Louis XIII Listens to the Provost of the Merchants of Paris on December 23, 1628

Louis XIII Listens to the Provost of the Merchants of Paris on December 23, 1628

Abraham Bosse

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This plate was the frontispiece for a publication celebrating the triumphant return to Paris of King Louis XIII following the Siege of La Rochelle. In this formally constructed scene, the king is shown seated in a chair while Christophe Sanguin, the provost of the Merchants of Paris, and other officials kneel before him. The display of France’s military power visible through the windows is echoed in the military subjects of the tapestries covering the walls. The political and monarchical value of such images is reflected in the large number of impressions of this print—seven hundred.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Louis XIII Listens to the Provost of the Merchants of Paris on December 23, 1628Louis XIII Listens to the Provost of the Merchants of Paris on December 23, 1628Louis XIII Listens to the Provost of the Merchants of Paris on December 23, 1628Louis XIII Listens to the Provost of the Merchants of Paris on December 23, 1628Louis XIII Listens to the Provost of the Merchants of Paris on December 23, 1628

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.