The Arab Jeweler

Charles Sprague Pearce

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Boston-born Charles Sprague Pearce belonged to the generation of American artists who increasingly settled in France in the post-Civil War years. Like that of his celebrated Parisian teacher, Leon Bonnat, Pearce explored a range of subjects throughout his successful expatriate career. A four-month excursion along the Nile in the early 1870s led to a particular interest in "exotic," or Orientalist themes, such as this ambitious portrayal of a native craftsman.

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