A Lamentable Case of a Jury-Man

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An elderly judge holds an open book at left and faces a jury member. He says, He says: "Mr Juryman— you have requested permission to retire for a few moments—I have been looking some time for a precedent, and have at last found by the 25th of William Rufus, Chap 531, that a Juryman on any urgent occasion may retire backwards for the space of ten minutes only—therefore you may withdraw." The juryman answers that it is no longer necessary.

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