Study of trees by a mountain stream

William James Müller

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A leader of the Bristol School, Müller’s life was cut short by illness at the height of his powers. Influenced by the expressive naturalism of John Sell Cotman, whose works he studied in the collection of a friend, the Rev. James Bulwer, Müller sketched out of doors in all weathers. In the 1830s he traveled to Europe and the Middle East, but likely found the present subject closer to home. The mountains of Wales were not far from Bristol, and Muller visited them in the winter of 1842 and autumn of 1843. The sparse leaves clinging to a branch in this drawing link the work to the latter tour, while the free execution is characteristic of the artist’s late style.

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