State of the English Nation

State of the English Nation

Anonymous, British, 18th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print copies one first published in the Westminster Magazine on March 1, 1778 as "A Picturesque View of the State of the Nation." Explanatory text is now in French and the imagery includes a cow (English commerce), whose horns are being sawn off by a Native American (the American Congress), and milked by a Dutchman who gives shares to a Frenchman and a Spaniard. The British lion sleeps while a Free Englishman wrings his hands. In the background General William Howe and Admiral Richard Howe sit near Philadelphia, with the latter's flag ship "The Eagle," beached and unready for action.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

State of the English NationState of the English NationState of the English NationState of the English NationState of the English Nation

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.