Self-Portrait as Monsieur Prudhomme

Self-Portrait as Monsieur Prudhomme

Henry-Bonaventure Monnier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Monnier was a draftsman and caricaturist active in the mid-nineteenth century. His sharp pen satirized Parisian types and manners. He created the character of Joseph Prudhomme, who appeared in several plays in various roles, but always as the quintessential bourgeois. For a related work, see 2015.750.1.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Self-Portrait as Monsieur PrudhommeSelf-Portrait as Monsieur PrudhommeSelf-Portrait as Monsieur PrudhommeSelf-Portrait as Monsieur PrudhommeSelf-Portrait as Monsieur Prudhomme

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.