Medical Dispatch or Doctor Doubledose Killing Two Birds with One Stone

Medical Dispatch or Doctor Doubledose Killing Two Birds with One Stone

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An elderly woman sits in an armchair while a doctor holds her wrist and puts his arm around a young woman who leans on the back of the chair. They gaze into each other's eyes. On the table at the old woman's elbow are medicine vials, a bowl of "Composing Draught," and a pill-box inscribed "Opium." The doctor has a gold-headed cane inscribed "Medical Staff."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Medical Dispatch or Doctor Doubledose Killing Two Birds with One StoneMedical Dispatch or Doctor Doubledose Killing Two Birds with One StoneMedical Dispatch or Doctor Doubledose Killing Two Birds with One StoneMedical Dispatch or Doctor Doubledose Killing Two Birds with One StoneMedical Dispatch or Doctor Doubledose Killing Two Birds with One Stone

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.