Plate 27: Robert Macaire, merchant, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert Macaires

Plate 27: Robert Macaire, merchant, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert Macaires

Honoré Daumier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

- Well, Mr. Macaire, you're starting up business again? - Yes, I have my bankruptcy certificate. By heavens, my creditors won't complain, I'm giving up to them: drafts drawn upon the firm Bertrand, Wormspire and Co.... A million; letter of credit drawn on the government of the Sandwich Islands... A million; Spanish bonds... A million; my wife's dowry, in shares in bootlaces, umbrellas, ambulant kitchens and other commercial banks... a million. Total, four million and I only owe three. Nobody can accuse me of losing a sou!... - But it seems very difficult to recover your shares. Do you believe that they'll be able to cash them in? - Ah! That's absolutely nothing to do with me, I assure you. It's my creditors' affair and I don't interfere in other people's affairs.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Plate 27: Robert Macaire, merchant, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 27: Robert Macaire, merchant, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 27: Robert Macaire, merchant, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 27: Robert Macaire, merchant, from 'Caricaturana,' published in Les Robert MacairesPlate 27: Robert Macaire, merchant, 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.