Doctor Drainbarrel Conveyed Home in order to Take His Trial for Neglect of Family Duty

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A plump doctor is pushed down a hill in a wheelbarrow by a countryman. His wife walks beside the wheelbarrow, holding his wig, hat, and stick, and angrily threatens him with her fist, while a dog runs in front. At left in the background is an inn with villagers seated outside.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art