Robert Burns

Charles Calverley

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Calverley modeled this portrait bust of Robert Burns (1759–1796) in 1890, two years after his bronze full-length statue of the Scottish poet was unveiled in Washington Park in Albany, New York. Scottish-born steel magnate Andrew Carnegie was an admirer of Burns and, aware of Calverley’s statue, commissioned from him a life-size bust of the poet for his library. Carnegie was so pleased with the result that in 1891 he ordered a second bronze cast for the Metropolitan Museum.

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