Pot Fair Cambridge, and, The College Gate

Pot Fair Cambridge, and, The College Gate

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Two scenes printed on one sheet, the subjects relate to Bunbury's days as a student at Cambridge. "Pot Fair Cambridge": pots are laid out on tables for sale. A fat divine stumbles backward as dogs fight in the foreground. A seller at right is alarmed as he threatens to fall onto her table. "The College Gate": Three men ride off in different directions after coming through a gate with square brick pillars surmounted by stone vases. Behind the left rider walks a fat divine wearing an academic cap. Through the gateway we are shown a short fat man in a clerical wig standing on a mounting block as a groom approaches with his horse.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pot Fair Cambridge, and, The College GatePot Fair Cambridge, and, The College GatePot Fair Cambridge, and, The College GatePot Fair Cambridge, and, The College GatePot Fair Cambridge, and, The College Gate

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.