Father Thames and Henley Naiads (Cartoon published in Punch, February 26, 1898)

Sir (Edward) Linley Sambourne

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Sambourne here humorously contrasts modernity (the expansion of British railroads) with tradition (the River Thames used as the primary means of travel west of London). A bearded Father Thames stands amongst reeds but wears modern skulling gear and wields an oar. He is surrounded by water nymphs frightened by a steam engine looming over them on an embankment. The latter resembles a monster with rolling eyes and pronged couplers. The image cleverly responds to John William Waterhouse's "Hylas and the Nymphs" (1896), exhibited at the Royal Academy in the summer of 1897 by including lovely nudes whose long hair is entwined with flowers like those in the painting.

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