Figures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscape

Figures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscape

John Varley

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As a founding member of the Society of Painters in Water-Colours, Varley profoundly influenced the medium's development in nineteenth-century Britain. He elevated its status at exhibitions and, as a popular teacher and the author of widely read instructional manuals, influenced hundreds of students. This work is executed mostly in monochrome with a few touches of color, and offers a rare glimpse of Varley's early style—which became codified and sometimes repetitive at mid-career. Fluid strokes and layers of tone are here applied to describe trees and rocks, with figures treated in a summary manner.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Figures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscapeFigures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscapeFigures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscapeFigures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscapeFigures beside a waterfall and pool in a wooded landscape

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.