The First Time of 'Asking', from "Illustrated London News"

The First Time of 'Asking', from "Illustrated London News"

William Luson Thomas

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This wood engraving reproduces a work by Hemsley, a London genre painter and son of an architect who initially had followed his father’s profession, painting in his spare time. Known for genre subjects, he exhibited at the Royal Academy, British Institution and Suffolk Street, eventually becoming vice president at the latter. The image relates to a painting made near the end of Hemsley's career and shows a young couple at the start of their courtship, seated together in a high backed pew in a church, a sanctioned public setting which also affords some privacy. Having dropped her glove, the young woman waits for her companion to notice and retrieve it. The print was engraved by William Luson Thomas, a leading wood engraver of the period, and likely published as part of the "Illustrated London News" reportage on current art exhibitions.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The First Time of 'Asking', from "Illustrated London News"The First Time of 'Asking', from "Illustrated London News"The First Time of 'Asking', from "Illustrated London News"The First Time of 'Asking', from "Illustrated London News"The First Time of 'Asking', from "Illustrated London News"

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.