The Artist's Father and Mother

The Artist's Father and Mother

Olin Levi Warner

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Levi (1810-1891) and Sarah Baldwin (1819-1891) Warner, a simple, industrious couple, were farmers and lay preachers. They settled in Westminster Depot, Massachusetts, in 1868, the year before their eldest son Olin began his artistic training in Paris. Warner probably modeled this portrait during one of his frequent visits to his parents in the mid- and late 1870s. The bond between the aged sitters is inferred by the close overlapping of forms and parallel arrangement of facial features. The figures are centered on a subtly textured background. Warner’s trademark cursive inscription sweeps along the edge of the medallion below and to the right of the portraits.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Artist's Father and MotherThe Artist's Father and MotherThe Artist's Father and MotherThe Artist's Father and MotherThe Artist's Father and Mother

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.