In Five Acts–The Wedding Tour, from "Picture Poesies"

In Five Acts–The Wedding Tour, from "Picture Poesies"

John William North

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

North's image shows a man and a woman making their way through a rocky landscape. The print first appeared in "A Round of Days" (1866, see 65.629.1), engraved by the Dalziel Brothers and published by Routledge. It was here reissued in "Picture Poesies" (1874). North also illustrated the first section of the poem titled "The Betrothal, while A. B. Houghton designed three scenes that describe parenthood, loss, and the couple in old age. The Wedding Tour Solemn the priest, in purtist white, To us rehearsed the vow; Northward we lovers take our flight, Our homely shores content us now. O'er English hills, 'neath soft blue skies, Down rugged slopes, I aid my wife; The proud trust brightens in my eyes That I shall be her staff through life.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In Five Acts–The Wedding Tour, from "Picture Poesies"In Five Acts–The Wedding Tour, from "Picture Poesies"In Five Acts–The Wedding Tour, from "Picture Poesies"In Five Acts–The Wedding Tour, from "Picture Poesies"In Five Acts–The Wedding Tour, from "Picture Poesies"

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.