The Mountain Man

Frederic Remington

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Equal parts trapper and explorer, the Rocky Mountain man played a central role in the North American fur trade, which reached its peak in the 1830s and 1840s. He assumed heroic stature as the quintessential Euro-American Westerner, later supplanted in the public imagination by the cowboy. "The Mountain Man" depicts a dramatic moment in the daily life of a buckskin-clad trapper in which he and his mount work together to descend a precarious slope, harmoniously prevailing over the wilderness. Cast by New York’s Roman Bronze Works foundry in the lost-wax technique, the earliest "Mountain Man" statuettes are sharply delineated with a rich variety of textures, from the fringed buckskin garment to the animal’s hairy coat to the rocklike base. The Metropolitan Museum purchased this statuette—and three others—from Remington in 1907.

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