View of a studio the final week before the exhibition, from 'Parisian sketches,' published in Le Charivari, April 1, 1864

View of a studio the final week before the exhibition, from 'Parisian sketches,' published in Le Charivari, April 1, 1864

Honoré Daumier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

- If they are not pleased with this Venus, they are really difficult. We are sparing neither color nor brushwork.... provided that it dries, dear God! - What does it matter if it's not dry, it's Venus rising from the sea!

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

View of a studio the final week before the exhibition, from 'Parisian sketches,' published in Le Charivari, April 1, 1864View of a studio the final week before the exhibition, from 'Parisian sketches,' published in Le Charivari, April 1, 1864View of a studio the final week before the exhibition, from 'Parisian sketches,' published in Le Charivari, April 1, 1864View of a studio the final week before the exhibition, from 'Parisian sketches,' published in Le Charivari, April 1, 1864View of a studio the final week before the exhibition, from 'Parisian sketches,' published in Le Charivari, April 1, 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.