A Tyger

John Murphy

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Emerging from a dark cave, Northcote's tiger fixes us with a mesmerizing stare. His stance and mask-like face suggest we are to be his next prey. Conceived during the opening years of the French Revolution, the image may be read as a metaphor warning Britons against the dangerous political forces on the loose across the Channel. The smoky medium of mezzotint was ideally suited to Murphy's rendering.

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