A Nincompoop, or Hen Peck'd Husband

A Nincompoop, or Hen Peck'd Husband

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A small man walks beside his wife, carrying her umbrella, cloak, pattens, and a bundle in a checkered handkerchief. She wears a feathered hat and holds a fan. An elderly man behind them at right walking looks angrily at them in front of his young wife, who walks carrying a little girl and an umbrella.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A Nincompoop, or Hen Peck'd HusbandA Nincompoop, or Hen Peck'd HusbandA Nincompoop, or Hen Peck'd HusbandA Nincompoop, or Hen Peck'd HusbandA Nincompoop, or Hen Peck'd Husband

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.