James Badger

Joseph Badger

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

An inscription on the back of the canvas indicates that Badger painted this portrait of his three-year-old grandson, James (1757–1817). Largely self-trained and influenced by British print sources, Badger presented his young sitter with a compelling directness and honesty. The fashionably attired boy is shown standing in a generalized landscape setting, with cherries in his right hand and a bird perched on the index finger of his left.

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