Study of a Tree Limb (from Sketchbook)
Medium
Graphite, ink, on paper
Dimensions
Sheet: 4 7/8 x 7 7/8 in. (12.4 x 20 cm)
Classification
Drawing
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Frederick K. Detwiller, 1930
Accession Number
30.138.9 recto
Tags
Art Historical Context
Henry Ward Ranger’s *Study of a Tree Limb* offers an intimate glimpse into an artist’s careful observation of the natural world Rendered in graphite and ink on a modest sheet of paper measuring just under five by eight inches, the drawing isolates a single branch with its textured bark and delicate offshoots. The compact format suggests a page from a portable sketchbook, the kind an artist might carry into the field to record fleeting details of light, form, and structure. Such studies were essential tools for American landscape painters of Ranger’s era, allowing them to build a visual vocabu...
About the Artist
Henry Ward Ranger · 1858–1916
Henry Ward Ranger was born in 1858 in Syracuse, New York, and grew up to become one of the leading American landscape painters of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. He received his early training in the United States before traveling extensively in Europe, where he spent significant time studying in Holland and England. The Dutch Barbizon painters — particularly the Hague School ar...