James Russell Lowell

Charles Calverley

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1895 the New York-based Grolier Club, devoted to the art of the book and related graphic arts, commissioned Calverley to execute this medallion of the American writer, editor, and teacher Lowell (1819–1891). The club intended it as a companion to the medallion commemorating Nathaniel Hawthorne that it had issued in 1892. Calverley based his likeness on a photographic portrait provided by Lowell’s family, depicting his sitter frontally, a more challenging format than profile or three-quarter views. The inscriptions include a verse from the Book of Ecclesiastes, while laurel branches are woven through Lowell’s name and around the Grolier Club seal. Of the edition of 372 bronze casts produced by the New York founder John Williams, the club reserved ten medallions for presentation to various institutions including The Met.

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