The Writing Master

The Writing Master

Thomas Eakins

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Eakins probably had his first drawing lessons from his father, a professional calligrapher and teacher of penmanship at Friends’ Central School in Philadelphia. Here, Benjamin Eakins (1818–1899) is shown engaged in copying a document in an old-fashioned “copperplate” script. While the serious and affectionate portrayal of an aging craftsman is saturated with Rembrandtesque eloquence and nostalgia, Eakins’s delineation of his father’s head and hands reveals his skills of observation and description. Benjamin Eakins’s wise investments gave his son lifelong financial security.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.