A Real Rubber! At Whist

George Hunt

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This satire pokes fun at elderly whist players gathered in a fashionable home for an evening of cards. Whist, like bridge, involves two teams who vie for tricks, with a rubber being the best of three games. The lady at left has miscalculated and holds cards of low value in several suits, with little hope of taking further tricks. Scolded by her partner–the alternate meaning of "rubber" as a source of annoyance or rebuke gives the image its punning title–she scrutinizes her hand and inadvertently dips the feathered aigrette on her turban into a candle flame. Only the dandy standing by the fire and the servant have noticed the conflagration. The image encapsulates the emotional hold that games of chance exert even when played for social pleasure. Humor is generated by contrasting exaggerated and inelegant facial expressions with stylish accoutrements.

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