The Morning Before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (for "Once a Week," August 16, 1862)

The Morning Before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (for "Once a Week," August 16, 1862)

James McNeill Whistler

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1862 Whistler designed four wood engravings for the London periodical "Once a Week." Many of his Pre-Raphaelite friends were illustrating poems and short stories at this moment and the decade proved to be the start of a new flowering of British illustration. Founded in 1859, "Once a Week" supported the movement and was known as a "journal of the younger men." Whister's image responds to a poem by George Walter Thornbury that evokes the persecution of Protestants in 17th century France. This is a proof for a wood engraving published August 16, 1862.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Morning Before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (for "Once a Week," August 16, 1862)The Morning Before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (for "Once a Week," August 16, 1862)The Morning Before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (for "Once a Week," August 16, 1862)The Morning Before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (for "Once a Week," August 16, 1862)The Morning Before the Massacre of St. Bartholomew (for "Once a Week," August 16, 1862)

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.