Progress of Gallantry or Stolen Kisses Sweetest

Progress of Gallantry or Stolen Kisses Sweetest

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On a fortified sea front, a hefty man looks through a telecope at right. Beside him at left, a young woman and a young military officer embrace and kiss. Behind them to left, an elderly man stands shivering in the win with his hat tied to his head. Below at right, a young man and woman hold hands by the seaside.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Progress of Gallantry or Stolen Kisses SweetestProgress of Gallantry or Stolen Kisses SweetestProgress of Gallantry or Stolen Kisses SweetestProgress of Gallantry or Stolen Kisses SweetestProgress of Gallantry or Stolen Kisses Sweetest

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.