Tickets
English
DonateMembershipTickets

A Study of Trap Rock (Buttermilk Falls)

1863
On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 761
"The most elaborately literal study from nature I ever made," Hill wrote of this work. "It was done in July and o[c]cupied me nearly every afternoon in the month while our civil war was going on." Hill was a member of the American Pre-Raphaelites, a band of artists who were followers of the English critic John Ruskin and the British Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Advocating "truth to nature," the group executed precise landscapes exclusively out of doors. Hill’s inclusion at the lower right of a portrait of Thomas Charles Farrer, the American Pre-Raphaelites’ founder, testifies to the group’s commitment to sketching in nature.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: A Study of Trap Rock (Buttermilk Falls)
  • Artist: John Henry Hill (American, West Nyack, New York 1839–1922)
  • Date: 1863
  • Culture: American
  • Medium: Oil on canvas
  • Dimensions: 20 x 24 in. (50.8 x 61 cm)
  • Credit Line: Gift of the artist, 1882
  • Object Number: 82.9.7
  • Curatorial Department: The American Wing

More Artwork

More Artwork
Wooded Country Lane with Figure in Distance (from Cropsey Album), John Henry Hill American, Watercolor, black chalk, and reserve on white, heavy weight, finely textured, wove paper (oval cut), American
Wooded Country Lane with Figure in Distance (from Cropsey Album)
John Henry Hill
Powder Horn, Horn (cow), lead, American
Powder Horn
American
18th century
Flight Into Egypt, Henry Ossawa Tanner American, Oil on canvas, American
Flight Into Egypt
Henry Ossawa Tanner
1923
Lake George, John Frederick Kensett American, Oil on canvas, American
Lake George
John Frederick Kensett
1869
The Straw Field, John Henry Hill American, Watercolor on off-white wove paper, American
The Straw Field
John Henry Hill

Related Content

Publications

Books, guides, and catalogues published by The Met.

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please contact us using the form below. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.

Send feedback

Content Notice

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world, and our online collection reflects ongoing work conducted over the course of our more than 150-year history. You may encounter objects or images that may be inappropriate for some viewers or information that may be outdated.