The Arch Duchess Maria Louisa Going to Take Her Nap

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Archduchess Marie Louise lies in a canopied bed with Napoleon, and says, "My dear Nap: your bed accommodations are very indifferent! Too short by a yard! I wonder how Josephino put up with such things even as long as she did!!!" Napoleon responds, "Indeed Maria I do not well understand you? The Empress Josephino who knew things better than I hope you do, never grumbled - Le Diable! I see I never will be able to get what I want after all!!!" The couple had married in March 1810.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art