Self-portrait

Joseph Wood

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

A painter of miniatures and cabinet-sized portraits, as well as an engraver, Wood moved from upstate New York to the city at the age of fifteen and apprenticed to a silversmith. He copied miniature portraits that had been left in the shop for framing and these attracted the attention of John Wesley Jarvis, who took Wood into a highly lucrative partnership. Wood moved to Philadelphia in 1813 and later worked in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., pleasing clients in each city with his meticulously executed portraits. He used gum arabic quite liberally, a medium that gave strong contrast and opacity to his watercolor. His handsome self-portrait epitomizes his most captivating work: a sharply defined, realistic likeness with brilliantly rendered coiffure, against a background expertly shaded to approximate sky.

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