The Lyon and the Kid, from Ogilby's Aesopics

Francis Barlow

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

England's first native book illustrator and professional etcher, Francis Barlow is best remembered for his accomplished depictions of animals and birds. This design relates to an etching, one of a group of fifty commissioned by the enterprising publisher John Ogilby to illustrate fables in the manner of Aesop. In the related story, the humble goat remains safely on a hill and resists the enticements of the kingly lion, who secretly wishes to eat him. The moral of the tale suits the tumultuous politics of the period: "Better be Captain in the smallest Fort, Than be commanded in a Princes Court."

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