The First Night of My Wedding, or Little Boney No Match For an Arch Dutchess

The First Night of My Wedding, or Little Boney No Match For an Arch Dutchess

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Duchess Marie Louise of Parma, Napoleon's new second wife, sits in her nightgown on a canopied bed. One leg rests on a crown on the floor labeled "Portable Water Closet." Looking at the viewer she says, "Still says sly Old Hodge says he / Great talkers do the least d'ye see / Well Well there's one hope left-- / I shall quickly carry him to his Journey's end." Behind her, Napoleon wearing a night cap and looking exhausted, supports his head with one hand and holds a bottle labeled "Dropsy." He says "Mort de Ma Vie I must I must brush off to Campiegne, and order seperate [sic] Beds."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The First Night of My Wedding, or Little Boney No Match For an Arch DutchessThe First Night of My Wedding, or Little Boney No Match For an Arch DutchessThe First Night of My Wedding, or Little Boney No Match For an Arch DutchessThe First Night of My Wedding, or Little Boney No Match For an Arch DutchessThe First Night of My Wedding, or Little Boney No Match For an Arch Dutchess

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.