A Barber's Shop

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A large man sits at center covered with a cloth, having his hair dressed by a barber and a boy. Another customer at right wears a cap and is covered by a cloth as he is shaved. A third figure, just released from the attentions of the barber, dabs at blood on his neck, directed by a boy. At far left, a tall thin man and short portly man both look in a mirror and tie their neckcloths. Near them a seated bald man looks up from his paper in concern as two dogs fight over his wig which has fallen from a stand.

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