Anne Charlotte Lynch (Later Mrs. Vincenzo Botta)

Anne Charlotte Lynch (Later Mrs. Vincenzo Botta)

Savinien Edme Dubourjal

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lynch, an important figure in the social and literary life of New York City in the mid-nineteenth century, was an author and poet as well as an amateur painter and sculptor. Her New York City home became a lively gathering place for artists and literati, one of the earliest salons in America. Among the artists who visited Lynch’s salon was George Peter Alexander Healy (1813–94), who may have introduced her to the French portraitist Dubourjal. The fine cross-hatching in the face and background reflects his experience as a painter of miniatures. The sitter’s delicate features are carefully described and enlivened with small touches of color. The rest of the drawing is rendered in subtle tones of white, gray, and black.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Anne Charlotte Lynch (Later Mrs. Vincenzo Botta)Anne Charlotte Lynch (Later Mrs. Vincenzo Botta)Anne Charlotte Lynch (Later Mrs. Vincenzo Botta)Anne Charlotte Lynch (Later Mrs. Vincenzo Botta)Anne Charlotte Lynch (Later Mrs. Vincenzo Botta)

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.