Mrs. Noah Smith and Her Children

Ralph Earl

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1798, Ralph Earl left his home in Connecticut, traveling throughout New England in search of portrait commissions. While in Vermont, he painted the most ambitious work of his career, a large group portrait of Chloe Burrall Smith (1757–1810) with her five children. Earl, who had trained in England, adopted a simplified style to suit the tastes of his rural patrons. Wearing a fashionable, yet modest silk gown, Mrs. Smith embraces her youngest daughter in a maternal gesture. The four older children are posed before a landscape, each holding an attribute. Of particular note is son Daniel (second to the left), who holds a "Map of the World"—an emblem of the family’s education and global ambitions.

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