Connoisseurs

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Rowlandson here directs his visual wit against a group of elderly art enthusiasts who lean in appreciatively to examine a painting of Venus and Cupid. Their lecherous expressions, the voluptuous subject before them, and the biblical scene of Susanna and the elders on the wall behind all suggest that their devotion to art does not arise out of aesthetic appreciation alone. To create texture and shadow, the artist etched a network of fine lines, using touches of stipple to help define the forms. Rowlandson's publisher would have directed the watercolor additions.

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