Vive Le Roi! Vive L'Empereur. Vive Le Diable.

Vive Le Roi! Vive L'Empereur. Vive Le Diable.

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A French soldier with a wide mustache stands at center wearing a large cocked hat, inscribed with three ribbons, "Vive Le Diable," "Vive Le Roi," and "Vive Le Empereur." He holds a musket in his right hand and a snuff-box in his left hand. To the right a monkey and a cat embrace. A windmill is in the background at left.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.