Horses and pigs in a landscape, Windsor

Horses and pigs in a landscape, Windsor

Thomas Girtin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This unfinished study demonstrates how Girtin developed compositions, layering brown and blue watercolor washes to indicate patches of foliage, then adding dappled brushwork to suggest leaves. Lines of graphite left untouched describe pigs in the left foreground, as well as horses, baskets, and figures at center and right. The drawing was likely made around the same time as a finished watercolor by the artist that hangs nearby, representing deer resting in Windsor Forest.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Horses and pigs in a landscape, WindsorHorses and pigs in a landscape, WindsorHorses and pigs in a landscape, WindsorHorses and pigs in a landscape, WindsorHorses and pigs in a landscape, Windsor

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.