Design for a Regency

William Heath ('Paul Pry')

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This satire, published during the reign of William IV, imagines the power structure should Princess Victoria inherit the crown as a child. Her mother, the Duchess of Kent, sits on a throne holding the orb and looking at Victoria on the knee of her uncle Prince Leopold (the duchess's brother). In a Council Chamber at right the Duke of Wellington presides saying "As president of the Council—who shall gainsay me—," supported by armed grenadier guards, with William IV in an inconspicuous position.

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