A Peep at Christies;–or–Tally-ho & his Nimeny-pimeney taking the Morning Lounge

James Gillray

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gillray here contrasts the short, stout figure of the Earl of Derby with the tall, thin form of his mistress Elizabeth Farren, a leading comic actress associated with London's Drury Lane Theatre. The couple examine pictures in Christies's sale rooms at 125 Pall Mall. She admires "Zenocrates & Phryne" (an ancient philosopher who loved a Greek courtesan), while he inspects a fox hunting scene titled "The Death." Nimeney-Pimeney, mentioned in the title, was a role Farren famously performed in General Burgoyne's play "The Heiress" in 1786. After a liason of about eighteen years, the couple married in 1797 following the death of the Earl's wife.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art