Hiring a Servant
Medium
Hand-colored etching
Dimensions
Sheet: 9 1/4 × 12 15/16 in. (23.5 × 32.8 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1959
Accession Number
59.533.1939
Tags
About this artwork
Thomas Rowlandson created this humorous hand-colored etching in 1811, published by Thomas Tegg, depicting the sometimes awkward business of hiring domestic servants in Regency London. Rowlandson, Georgian England's master of social satire and caricature, found endless material in London's daily life, from grand social occasions to mundane transactions like servant hiring. The scene likely shows the tense negotiation between a prospective employer and a candidate for household service, with chara...
About the Artist
Thomas Rowlandson|Thomas Tegg · 1756–1827
Thomas Rowlandson (1757–1827) was an English artist and caricaturist whose satirical watercolors and prints captured the social life of Georgian Britain with unparalleled wit and technical mastery. Alongside James Gillray, he is recognized as one of the greatest British graphic artists, and his distinctive flowing line and keen observations have made his work integral to understanding late 18th an...