Sir John Floyd on horseback

Sir John Floyd on horseback

Richard Westall

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Westall did not visit India, but relied on visual information supplied by others to portray a British cavalry officer in the mountains of Mysore. With accurate details of uniform and visage, a dynamic pose, and a dramatic setting, he adapted to a smaller scale a Romantic portrait type recently devised by the artist’s friend Thomas Lawrence. Floyd had distinguished himself fighting the Mysore ruler Tipu Sultan in 1790–92 and 1799. This portrait was likely commissioned soon after the sitter returned to England in 1800, when Westall’s reputation was at its height. An 1814 exhibition prompted a critic to note, "The honor which Great Britain has derived from the discovery of the art of painting in transparent water colours . . . is in great degree to be ascribed to Mr. Westall."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.