Plate 23: Robert Macaire, Professor of Industry, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert Macaires

Plate 23: Robert Macaire, Professor of Industry, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert Macaires

Honoré Daumier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

- Cabriolets and a share in horse business. It just won't run, my horse eats me alive, my costs devour me, I'm dying of hunger. - Poor old Bertrand, you really are stupid. Change your old nag for a thorough-bred, your cheap old crock for a Tilbury, your miserable livery for a jockey's silks, cast your share of fortune into stocks... Capital of three hundred thousand francs! Promises, jokes without rhyme or reason, increase your outlay, reduce the profits, you'll make up on the quantity... - On the quantity of what? - The quantity of shares, you mug!!


Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 23: Robert Macaire, Professor of Industry, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 23: Robert Macaire, Professor of Industry, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 23: Robert Macaire, Professor of Industry, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 23: Robert Macaire, Professor of Industry, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 23: Robert Macaire, Professor of Industry, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert Macaires

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.