Lady Williams and Child

Ralph Earl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

By 1783 Earl was a member of the entourage of American artists in the London studio of Benjamin West, where he absorbed the lessons of the British portrait tradition. He persisted, however, in painting forceful characterizations of his subjects and capturing the materiality of objects; both proclivities reveal the continuing influence of John Singleton Copley’s colonial portraits. Here, Earl conveyed maternal affection along with precise details of costume and furnishings in illusionistic passages such as the reflection of a leg of the inkstand on the tabletop.

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