The Steine (An Excursion to Brighthelmstone)

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of a set of eight aquatints devoted to a journey from London to Brighthelmstone (Brighton),resort, this print represents the main promenade anchored by the residence of the Prince of Wales. Related text tells us, "The Steine, at Brighthelmstone, is most beautifully situated: three sides of it are formed by very neat and convenient lodging-houses &c.–The fourth is open to the sea. The rising downs behind, are a shelter and an ornament. The white cliffs are seen trending to the west, as far as Seaforth; and, on the west, the eye ranges over the liquid expanse, and reaches Portdown-Hill, Spithead, and eastern part of the Isle of Wight."

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