Tom Paine's Nightly Pest

James Gillray

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This satire comments on the British prosecution of Thomas Paine, who was then in France. On December 8, 1792 he was found guilty in absentia for libel in passages published in his "Rights of Man." Here, Paine sleeps wearing a cap of liberty, near a curtain decorated with fleur-de-lys. His headboard supports images of guardian angels Charles James Fox and Dr. Priestly, and the pillow is inscribed "Vive l'America." The author dreams of judicial wigs, a dungeon and a gibbet, and his coat pocket, lying across the bed, contains a copy of "Common Sense."

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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.

Metropolitan Museum of Art