The Magic Lantern

Auguste Edouart

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of the most proficient silhouette artists of the nineteenth century, Auguste Edouart discovered his skill at paper cutting only after resigning his post in Napoleon's defeated army and moving to England. He delighted in showing off his abilities by representing a range of ages and social types, as in this complex composition featuring three generations of one family, together with their servants and pet dog. A "Galantee" showman performs a magic lantern show-in which images painted on glass are projected onto a screen through an illuminated lens-while an old man with a wooden leg provides musical accompaniment on a barrel organ. The cut figures are set within an elaborate curtained interior painted in sepia.

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