Ugbrooke, Devon

John White Abbott

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A native of Exeter in Devon, Abbott was a prolific and accomplished draftsman who earned his living as an apothecary and surgeon. His work developed out of a friendship with the watercolorist Francis Towne (1739-1816), whose enthusiastic student, follower, and patron Abbott became. Basing most of his designs on sites near at hand, he adopted Towne's characteristic pen outlines, filled with monochrome or colored washes. Here, he joined nine small sheets of paper to create a design based on sketches made at Ugbrooke Park in Devon. The artist chose an uncultivated corner and focused on a crumbling bank undercut by a stream. He used delicate washes of gray, yellow, blue, and brown ink to describe variations in the foliage, soil, light, and shade, and demonstrated a naturalist's sensitivity to his subject. On the back of the mount, inscribed lines from Seneca attest to Abbott's delight in the purity of the stream, from which he must have sought refreshment while sketching.

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