Manager & Spouter

Henry Wigstead

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A stage manager (David Garrick), sits at a table and watches an actor perform a scene from a play. The title punningly compares the effusive performance to steam that issues from an urn on the table, next to tray with cups and a chocolate pot carried by a maid. At the back of the room is a door with an elaborate frame topped with a bust, and large pictures hanging to either side, each representing pairs of figures.

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