The Pathetic Song

Thomas Eakins

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eakins, the eminent Realist painter active in Philadelphia, apparently made only twenty-eight watercolors, of which all but three date from early in his career, between 1873 and 1882. During that time he was a frequent exhibitor at annual shows of the American Society of Painters in Water Colors and his work received favorable reviews. Eakins created this replica of his larger oil of the same title (1881; Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) as a gift for the friend who posed as the singer.

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