View of London with St. Paul’s in the Distance: A Family Pausing on a Road
Medium
Watercolor, pen and ink
Dimensions
Sheet: 7 15/16 in. × 12 in. (20.2 × 30.5 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Harry G. Sperling Fund, 2016
Accession Number
2016.592
Tags
Art Historical Context
In 1787, British artist Julius Caesar Ibbetson captured a charming snapshot of everyday life on the outskirts of London in *View of London with St Paul’s in the Distance A Family Pausing on Road*. This intimate watercolor and pen-and-ink drawing depicts a family—men, women, and girlspausing along a rural road, with the iconic dome of St. Paul’s Cathedral rising faintly in the hazy urban distance. Ibbetson, known for his naive yet evocative style influenced by 17th-century Dutch genre painters, blended topography with human warmth, evoking the picturesque landscapes popular in late 18th-century...