Well-a-day, Is this my Son Tom

Well-a-day, Is this my Son Tom

Samuel Hieronymus Grimm

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The extremes of "macaroni" male fashion are mocked in this image which shows a fashionably dressed young man encountering his father during a visit home to the country. The older man, wearing the loose old-fashioned suit of a prosperous farmer, greets Tom with consternation. After living in London, the youth has adopted the dress favored by British dandies of the 1770s: tight breeches tied at the knee with ribbands, two watches seals falling below his waistcoat, a long tasseled walking stick and an enormous toupee wig adorned with side curls and a huge "club" hanging down the back. The ridiculous size of the headpiece is accentuated with a tiny cocked hat.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Well-a-day, Is this my Son TomWell-a-day, Is this my Son TomWell-a-day, Is this my Son TomWell-a-day, Is this my Son TomWell-a-day, Is this my Son Tom

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.