Daniel Webster

Thomas Ball

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

During his successful career as a sculptor, Ball executed several portraits of Massachusetts senator Daniel Webster (1782–1852), a man he greatly admired. For this bust Ball recorded what he described as the renowned orator’s “godlike” head, including the expansive forehead, furrowed brow, downturned mouth, and large eyes. This heroic-size marble was carved in 1868 in Florence, Italy, where Ball lived for more than thirty years.

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