Mary, Queen of Scots at the execution block (from "The History of England")

Mary, Queen of Scots at the execution block (from "The History of England")

David Hume

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Robert Bowyer commissioned this print for his 1806 edition of David Hume's "The History of England." It reproduces a large oil painting by Opie, exhibited at Bowyer's Historic Gallery, from 1793 to 1806, now unlocated.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Mary, Queen of Scots at the execution block (from "The History of England")Mary, Queen of Scots at the execution block (from "The History of England")Mary, Queen of Scots at the execution block (from "The History of England")Mary, Queen of Scots at the execution block (from "The History of England")Mary, Queen of Scots at the execution block (from "The History of England")

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.