The terrible director, from 'The difficult moments in life,' published in Le Charivari, April 2, 1864

The terrible director, from 'The difficult moments in life,' published in Le Charivari, April 2, 1864

Honoré Daumier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

- Indeed! You are telling me that you missed today's rehearsal because you had to set leeches onto your mother? - Yes sir. - But, when you first came here three months ago, you told me that you were an orphan. This is the first time in my long career at the theater that I have met a person who sets leeches on the body of a dead person.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The terrible director, from 'The difficult moments in life,' published in Le Charivari, April 2, 1864The terrible director, from 'The difficult moments in life,' published in Le Charivari, April 2, 1864The terrible director, from 'The difficult moments in life,' published in Le Charivari, April 2, 1864The terrible director, from 'The difficult moments in life,' published in Le Charivari, April 2, 1864The terrible director, from 'The difficult moments in life,' published in Le Charivari, April 2, 1864

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.