John and Louisa Stock

Joseph Whiting Stock

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

As a prolific itinerant portraitist in the Connecticut River valley, Stock kept a journal of his daily activities, recording that he painted more than nine hundred works between 1832 and 1846. From the age of eleven, Stock was paralyzed from the waist down. He was able to travel in later years with the aid of a specially designed wheelchair. The children seen here are thought to be those of the artist’s younger brother, Isaac C. Stock, and sister-in-law, Sarah Hunt Stock, of Springfield, Massachusetts. Painting his subjects at full length, the artist employed colorful props in a detailed interior containing flat, abstract elements that are appealing to the modern eye.

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