Plate 39: Robert Macaire business agent, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert Macaires

Plate 39: Robert Macaire business agent, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert Macaires

Honoré Daumier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

- By the devil! It's really admirable of you to break your back to pay off your debts, my good chap, wipe them out at once! - But how? - Good heavens! Bring me your books, I'll put them in order, it's my specialty, we'll settle for a few liabilities, a large number of assets, we'll assemble your creditors, we'll offer five percent to be paid over ten years, you won't give them anything during the ten years, in ten years' time you'll start again, your creditors will be dead, the debts forgotten and nobody will say a word about it.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 39: Robert Macaire business agent, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 39: Robert Macaire business agent, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 39: Robert Macaire business agent, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 39: Robert Macaire business agent, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 39: Robert Macaire business agent, 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.