Puss in Boots or General Junot Taken by Surprise

Puss in Boots or General Junot Taken by Surprise

Thomas Rowlandson

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A woman, girding up the skirts of her dress, has dressed up in the cocked hat, boots, and sword-belt of General Junot, and joyfully marches beside his bed, brandishing his sword in her right hand, while she looks over her shoulder at the general. Junot sits up in bed at right and looks at her angrily.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Puss in Boots or General Junot Taken by SurprisePuss in Boots or General Junot Taken by SurprisePuss in Boots or General Junot Taken by SurprisePuss in Boots or General Junot Taken by SurprisePuss in Boots or General Junot Taken by Surprise

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.