The Genius of Caricature, and his Friends, celebrating the completion of the Second Volume of the Caricature Magazine in the Temple of Mirth

The Genius of Caricature, and his Friends, celebrating the completion of the Second Volume of the Caricature Magazine in the Temple of Mirth

George Murgatroyd Woodward

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

At a celebratory dinner, the "Genius of Caricature" sits at the head wearing a harlequin suit and offering a toast, with "Lilliputians" around the table. An arch at the back is lettered: "Mirth Admit Me of Thy Crew" (a quote from Milton's L'Allegro) and the walls are hung with images from the magazine, each titled below. A toast master holds a lettered banner that reads: "Mr Tegg, M' Tegg,! You're at home to a peg, Volume two is now fairly completed Then to Cheapside repair, Ye who spurn at dull care, And with, Wit, Fun, & Frolic be treated With Woodward we'll laugh, And with Rowlandson quaff, And drown every Folly absurd, Here's a toast to the brim My gay children of Whim, Success to their Volume the Third"

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Genius of Caricature, and his Friends, celebrating the completion of the Second Volume of the Caricature Magazine in the Temple of MirthThe Genius of Caricature, and his Friends, celebrating the completion of the Second Volume of the Caricature Magazine in the Temple of MirthThe Genius of Caricature, and his Friends, celebrating the completion of the Second Volume of the Caricature Magazine in the Temple of MirthThe Genius of Caricature, and his Friends, celebrating the completion of the Second Volume of the Caricature Magazine in the Temple of MirthThe Genius of Caricature, and his Friends, celebrating the completion of the Second Volume of the Caricature Magazine in the Temple of Mirth

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.