Corra Linn, the Falls of the Clyde

Corra Linn, the Falls of the Clyde

Joseph Farington

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Farington’s expressive study centers on a waterfall in Lanarkshire, Scotland (linn is Gaelic for "falls"). Squared for transfer, it was intended as the foundation for a finished work and includes techniques that range from freely applied pen and ink (for foreground foliage), brush and wash (to describe shade), and graphite (for the falls). Reserved paper indicates light falling from the left and represents patches of moving water. Few English artists explored Scotland at this date, but Farington sketched along the rivers Forth and Clyde in the summer of 1788 to design aquatints for an anticipated concluding volume of The History of the Principal Rivers of Great Britain. Unfortunately, the French Revolutionary Wars affected the print trade and these Scottish views were never published.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Corra Linn, the Falls of the ClydeCorra Linn, the Falls of the ClydeCorra Linn, the Falls of the ClydeCorra Linn, the Falls of the ClydeCorra Linn, the Falls of the Clyde

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.