Macassar Oil, An Oily Puff for Soft Heads

Macassar Oil, An Oily Puff for Soft Heads

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An portly, elderly, bald man sits in an armchair while a shopman pours oil from a bottle on to his scalp, with the intent of helping his hair grow back. A cap inscribed "Fools Cap" is on the ground at right. Behind them at right, a woman with her hair standing on end looks in horror at her reflection in a mirror.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Macassar Oil, An Oily Puff for Soft HeadsMacassar Oil, An Oily Puff for Soft HeadsMacassar Oil, An Oily Puff for Soft HeadsMacassar Oil, An Oily Puff for Soft HeadsMacassar Oil, An Oily Puff for Soft Heads

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.