The Old Hall, Hardwick, Derbyshire, from "Illustrated London News"

The Old Hall, Hardwick, Derbyshire, from "Illustrated London News"

William Bennett

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In a parkland, the roofline of Old Hall, Hardwick, Derbyshire appears above trees as cattle rest in the foreground and two men on horseback ride along a path. Bennett is thought to have received early lessons from David Cox before joining the New Watercolour Society in 1848 and exhibiting landscapes there until his death in 1871 (he also exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institution, and the Royal Society of British Artists). The artist characteristically drew rapidly and used a restricted range of colors, so the unidentified wood engraver of the present image likely supplied many details as he translated a rough drawing into a detailed print, the latter published in the "Illustrated London News" in 1863.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Old Hall, Hardwick, Derbyshire, from "Illustrated London News"The Old Hall, Hardwick, Derbyshire, from "Illustrated London News"The Old Hall, Hardwick, Derbyshire, from "Illustrated London News"The Old Hall, Hardwick, Derbyshire, from "Illustrated London News"The Old Hall, Hardwick, Derbyshire, from "Illustrated London News"

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.