The Forth Bridge

The Forth Bridge

A. Duprez

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A symbol of Scotland, the Forth Bridge carries trains over a firth (ocean inlet) eight miles from Edinburgh. Designed by British engineers Sir John Fowler and Sir Benjamin Barker, it was opened by the Prince of Wales on March 4, 1890 and measures 8,296 feet. The world's longest single cantilever span when built, it is now surpassed only by the Quebec Bridge in Canada, completed in 1917. Duprez, who worked during the Etching Revival, creates a moody image of the great metal construction with a small steam engine at upper right, and fishermen on the water used to establish scale.

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.