Lago Avernus

William Trost Richards

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lago Avernus is an early example of Richards’s work in watercolor. His interest in the medium was stimulated by the founding of the American Watercolor Society in 1867, about the time he departed for his second trip to Europe. The society would provide a forum for him and many other American artists to exhibit their works. Richards’s panoramic view of the volcanic lake above Naples was probably inspired by Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851), who painted the lake on several occasions and whose works he had seen in England. In his watercolors, Richards cultivated a meticulous style based on close study that was a counterpoint to the large oil paintings by the artists of the Hudson River School.

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