Davida Johnson Clark

Davida Johnson Clark

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This graceful underlifesize portrait of Davida Johnson Clark (1861–1910) was a gift from Saint-Gaudens to his longtime model and lover and the mother of his second son, Louis (b. 1889). The private token of affection also served as an early study for the head of Diana for the tower of Madison Square Garden, the most public of Saint-Gaudens’s outdoor sculptures. An over-lifesize cast of Diana is on view in the Charles Engelhard Court of the American Wing (acc. no. 28.101).

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

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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.