New York Daily News

William Michael Harnett

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Working on a very small scale, Harnett depicted with rich color and convincing impasto a ceramic beer mug; the New York Daily News for April 3, 1888; a meerschaum pipe; two biscuits; and a variety of crumbs, matches, ashes, and tobacco flakes. In a published interview, he described his early dependence on objects of this sort: “I could not afford to hire models as the other students did, and I was forced to paint my first picture from still life models.” The catalogue of Harnett’s estate sale, which included an extensive collection of pipes, attests to his lifelong interest in such typically masculine possessions.

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