Scene from Vanity Fair: "Jos and Becky"
Medium
Watercolor over graphite
Dimensions
sheet: 7 x 5 in. (17.8 x 12.7 cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1966
Accession Number
66.736.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
This delicate watercolor over graphite, titled *Scene from Vanity Fair:Jos and Becky"*, captures a pivotal moment from William Makepeace Thackeray acclaimed 1848 novel *Vanity Fair*. Created between 1848 and 1880 by Jerry Barret in collaboration with Thackeray, it depicts the charming yet scheming Becky Sharp and the affable Jos Sedley—key figures in Thackeray's satirical portrayal of 19th-century British society. The intimate 7 x 5-inch sheet, housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, reflects the era's growing fascination with illustrated novels, where visual...
About the Artist
Jerry Barret|William Makepeace Thackeray (British|British) · 1811 |1824 –1863 |1906
British, Calcutta 1811–1863 London|British, 1824–1906