Lea Castle, Worcestershire, Saloon, Looking North
ca. 1816
Medium
Watercolor
Dimensions
sheet: 8 1/2 x 7 in. (21.6 x 17.8 cm)
Classification
Drawings|Ornament & Architecture
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1956
Accession Number
56.601(13)
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the early 19th century, antiquarian John Carter captured the fading grandeur of medieval architecture through meticulous watercolors like *Lea Castle, Worcestershire Saloon, Looking North (ca. 1816). This intimate 8½ x 7-inch sheet depicts the saloon—a grand interior hall—of Lea Castle, a 14th-century fortified manor in Worcestershire, gazing northward to reveal its vaulted ceilings, ornate details, and atmospheric decay. Carter, a pioneering draftsman and author of *Views of Ancient Buildings in England* (1780–1793), documented such sites amid the Gothic Revival, fueling Romantic fascinati...
About the Artist
John Carter
John Carter RA, born in 1942 in Hampton Hill, Middlesex, emerged as a pivotal figure in British abstract art through his innovative sculptures. He began his formal training at Twickenham School of Art from 1958 to 1959, followed by Kingston School of Art from 1959 to 1963, where he studied under the influential painter Terry Frost. A Leverhulme Travelling Scholarship then took him to Italy, enabli...