The Young Fisherman

Henry Inman

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Born in Utica, New York, Inman began studying art as a child. Although he was a prolific portrait painter, he is also credited as being the first American-born artist to have successfully attempted genre painting. "The Young Fisherman" is his earliest important genre painting, and was made to serve as the basis for an engraving. Relying to some extent on romanticized French images of peasants, Inman focuses on the innocence of childhood as the healthy boy plucks an insect for bait. The youth and promise of the boy are echoed by the lush virgin landscape in the background.

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