The Veronese Print

J. Carroll Beckwith

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beckwith studied painting in Paris with the French portraitist Carolus-Duran (1837–1917), who also taught John Singer Sargent. Carolus-Duran encouraged his students to search for artistic role models among the great masters of the past. Beckwith suggests his admiration for the Renaissance painter Paolo Veronese (1528–1588) by using a print of the lower portion of his Madonna in Glory with Saint Sebastian and Other Saints (Church of San Sebastiano, Venice) as a backdrop for this portrait sketch. Beckwith’s use of Italian art signifies his own sophistication and erudition, and it may also suggest that the young woman (model Minnie Clark) is a modern Madonna.

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