A rocky stream

James Ward

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Best known for romantic paintings of animals, Ward was also a prolific draftsman. An apprenticeship to the engraver John Raphael Smith was followed by studies at the Royal Academy Schools, after which the artist made regular sketching tours around Britain to hone his technique (leaving 2,828 drawings in his estate). This richly shaded rendering of a stream resembles a sheet in private hands inscribed “White Well" and dated July 31, 1811. Ward travelled widely that summer, from Brownsea, Dorset to Wychnor, Staffordshire and likely found this subject at Whitewell, near Clitheroe, in Lancashire, a picturesque village on the River Hodder. The initials "JWD RA” were added late in life, as the artist went through and inscribed his drawings.

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