Fireworks celebrating the peace between France and the Empire, January 1698

Anonymous, French, 17th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Treaty of Ryswick was signed on September 20, 1697 ending the War of the League of Augsburg which pitted France against England, Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. The fireworks celebration depicted here took place in January of 1698.

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