The Mission of the Apostles, from "Illustrated London News"

The Mission of the Apostles, from "Illustrated London News"

William Luson Thomas

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The leading British wood-engraver William Luson Thomas made this print to accompany an article in the "Illustrated London News." As the world's first weekly news magazine, founded in London in 1842, the publication regularly reported on art exhibitions, here singling out Charles Gleyre's "La separation des Apôtres" (Mission of the Apostles), at the Paris Salon of 1845 (no. 729), now in the Musée Girodet, Montargis.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Mission of the Apostles, from "Illustrated London News"The Mission of the Apostles, from "Illustrated London News"The Mission of the Apostles, from "Illustrated London News"The Mission of the Apostles, from "Illustrated London News"The Mission of the Apostles, from "Illustrated London News"

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.