Tree Branches

Charles Reginald Aston

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A native of Birmingham, Aston trained as an architect before turning to landscape painting. He traveled through Britain and to Italy seeking material, exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1862 and 1878, and joined the Institute of Painters in Water-Colours in 1882. The closely observed bark, moss, and foliage in this study communicate a reverence for nature, admiration for the teachings of John Ruskin, and an awareness of earlier Pre-Raphaelite nature studies. The lobed leaves growing in clusters that spring from artfully twisted branches belong to an ancient English oak.

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