Giuseppe Ceracchi

John Trumbull

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

After returning to the United States from London in 1789, Trumbull spent five years traveling up and down the Eastern Seaboard taking “heads” from life, mainly of statesmen and military officers. These exquisite works, which were preparatory to history paintings, stand out for their sensitive characterization and coloristic brilliance. The brushwork is fluid, with impastos and transparent glazes that produce contrasting textures. Trumbull’s portrait of the Italian sculptor Giuseppe Ceracchi (1751–1801) was probably painted in Philadelphia in 1792. The ambitious Neoclassical sculptor had come to the United States to raise funds for a proposed monument to American liberty.

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