A Long Pull A Strong Pull and a Pull Altogether

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Representations of six of the Allies at left pull seven Dutch ships towards them with ropes. Napoleon and Joseph make frantic gestures on an island behind the Dutch fleet at right. Napoleon exclaims: "Oh Brother Joe—I'm all Fire, My Passion eats me up Such unlooked for Storms of ills fall on me It beats down all my cunning, I cannot bear it My ears are fill'd with Noise my Eyes grow dim And feeble shakings seize every Limb." Joseph stands behind, his crown at his feet, and says: "Oh Brother Nap Brother Nap we shant be left with half a Crown apiece"

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