Ruth Gleaning

Randolph Rogers

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In 1848, Rogers settled permanently in Italy, where he became a prominent member of the Roman art community. "Ruth Gleaning," his first large-scale biblical subject, depicts the moment in the Old Testament book of Ruth (2:1–13) when the Moabite woman kneels to glean grain in the field of her future husband, Boaz. Rogers drew inspiration for the pose from sculptures by his Florentine teacher Lorenzo Bartolini as well as from Greek and Roman prototypes, notably the "Kneeling Venus" at the Vatican. While Ruth’s idealized facial features and simplified hairstyle are highly classicized, the precise depiction of the stalks of grain and the foliage underfoot responds to a Victorian predilection for realistic anecdotal detail.

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