Copy after Botticelli

Julian Alden Weir

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Weir likely made this watercolor copy after Botticelli’s painting of the same name　(ca. 1470–75; Musée du Louvre, Paris) when he was studying in Paris in the 1870s. As a student of the École des Beaux-Arts, he would have been encouraged to study the works of the old masters at the Louvre. Much celebrated today, Botticelli’s reputation was undergoing a revival in the mid-nineteenth century when he was "rediscovered" by British critic and painter John Ruskin (1819–1900) and the Pre-Raphaelites. Critic Walter Pater (1839–1894) wrote a glowing essay about Botticelli in 1870, describing him as "a poetical painter" who blends "the charm of story and sentiment."

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