Severe Weather, from "Illustrated London News"

William Luson Thomas

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Andsell's contemporaries admired his ability to paint animals and this wood engraving was accompanied by a glowing review when the related work was shown at the British Institution, London in 1856 (no. 16): "There can be no doubt that Mr. Ansdell has acquired much of that art which makes him so deservedly popular from a careful study of the works of Sir Edwin Landseer. There can be as little doubt that, without the advantage of such a predecessor, he would have been a great painter, for he looks on Nature for himself, and studies her with an observant eye and a careful hand....In the picture of 'Severe weather', Mr. Ansdell's masterpiece in the present exhibition (and engraved in our present number)...The shepherd and his dogs are equally cowering from the cold, bitter, biting blast that blows so pinchingly on the stones which serve (but indifferently) to protect them from a Scottish north-east wind....True to Highland characteristics and Highland nature." The print was made by William Luson Thomas, a skillful wood engraver who produced full page wood engravings for the "Illustrated London News."

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.