Vauxhall Garden

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1785 an established pleasure complex south of the Thames River in London was renovated and renamed Vauxhall Gardens. Tree-lined walks were adorned with statues and architectural elements and pavilions offered refreshment and entertainment. Most of the buildings were brilliantly lit and nightly attractions included concerts and fireworks. Here, a military band plays on the balcony of a decorated pavilion, as people dine below and couples dance outside--by the early 19th century it cost 3 shillings and six pence to enter Vauxhall for an evening during the season which lasted from May to August. Rowlandson visited Vauxhall often and found, as his friend Henry Angelo noted, "plenty of employment for his pencil."

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