The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, v. 37, no. 4

THOMAS NAST
"Let Us Prey," 1871
EDWIN AUSTIN ABBEY In a Tavern, 1886
I
credited with Tweed's initial overthrow in
1871 and his conviction-on 204 counts of
fraud-in 1873. Three weeks after the
public investigation began, Nast published
"Let Us Prey" to warn that Tweed
and his henchmen were merely lying low,
waiting for public outrage to "blow over."
The year Nast tackled Boss Tweed,
touched on modern subjects. His illustrations
of Shakespeare, Herrick, and Goldsmith
became internationally famous,
partly because they were photographically
reproduced in Harper's Monthly and then
published in elegant gift books. In a
Tavern, from the book Old Songs (1889),
was the second of eight drawings for the
of a flashy cavalier. The poem suggested
the seventeenth century to Abbey, who
carefully researched and lovingly rendered
the evocative period setting. His lively,
splintered line recorded a delightful range
of textures and values, suggesting both
color and motion. Such naturalism, informed
by a sensitive narrative vision,