Crimping a Quaker

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A woman stands in the doorway of a brothel, tugging at the neck of a man, saying, "Wont you come, wont you come Mr Mug." He leans back, pushing against the door, trying to escape, and saying: "Avaunt thee Satan." Two other women press their posteriors against him and laugh at left.

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