Nap Dreading His Doleful Doom or His Grand Entry in the Isle of Elba

Nap Dreading His Doleful Doom or His Grand Entry in the Isle of Elba

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Napoleon has just landed on the island of Elba. He stands on the beach scowling and says: "Ah Woe is me seeing what I have and seeing what I see." A portly woman at right, holding a long tobacco-pipe, puts her hand on his shoulder, saying, "Come cheer up my little Nicky I'll be your Empress."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Nap Dreading His Doleful Doom or His Grand Entry in the Isle of ElbaNap Dreading His Doleful Doom or His Grand Entry in the Isle of ElbaNap Dreading His Doleful Doom or His Grand Entry in the Isle of ElbaNap Dreading His Doleful Doom or His Grand Entry in the Isle of ElbaNap Dreading His Doleful Doom or His Grand Entry in the Isle of Elba

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.