Landscapes of Retrospection: The Magoon Collection of British Drawings and Prints, 1739-1854

January 25 – March 25, 2001

The works in the Magoon Collection—part of the permanent holdings of the Frances Lehman Loeb Art Center at Vassar College—illustrate the tremendous social and economic transformation of Britain in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.

The collection consists of prints, drawings, and watercolors by leading artists and architects, and includes landscapes, architectural and garden studies, images of historic buildings, and scenes of everyday life in London and the countryside. Landscapes of Retrospection invited us to reflect on the role of landscape representation, antiquarianism, and topographical description as Britain envisioned itself simultaneously as a country with a rich history and as a modern, imperial nation-state.