Summer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Personifications of the four seasons were common subjects for engravers and printmakers in the eighteenth century, but carved wood statuettes such as these are exceedingly rare. In this set of figurines (1971.180.83-.86), the seasons are identified by their attributes: Spring by flowers, Summer by wheat, Autumn by a basket of fruit, and Winter by a muff. Other than for ships’ figureheads, there was little demand in the United States for sculptural carving during this time period. The surviving examples of non-maritime wood sculpture originated almost exclusively in Boston or Salem, Massachusetts.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The American Wing's ever-evolving collection comprises some 20,000 works of art by African American, Euro American, Latin American, and Native American men and women. Ranging from the colonial to early-modern periods, the holdings include painting, sculpture, works on paper, and decorative arts—including furniture, textiles, ceramics, glass, silver, metalwork, jewelry, basketry, quill and bead embroidery—as well as historical interiors and architectural fragments.

Metropolitan Museum of Art