View of London with St. Paul’s in the distance: woman and children with a baby carriage

View of London with St. Paul’s in the distance: woman and children with a baby carriage

Julius Caesar Ibbetson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of a pair, this watercolor portrays well-to-do women and children enjoying fine weather on a hill-top at Kilburn, northwest of London. Beyond the figures, cows screen a prospect punctuated by the dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral, with the river in the middle distance a tributary of the Thames that runs from Hampstead, through Kilburn down to Hyde Park. In this fine early example, Ibbeston's assured handling of line combines with delicate watercolors in a way that demonstrates the influence of Paul Sandby. A keen observer of contemporary life, the artist conveys English upper class contentment just before the outbreak of the French Revolution.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

View of London with St. Paul’s in the distance: woman and children with a baby carriageView of London with St. Paul’s in the distance: woman and children with a baby carriageView of London with St. Paul’s in the distance: woman and children with a baby carriageView of London with St. Paul’s in the distance: woman and children with a baby carriageView of London with St. Paul’s in the distance: woman and children with a baby carriage

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.