Senator Dolph of Oregon (Joseph Norman Dolph)

Thomas Nast

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nast’s striking caricature of the United States senator from Oregon probably dates to 1894, the year that Dolph lost his bid for a third term. The image resembles a photograph published in a Congressional directory of 1893, but Nash exaggerated the nose and brows and suggested an outsized personality by giving the long beard and hair a wild energy. As an outspoken defender of principled politicians, the artist was likely sympathetic to his subject, who was a hardworking, well-respected litigator. Nast made this drawing at a time when reliable outlets for his work had grown scarce. After severing his longtime connection to Harper’s Weekly in 1886, he experienced financial difficulties. Scratchboard was used for this drawing, a support that consists of paper covered with a thin layer of clay, a medium that allows the creation of bright highlights.

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