Queen Prima Donna at Home, for "Punch," November 7, 1874

Queen Prima Donna at Home, for "Punch," November 7, 1874

George Du Maurier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Born in Paris to a French father and English mother, Du Maurier became one of Victorian Britain's most successful cartoonists and illustrators. After the death of John Leech in 1864, he was hired as staff artist for "Punch" and drew this illustration for a wood engraving in 1874. In his youth Du Maurier had trained as a singer and so was personally familiar with the impositions that constant practice and performance imposed on famly members. Here, the three young daughters of a musical mother fail to appreciate her genius.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Queen Prima Donna at Home, for "Punch," November 7, 1874Queen Prima Donna at Home, for "Punch," November 7, 1874Queen Prima Donna at Home, for "Punch," November 7, 1874Queen Prima Donna at Home, for "Punch," November 7, 1874Queen Prima Donna at Home, for "Punch," November 7, 1874

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.