Castle, Wales from the river Wye

Chepstow Castle, Wales from the river Wye

Lilburne Hicks

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hicks likely created this drawing to be reproduced as a printed book illustration. He represents figures in a small boat on the River Wye below the ruins of Chepstow Castle in Wales. Begun in 1067, the latter was southern-most in a chain of fortifications built at the behest of William the Conqueror. Its location offered Gloucestershire protection from attack by the Welsh, and controlled an important crossing point over the river used by travelers headed towards Monmouth and Hereford.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Chepstow Castle, Wales from the river WyeChepstow Castle, Wales from the river WyeChepstow Castle, Wales from the river WyeChepstow Castle, Wales from the river WyeChepstow Castle, Wales from the river Wye

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.