A column of oriental travelers scattered by a dust storm

William West

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

West settled in Bristol in the 1820s and was quickly recognized as a leader by local artists. This work belongs to a group of monochrome drawings he made while associated with the Bristol Sketching Society before 1840. Members met at one another's houses, and a contemporary recorded West as having made "sketches at the drawing parties which delight all who see them . . . chiefly Eastern scenes . . . illuminated by . . . all kinds of natural and preternatural light." Here, he laid in the primary elements using brown wash, then turned to pen and ink for details, and scratched into the pigment to create highlights. Two swirling pillars of cloud recall the Old Testament subject of the Israelites crossing the Sinai desert, but close inspection indicates that West likely intended to represent an oriental camel train threatened by huge dust devils.

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