Rural Sports, or an Old Mole Catcher in Full Scent

Rural Sports, or an Old Mole Catcher in Full Scent

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An elderly man on a horse rides in a hilly landscape with two dogs before him, and approaches a girl seated beneath a tree at right.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rural Sports, or an Old Mole Catcher in Full ScentRural Sports, or an Old Mole Catcher in Full ScentRural Sports, or an Old Mole Catcher in Full ScentRural Sports, or an Old Mole Catcher in Full ScentRural Sports, or an Old Mole Catcher in Full Scent

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.