Mildred Howells

Augustus Saint-Gaudens

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This medal of poet and artist Mildred Howells (1873-1966) was excerpted from Saint-Gaudens’s rectangular low-relief portrait of the sitter posed alongside her father, writer William Dean Howells. The reduced circular shape illustrates Saint-Gaudens’s mastery of compositional design, as the simple lines of Howells’s right-facing profile are enlivened by the bold twists and delicate wisps of her low-swept bun.

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