A Cabinet Council

John Doyle

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This satire comments on the moment in 1834 when the Duke of Wellington held all of the principle offices of state between the dissolution of Lord Melbourne's Cabinet and the formation of one led by Sir Robert Peel. The Duke sits at a table surrounded by seven empty chairs, as though addressing a meeting, and asks "How is the King's government to be carried on?" Two years before he had asked the same question during a speech in Parliament when the Reform Bill of 1832 was being debated, on that occasion referencing the consequences of proposed removal of nomination boroughs (districts where the local landowner simply appointed a Member of Parliament because there were no electors).

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