Mose, Lize & Little Mose Going to California

Henry R. Robinson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

One of America’s first successful caricaturists, Robinson here depicts Mose the Bowery B’hoy, a figure popularized on stage by Frank Changrau. Mose embodies a New York type of working class, single man who lived in lower Manhattan, found employment as a fireman or mechanic, dressed jauntily, enjoyed plays, and often joined a gang. Mose’s bright red shirt, rolled pants, top hat, and tilted cigar made him unmissable and are evident in this print, which is inspired by an 1849 play that sends Mose, his son Little Mose, and his girlfriend, Lize (a New York G’hal), to California during the Gold Rush. Here, they depart from Catherine Market in an open wagon pulled by a jackass.

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