Anglers of 1811

Anglers of 1811

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A man and a woman stand in the bow of a boat and fish, with another couple in the stern. A younger man stands at center next to a boy who has fallen, and there are also two dogs on board. In the foreground, a duck flies, and on shore behind two men play a trumpet and Frenchhorn. At left is an in with figures seated in a lookout built part way up a tree, and a large distant dome.


Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.