Hiring a Servant

Hiring a Servant

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A man and his wife sit at a small round breakfast-table and address a young woman who stands at right, before an open door. The wife surprisedly asks, "What Situation in my Family woud you wish to undertake Young Woman." She answers, "Ma'am I should like to be under Your Man Cook by Way of Improvement." The man exclaims: "What's that you say I'll be D—nd If you shall be under my Man Cook or any other man in my house." The cook, outside the open door at right, laughs.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Hiring a ServantHiring a ServantHiring a ServantHiring a ServantHiring a Servant

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.