The Plumb-Pudding in Danger;–or–State Epicures Taking un Petit Souper

The Plumb-Pudding in Danger;–or–State Epicures Taking un Petit Souper

James Gillray

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Napoleon Bonaparte, declared emperor of France in 1804, and the English statesman William Pitt sit across a dining table, each carving out a piece from a plum pudding in the shape of the world. The diminutive Napoleon, rising from his seat in order to reach the table, hungrily takes Europe while Pitt carves a large slice of ocean, illustrating the respective areas of power in the ongoing war between Britain and France.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Plumb-Pudding in Danger;–or–State Epicures Taking un Petit SouperThe Plumb-Pudding in Danger;–or–State Epicures Taking un Petit SouperThe Plumb-Pudding in Danger;–or–State Epicures Taking un Petit SouperThe Plumb-Pudding in Danger;–or–State Epicures Taking un Petit SouperThe Plumb-Pudding in Danger;–or–State Epicures Taking un Petit Souper

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.