More of the Clarke or Fresh Accusations

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Wardle stands at right in a bedroom addressing a crowd in the street below through an open window. Mrs. Clarke stands at left with her arms outstretched, pointing at Wardle, and declaring: "And Clarke said unto Felix. Thou art the Man— behold the Furniture! and Felix Trembled." Wardle says to the people: "Good People of the United Kingdom suspend your judgement for the present till I get this woman placed in the pillory—I never did any thing naughty with her no more than the child unborn—it was all for the good of my Country I assure you I am as firm a patriot as ever purchased a convex Mirror, or a red turkey Carpet"

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