Sailors on Horseback

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Three sailors ride away from the seashore, and all are having difficulties. A fourth is on his hands and knees at extreme left, and looks up to say: "Mind what you are at Messmates for I am upset, and the frigate I came on board of—has been under weigh, without me this half hour." The rider at the front clasps his rearing horse around the neck, and looks back to say: "Keep more to the Star-board and be D—d, to you—dont you see how you make my vessel, run a head." The next man is tied to his horse with heavy ropes, and he says: "Here I come my Hearty's —Right and tight,—smart sailing, but never mind that—I cant be cast away for my commander, Heavens bless him has lash'd me to the deck, with some tough Old Cables!" The last sailor's horse kicks with tail erect, and he exclaims: "D—n me—how she heaves. Why this is worse than a Jolly Boat, in the Bay of Biscay. and what a D—d noise she makes in her poop—Signals for sailing I suppose."

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