The Bassoon with a French Horn Accompaniment

The Bassoon with a French Horn Accompaniment

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This is one of two prints that Rowlandson devoted to a snoring couple, using the title to suggest that the man projects a lower sound and the woman a higher. In this 1811 version published by Thomas Tegg, a detailed view of the couple's bedroom enhances the narrative, with the sword and shotgun hanging on the wall suggesting that the man was a soldier who has returned to a country life. In 1803, for William Holland, Rowlandson centered the image on the heads of the two sleepers (see 59.533.888 and 59.533.2018 for the earlier image; and 59.533.1398, and 59.533..2017 for other impressions of this image).

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Bassoon with a French Horn AccompanimentThe Bassoon with a French Horn AccompanimentThe Bassoon with a French Horn AccompanimentThe Bassoon with a French Horn AccompanimentThe Bassoon with a French Horn Accompaniment

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.