Benjamin Rouse Jr.

Sir Thomas Lawrence

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1814 Benjamin Rouse Jr. succeeded his father as secretary, or chief clerk, of the Hand-in-Hand Fire & Life Insurance Society. In the previous year, the society’s board of directors had resolved that Rouse Sr. should be painted by Sir Thomas Lawrence and it seems likely that this drawing of the son and future manager was made at the same time. By this date Lawrence was established as a highly successful and imaginative portraitist of leading members of British society, and this drawing encapsulates his confident, mature handling of chalks.

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