La Petite Pensée

Thomas Ball

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ball, who spent much of his career abroad in Florence, followed the lead of other expatriate American sculptors in modeling sentimental depictions of children. The posture of this youthful thinker, with her right shoulder thrust forward, is slightly coquettish, in contrast to her demure downward glance. Her off-the-shoulder dress is trimmed with lace and overlaid with stylized leaves entwined with pansies, a symbol of the Trinity. In Victorian flower language, “pansy” was the anglicized spelling of the French pensée, or “thoughtful recollection.”

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