Launching a Frigate

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A young prostitute, elaborately dressed, walks from the door of a Portsmouth brothel. Behind her is a plump woman, with her hands on her hips. On the wall of the house is the inscription "Portsmouth Dock" and three bills: "From the Country an Assortment of Fresh Ware," "A Tragedy in Rehearsal," and "Leakes Genuine Pills." In the background, a woman leans from the window of a house with outstretched arms, while flames and smoke erupt from the chimney.

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