Dyer Sharp Wynkoop

Dyer Sharp Wynkoop

Charles Balthazar Julien Févret de Saint-Mémin

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A member of a prominent Burgundian family, Saint-Mémin came to America with his father during the French Revolution. They arrived in New York in the fall of 1793, and Saint-Mémin immediately took up work as an engraver and a draftsman. It was not long before he became the most talented, successful, and prolific profile artist in America. Nearly one thousand profiles have been recorded from his American career. He drew this image of Dyer Sharp Wynkoop, a lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps, on commission in Philadelphia, where he worked between 1799 and 1803.

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.