Claerchen

Karl Theodore Bitter

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bitter no doubt viewed this profile of Clare, his six-year-old niece, as a casual representation, as suggested by the sketchy, tactile handling of form. Striated tool marks add dynamism to Bitter’s characterization of his wide-eyed sitter. Once considered a means to a more polished end, the sketch aesthetic was popularized in the late-nineteenth century through low relief portraits by Augustus Saint-Gaudens and others. “Claerchen” is a diminutive form of the sitter’s name that recalls Bitter’s Austrian heritage.

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