Shepherd and Shepherdess

Winslow Homer

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This surprising work by Homer is one of his rare examples of decorative painting on ceramic. It was produced during the artist’s active involvement with the Tile Club. One of many New York artist organizations established after the nation’s centennial, the Tile Club was a self-conscious response to the country’s growing interest in the so-called household art movement, also known as the Aesthetic movement, which called for a marriage of the beautiful and useful. The surround’s pastoral figures evoke both the contemporary work of English artist Walter Crane as well as Homer’s own Houghton Farm watercolors.

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