The Old Cremona

The Old Cremona

John F. Peto

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like many works by Peto, this canvas bears the false signature of his better-known contemporary William Michael Harnett. In 1886 Harnett had painted a successful trompe-l’oeil (“deceive the eye”) picture called "The Old Violin" (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.), which was reproduced in a chromolithograph the following year. Peto may have known the original or the print. Although he borrowed Harnett’s composition, he made something quite different of it. By flattening forms and disregarding modeling, he created a decorative pattern with a textural effect that is evocative rather than purely illusionistic.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.