Plate 6: Stockholders' assembly, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert Macaires

Plate 6: Stockholders' assembly, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert Macaires

Honoré Daumier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Gentlemen, the monarchist newspaper which I had the honor of founding with the help of your capital and my abilities surpassed my wildest expectations and hopes… it lived two months, devoured only three hundred thousand francs, and in order to have it reappear all we need is a small payment from your side… Bertrand, see the gentlemen to the cashier.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 6: Stockholders' assembly, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 6: Stockholders' assembly, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 6: Stockholders' assembly, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 6: Stockholders' assembly, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 6: Stockholders' assembly, 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.