Symptoms of Restiveness

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The scholar Joseph Grego describes this subject in detail, with a good deal of dry humor: "Henry Bunbury...was remarkably fond of drawing disasters in the saddle; his brother, the respected Sir Charle Bunbury, was, for many years, president of the Jockey Club, in which difficult position he rigorously upheld the integrity of the turf... and [Henry] must have had "a good eye for a horse. The "Symptoms of Restiveness" are of a somewhat marked and unmistakable character: while one sportsman's steed is kneeling down on his forelegs and turning the huntsman heels over head, another cavalier's animal is standing rigidly on his forelegs, and perseveringly attempting to dislodge his mount by kicking out wildly behind. A third rider is no less fortunate in his hack, which has "no mouth." and is moreover a "bolter"; the animal is steadily plunging through everything in its way, apparently unconscious of the desperate efforts his master is making to hold him in. An old woman, with her barrow and its contents, are tumbled over, without attracting the attention of the wrong-headed brute, whose mind is absorbed in his own private speculations."

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.