Study of an antique armchair

David Cox

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During the 1830s Cox began to represent historic interiors at Haddon Hall, Hardwick Hall, Bolsover Castle and Chatsworth, all in Derbyshire, and extends that interest here. This drawing of a massive, early British chair demonstrates the expressive potential of historic objects and likely was made during one of the artist's annual visits to the Welsh village of Betws-y-coed, where he stayed at the Royal Oak Hotel.

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