The Commissioners

Matthias Darly

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This satire represents five British commissioners nominated to negotiate peace with the former American colonies. They kneel before an allegorical representation of America, who sits on barrels of tobacco and rice destined for Germany, France, Holland, and Spain. The commissioners are Lord Admiral Richard Howe, General Sir William Howe, Lord Frederick Carlisle, William Eden and Commodore (Governor) George Johnstone. The print was published before the commissioners had been approved and is inaccurate, since Richard Howe and William Howe both refused to serve under Carlisle's leadership.

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