A mother and children resting beneath a large beech tree, deer grazing beyond, possibly in Norbury Park, Surrey

A mother and children resting beneath a large beech tree, deer grazing beyond, possibly in Norbury Park, Surrey

George Barret, the elder

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Born and trained in Dublin, Barret was encouraged by the politician and aesthetic theorist Edmund Burke to explore and represent the wild scenery of the Dargle Valley. Shortly after moving to England, the artist was hired in 1766, by William Lock, to decorate his new dining room at Norbury Park, Surrey–a project he carried out in company with Giovanni Battista Cipriani and Benedetto Pastorini. This impressive sheet was made independently of that project, but likely represents the grounds at Norbury. Centered on a clump of mature beech trees, the carefully observed trunks and foliage justify Joseph Pott's comment in "Essay on Landscape Painting" (1782) that “Every tree [Barret] paints is distinctly characterized.” The work demonstrates why the artist is regarded as an one of the first in Britain to engage with the concerns of romantic landscape.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A mother and children resting beneath a large beech tree, deer grazing beyond, possibly in Norbury Park, SurreyA mother and children resting beneath a large beech tree, deer grazing beyond, possibly in Norbury Park, SurreyA mother and children resting beneath a large beech tree, deer grazing beyond, possibly in Norbury Park, SurreyA mother and children resting beneath a large beech tree, deer grazing beyond, possibly in Norbury Park, SurreyA mother and children resting beneath a large beech tree, deer grazing beyond, possibly in Norbury Park, Surrey

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.