Henry Bunbury Esq-r., Youngest Son of the late Sir William Bunbury

Henry Bunbury Esq-r., Youngest Son of the late Sir William Bunbury

Thomas Blackmore

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Blackmore's print is based on a portrait by Reynolds and shows the subject at the age of fifteen or sixteen, holding a portfolio in a landscape (the related painting of 1765-66 is untraced). Bunbury's artistic gifts were evident from youth, as he amused fellow students with humorous drawings at Westminster School, London, then at St. Catharine's College, Cambridge. As the younger son of Sir William Bunbury, 5th Baronet, Bunbury's income as an adult came mostly from serving the Duke of York as equerry. He showed drawings at the Royal Academy between 1770 and 1806 as an "honorary exhibitor"–his submissions were not for sale–and is remembered for many literary and satirical designs turned into prints by professional etchers.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Henry Bunbury Esq-r., Youngest Son of the late Sir William BunburyHenry Bunbury Esq-r., Youngest Son of the late Sir William BunburyHenry Bunbury Esq-r., Youngest Son of the late Sir William BunburyHenry Bunbury Esq-r., Youngest Son of the late Sir William BunburyHenry Bunbury Esq-r., Youngest Son of the late Sir William Bunbury

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.