Dumbarton Rock from the South

Dumbarton Rock from the South

Joseph Farington

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Farington here describes a volcanic plug situated in southwest Scotland, at the confluence of the rivers Clyde and Leven. This southern view includes the castle, garrison, and gun battery built near the shore to defend a key access point to the sea. One of the most adept and prolific landscape draftsmen of his generation, the artist traveled through Scotland from August to October 1788, preparing designs for aquatints in a projected final volume for John Boydell’s The History of the Principal Rivers of Great Britain (1794–96). When the French Revolution impacted the British print trade, the prints of Scottish subjects were never published, but this drawing survives to convey Farington’s strong aesthetic response to a distinct northern landscape.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dumbarton Rock from the SouthDumbarton Rock from the SouthDumbarton Rock from the SouthDumbarton Rock from the SouthDumbarton Rock from the South

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.