The Kitchen of a French Post House

The Kitchen of a French Post House

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bunbury traveled through France and Italy in 1769, and produced a series of humorous drawings poking fun at foreigners. He showed "La Cuisine de la Poste" at the Royal Academy in 1770, and John Harris made a related etching in 1771.This later print was likely etched by Thomas Rowlandson and published by Rudolph Ackermann around 1803 as part of a set that revived Bunbury's early designs. Post houses were inns situated at regular intervals along busy roads to offer lodging, refreshment, and horses for hire. Post riders relied on them to change horses often and maintain a brisk schedule, and an example strides into the kitchen here at right wearing heavy boots.

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.