Bedstead

Charles-Honoré Lannuier

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Following the Revolution, Americans took inspiration from the ancient empires of Greece and Rome in the establishment of a democratic republic. In turn, domestic interiors and furnishings began to resemble architecture and artifacts from classical antiquity. This bed’s sweeping frame echoes the form of a Roman lectus (daybed) and the bronze plaque at the base bears the profile of a Roman magistrate or military officer. The work is the only signed piece produced by Lannuier, one of New York’s leading furniture makers, and his Parisian cousin, Cochois, who worked briefly in New York between 1804 and 1808. The reproduction upholstery and hangings are based on models popularized by French designers Pierre de La Mésangère, Charles Percier, and Pierre François Léonard Fontaine.

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