The Tents, from "The Portfolio"

The Tents, from "The Portfolio"

Sir Hubert von Herkomer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two large tents pitched in a mountainous landscape record a spring visit by Herkomer to the Lake Idwal area in Northern Snowdonia. The size of the tents suggests an extended stay and certain level of comfort with one camper standing in the foreground restraining two dogs. In the 1880s Herkomer made several expeditions to this mountainous terrain in Wales, together with his patron the Welsh landowner and painter Charles William Mansel Lewis (1845–1931). The print, together with one titled "Our Messenger," accompanied a two-part article "Notes on Landscape Painting" by the artist published in "The Portfolio" in September and November 1880.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Tents, from "The Portfolio"The Tents, from "The Portfolio"The Tents, from "The Portfolio"The Tents, from "The Portfolio"The Tents, from "The Portfolio"

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.