This is the House that Jack Built

This is the House that Jack Built

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Inscribed below each of the six designs: 1. "These are the Boxes let to the Great, that visit the House that Jack built," 2. "These are the Pigeon-holes over the Boxes let to the Great, that visit the House that Jack built—," 3. "This is the Cat engaged to squall, to the Poor in the Pigeon holes over the Boxes, let [...]" 4. "This is John Bull, with a bugle horn, that hiss'd the Cat, engaged to squall [...]" 5. "This is the Thief taker shaven and shorn, that took up John Bull with his bugle horn, [...]" 6. "This is the Manager full of scorn, who Raised the Price to People forlorn, and directed the Thief-taker shaven and shorn, to take up John Bull [...]"

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is the House that Jack BuiltThis is the House that Jack BuiltThis is the House that Jack BuiltThis is the House that Jack BuiltThis is the House that Jack Built

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.