Boney's Trial Sentence and Dying Speech, or Europe's Injuries Revenged

Boney's Trial Sentence and Dying Speech, or Europe's Injuries Revenged

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Scene in an English court of law, with Napoleon on trial at right with a devil behind him and Blucher at left as the judge. Beside the judge are the sovereigns of Europe. The jury sits at left and constables stand at center, below the dock, holding staves. Spectators watch from upper right. Napoleon's offenses are written at right.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Boney's Trial Sentence and Dying Speech, or Europe's Injuries RevengedBoney's Trial Sentence and Dying Speech, or Europe's Injuries RevengedBoney's Trial Sentence and Dying Speech, or Europe's Injuries RevengedBoney's Trial Sentence and Dying Speech, or Europe's Injuries RevengedBoney's Trial Sentence and Dying Speech, or Europe's Injuries Revenged

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.