Portrait of a Boy, Probably of the Crossfield Family

Portrait of a Boy, Probably of the Crossfield Family

William Williams

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

William Williams was born in England, the son of a mariner. He lived through shipwreck and adventure in the Caribbean before arriving in Philadelphia at the age of twenty, by which time he was already earning a livelihood as a painter. He returned to England in 1776, and died there fifteen years later in an almshouse. Tradition holds that the solemn young man represented in this portrait is a member of the Crossfield family. He holds the equipment for the game of battledore and shuttlecock, a decorous eighteenth-century version of badminton. In this picture, one of Williams's best, the rendering of the rocks, the verdure, and the distant view reminds us that the artist was also a painter of theatrical scenery.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Portrait of a Boy, Probably of the Crossfield FamilyPortrait of a Boy, Probably of the Crossfield FamilyPortrait of a Boy, Probably of the Crossfield FamilyPortrait of a Boy, Probably of the Crossfield FamilyPortrait of a Boy, Probably of the Crossfield Family

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.