A Midnight Modern Conversation

William Hogarth

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hogarth applies an ironic title to this representation of men drinking in a panelled room perhaps intended for St. John's Coffee-house, Temple Bar, London. The clock indicates four in the morning and eleven men are shown around a table in different stages of drunkeness, having gathered at midnight. A punchbowl decorated with Chinese figures appears at the center of the table, ande empty bottles piled on the floor and mantelpiece testify to many rounds of punch consumed, as does the overflowing chamber pot at lower right. Britain at this period followed the Julian calendar, according to which New Year's fell on March 25th. So, while Hogarth's print was published on March 1, 1732 under that system, today it is considered to have been issued in 1733 (the Gregorian calendar, which treats calculates the turn of the year on January 1st was adopted in 1752).

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