Elizabeth Ford, later Lady Colville of Culross

Elizabeth Ford, later Lady Colville of Culross

John Downman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Dowman represents Elizabeth, second daughter of Francis Ford of Lears, Barbados in her early twenties. Wearing a feathered headress and dark cloak she leans on the base of a classical column, with her face shown in profile. In 1790 she would marry the Scottish nobleman John, 9th Lord Colville of Culross.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Elizabeth Ford, later Lady Colville of CulrossElizabeth Ford, later Lady Colville of CulrossElizabeth Ford, later Lady Colville of CulrossElizabeth Ford, later Lady Colville of CulrossElizabeth Ford, later Lady Colville of Culross

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.