"The Soldier's Tear"–Old Song

"The Soldier's Tear"–Old Song

Charles Samuel Keene

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A British marine weeps because he fears the fighting in South Africa will end before he gets there–the Anglo-Zulu war lasted only six months. Text published with the related wood engraving, probably in Punch, sheds further light on the image: Officer (to Royal Marine who has just been inspected to go to Zululand): 'What's that man crying for? What are you crying for, Sir?' Joe: 'Boo-hoo! Wha's the good o' goin' now? We ought to a' gone a year ago!' (Exit, sobbing, to canteen). Keene worked for Punch between 1864 and 1890 as one of its most popular illustrators. In fact, the German artist Adolph von Menzel subscribed to the British periodical because he so enjoyed Keene's mages.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

"The Soldier's Tear"–Old Song"The Soldier's Tear"–Old Song"The Soldier's Tear"–Old Song"The Soldier's Tear"–Old Song"The Soldier's Tear"–Old Song

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.