The Prince of Wales Presiding at a Meeting, held at South Kensington Museum, of the Commissioners for the Paris Exhibition, from "Illustrated London News"

The Prince of Wales Presiding at a Meeting, held at South Kensington Museum, of the Commissioners for the Paris Exhibition, from "Illustrated London News"

Anonymous, British, 19th century

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This print relates to the elaborate British planning process established to select works sent to the International Paris Exposition of 1867 (held April 1 to October 31). The meeting shown here was held at the South Kensington Museum in early January 1867 and attended by leading committee members, to finalize details and plan shipping. The Prince of Wales chaired the gathering in a large gallery hung with the Raphael Cartoons, and the secretary was Sir Henry Cole—who had masterminded London's Great Exhibition of 1851. The Victoria and Albert Museum had been founded in the wake of the 1851 success and subsequent international fairs followed its model.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Prince of Wales Presiding at a Meeting, held at South Kensington Museum, of the Commissioners for the Paris Exhibition, from "Illustrated London News"The Prince of Wales Presiding at a Meeting, held at South Kensington Museum, of the Commissioners for the Paris Exhibition, from "Illustrated London News"The Prince of Wales Presiding at a Meeting, held at South Kensington Museum, of the Commissioners for the Paris Exhibition, from "Illustrated London News"The Prince of Wales Presiding at a Meeting, held at South Kensington Museum, of the Commissioners for the Paris Exhibition, from "Illustrated London News"The Prince of Wales Presiding at a Meeting, held at South Kensington Museum, of the Commissioners for the Paris Exhibition, from "Illustrated London News"

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.