The New Bonnet

Francis William Edmonds

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Following a year of study in Europe, Edmonds returned to the United States in 1841 and began to paint subjects drawn from contemporary American life. Inspired by seventeenth-century Dutch genre painting (scenes of everyday life), The New Bonnet exemplifies the artist’s gently moralizing approach, as he juxtaposes the daughter’s purchase of an extravagant hat with the plain attire of her disapproving parents. A major figure in New York City’s cultural scene, Edmonds was instrumental in founding the American Art-Union—an important venue for the exhibition, dissemination, and popularization of American genre painting.

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