The Great Statue of Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Known as the Daibutsu, from the Priest's Garden

The Great Statue of Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Known as the Daibutsu, from the Priest's Garden

John La Farge

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

On a trip to Japan with Henry Adams in 1886, La Farge enlisted watercolor—the familiar medium of the traveling artist—to create studies for illustrations and to paint sheets for exhibition. He executed this bold and monumental composition after his return to New York, using a watercolor sketch done during his travels as well as photographs that he and Adams had taken. The Daibutsu, or Great Buddha, a fifty-foot-high bronze cast in 1252, is renowned for its colossal size, its peaceful demeanor, and its unusual site in the open air surrounded by mountains and trees.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Great Statue of Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Known as the Daibutsu, from the Priest's GardenThe Great Statue of Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Known as the Daibutsu, from the Priest's GardenThe Great Statue of Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Known as the Daibutsu, from the Priest's GardenThe Great Statue of Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Known as the Daibutsu, from the Priest's GardenThe Great Statue of Amida Buddha at Kamakura, Known as the Daibutsu, from the Priest's Garden

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.