A wooded and rocky landscape

Raphael Lamar West

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Born and raised in London, Raphael Lamar West became a skilled draftsman and painter assistant to his famous father, the American-born Benjamin West. In 1800, the young artist was sent to inspect a substantial family property in Genesee County, upstate New York, that Behjamin hoped to sell to the wealthly British collector, traveler and writer William Beckford (1760-1844). At some point during his two-year journey, Raphael made this expressive study of a rough escarpment overgrown with foliage.

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