The Best of Friends Must Part

Sir John Tenniel

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Tenniel's made this design for a wood engraving published in the London periodical "Punch" on September 8, 1828. It represents Canada's third Governor General, the 1st Earl of Dufferin, biding farewell to a woman who symbolizes the nation. The earl served between 1872-78 and oversaw numerous changes and advancements.

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