Matthew Clarkson

Gilbert Stuart

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Like his father before him, Matthew Clarkson was prominent in the political and commercial affairs of New York. He embarked early on a military career, distinguishing himself at the age of nineteen in the Battle of Saratoga. After his retirement from active duty about 1788, he followed the family tradition in his energetic participation in political and civic projects. He was an early advocate of the abolition of slavery. Clarkson sat for Stuart just after the artist's return from Europe. The portrait includes touches of Stuart's breezy aristocratic treatment but is primarily a straightforward depiction of this handsome New Yorker.

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