Peace and Plenty

George Inness

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Painted toward the end of the Civil War, this large composition was intended as a direct challenge to the grandiose, literal style of the Hudson River School painters, such as Frederic Edwin Church and Albert Bierstadt. As opposed to exotic subject matter and technical accuracy, Inness offered an image of suburban farmland imbued with feeling, which he communicated through enriched pigment and softened brushstrokes. The title, the depiction of a bountiful harvest, and statements by the artist associated with this and other pictures made during the war suggest his faith in Union victory and prosperity.

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