Border at Lower Right: Défaite des Anglais (Defeat of the English), from an etching on six plates of a central battle scene framed by ten additional plates, entitled Siège de la Citadelle de St-Martin dans l'Île de Ré (Siege of the Citadel of St. Martin on the Île de Ré)

Border at Lower Right: Défaite des Anglais (Defeat of the English), from an etching on six plates of a central battle scene framed by ten additional plates, entitled Siège de la Citadelle de St-Martin dans l'Île de Ré (Siege of the Citadel of St. Martin on the Île de Ré)

Jacques Callot

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The depiction of the Siege of the Citadel of St. Martin on the Île de Ré was commissioned by Louis XIII in 1628. The plates depict French victory at the command of Cardinal Richelieu.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Border at Lower Right: Défaite des Anglais (Defeat of the English), from an etching on six plates of a central battle scene framed by ten additional plates, entitled Siège de la Citadelle de St-Martin dans l'Île de Ré (Siege of the Citadel of St. Martin on the Île de Ré)Border at Lower Right: Défaite des Anglais (Defeat of the English), from an etching on six plates of a central battle scene framed by ten additional plates, entitled Siège de la Citadelle de St-Martin dans l'Île de Ré (Siege of the Citadel of St. Martin on the Île de Ré)Border at Lower Right: Défaite des Anglais (Defeat of the English), from an etching on six plates of a central battle scene framed by ten additional plates, entitled Siège de la Citadelle de St-Martin dans l'Île de Ré (Siege of the Citadel of St. Martin on the Île de Ré)Border at Lower Right: Défaite des Anglais (Defeat of the English), from an etching on six plates of a central battle scene framed by ten additional plates, entitled Siège de la Citadelle de St-Martin dans l'Île de Ré (Siege of the Citadel of St. Martin on the Île de Ré)Border at Lower Right: Défaite des Anglais (Defeat of the English), from an etching on six plates of a central battle scene framed by ten additional plates, entitled Siège de la Citadelle de St-Martin dans l'Île de Ré (Siege of the Citadel of St. Martin on the Île de Ré)

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.