The Pride of the Village

Henry Peters Gray

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This picture, based on Washington Irving’s sentimental story of the same name, concerns a beautiful and simple country lass, indeed the pride of the village, who fell in love with an army officer. When he was transferred to another post and asked that she accompany him, her virtuous mind was so stricken by this indecorous suggestion that she pined away, surrounded by her devoted family. Here we see her in her decline, possibly “thinking of her faithless lover?—or were her thoughts wandering to that distant churchyard, into whose bosom she might soon be gathered?”

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