Walking Sticks and Round-A-Bouts for the Year 1801

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Contrasting physical types are used here to satirize British summer fashions of 1801. Both women show off revealing muslin dresses with high waists and short sleeves, a classically inspired style introduced from France that revealed every defeat of the figure. Headdresses consist of simple veiled caps, and parasols are carried for shade. The male outfits reflect precepts promoted by Beau Brummel. With the goal a kind of relaxed athleticism, snugly fitting trousers are paired with high Hessian boots. A carefully tied white neck stock is combined with a fitted tailcoat and short waistcoat and the look completed with top hats, unpowdered hair, riding crops and monocles. Fashions for men and women alike reflect growing appreciation for "the natural" but this design demonstrates the consequences for persons with less than ideal physiques.

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