Bridge at Blenheim Palace (recto); York Cathedral (verso)

Hubert Cornish

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A skilled amateur watercolorist, Cornish worked as an attorney in Exeter before going to India as private secretary to his brother-in-law, Governor General Sir John Shore. While based in Calcutta, between 1793 and 1798, Cornish painted Bengali landscapes and the residences of British officials. This sheet likely was made the decade after he returned to England. One side represents the Grand Bridge at Blenheim, Oxfordshire, erected to designs by Sir John Vanbrugh in 1710. Supporting the main approach to the palace, the structure's height was later reduced by Lancelot “Capability” Brown when he dammed the River Glyme to create a lake below the bridge. On the verso, Cornish depicts York Minster, one of the largest Gothic structures in Europe, with more recent structures built along the River Ouse in the foreground.

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art