The Affectionate Farewell, or Kick for Kick

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Napoleon stands next to a gibbet that reads: "The Isle of Elba." He says "Votre tres humbler Serviteur Monsieur Tally." Next to him Tallyrand aims a violent kick and swings his cane, holdings a paper marked: "Abdication of the last dying speech of a murderer who is to be de[liv]ered into the hands of the Devil the first fair wind" and saying: "Va t'en Coquin. I'll crack your Crown you pitiful Vagabond." Behind are the victims of the many French campaigns, a line of men on crutches.

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