A Two O'Clock Ordinary

A Two O'Clock Ordinary

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A group of men sit around a table and gorge themselves on feast, some fighting the others for food. A man seated at the head of the table at left lifts a large goblet to his mouth. Two men, apparently late to the feast, enter through the door at left with shocked expressions.

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.