"A Tight Fit"

Charles Samuel Keene

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A tipsy man who has buttoned his jacket crookedly is puzzled by his reflection in a long mirror. Keene's design was intended to be reproduced as a wood-engraving, probably in Punch, the popular periodical with which he was associated between 1864 and 1890. A leading British illustrator, Keene generally focused on humorous situations in humble surroundings, while his contemporary George Du Maurier satirized London society.

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