Charity Begins at Home

Charity Begins at Home

Anonymous, British, 18th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A thin woman dressed in rags and carrying a baby on her back begs for alms from a stout and well-dressed parson. City buildings are shown behind. The date and publisher's name are found on an impression of this print at the British Museum.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.