A Table D'Hote or French Ordinary in Paris

A Table D'Hote or French Ordinary in Paris

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Guests of a dinner sit at a long narrow table in a magnificent room with an ornate ceiling. Two men and a young woman serve wine, one drawing a cork, the others spilling wine over the guests. Another waiter spills soup in an elderly guest's face. A woman and a little girl with a begging dog play tambourine and triangle at left. Tegg's name and date have been erased.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Table D'Hote or French Ordinary in ParisA Table D'Hote or French Ordinary in ParisA Table D'Hote or French Ordinary in ParisA Table D'Hote or French Ordinary in ParisA Table D'Hote or French Ordinary in Paris

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.