Deer in Windsor Forest

Thomas Girtin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Girtin’s gemlike watercolor centers on a sturdy tree sheltering deer at Windsor, with a pond and fields in the middle distance and low hills beyond. The work conveys the impression of a sunny summer day but must have been finished indoors under controlled conditions since adjacent patches of color had time to dry; they would have blended slightly if painted quickly out of doors. Though Girtin was only eighteen when he made this watercolor, he ably conveys subtle variations of light, shade, and texture. Together with J. M. W. Turner, the artist is regarded as one of Britain’s most important watercolorists, who took the medium in unexpected directions. Tragically, his career was cut short by illness at the age of twenty-seven.

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