The Honister Pass from Gatesgarth Farm, Gatesgarthdale, Lake District

Edward Dayes

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Lake District inspired some of Dayes's finest work, and lively washes are here applied in a manner that influenced Thomas Girtin, the artist's most notable pupil. When Girtin and J. M. W. Turner toured Britain in the 1790s, they worked in a style learned from Dayes, whose important role in developing watercolor's potential is little recognized. Here, he uses strong framing elements and enhances the scene with distinct local details. A late 18th century taste for picturesque roughness is heightened by the steeply falling terrain and swiftly moving clouds to add drama and immediacy.

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