Perseus (from Sketchbook)

John Quincy Adams Ward

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Ward became known as the "Dean of American Sculpture" for his role in promoting the medium as a teacher and through professional organizations. He was an advocate for studying the great art of the past and once told an interviewer, "I want to see every statue that has ever been made." He collected copies of sculpture masterpieces and played an important role in developing collections of these plaster casts for students at The Met, where he was a founding Trustee, and at the National Academy of Design in New York. Ward made this study after a copy of Cellini’s Perseus when he was a young apprentice.

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