William Bewley Duncan

Olin Levi Warner

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

William Bewley Duncan probably knew Warner through their mutual association with the art dealer and decorator Daniel Cottier, since Duncan was an illustrator for Cottier and Company. This medallion contains the essential elements of Warner’s mature portrait-relief style: circular shape, distinct outlining of form, strong modeling, and freely rendered inscription. Warner seldom strayed from the circular relief format, in part a result of his admiration for the portrait medallions of the early-nineteenth-century French sculptor David d’Angers. Within the round field, Duncan is posed facing right, the head sharply truncated at the neck, its underside in deep shadow. The resulting sense of high relief is emphasized in the heavy undercutting at the top of the head.

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