The Trees, Early Afternoon, France

The Trees, Early Afternoon, France

William A. Harper

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

This rare work by the Black landscape painter William A. Harper depicts a bucolic scene in the French countryside. Canadian-born and Chicago-trained, Harper also studied informally in Paris with Henry Ossawa Tanner, the leading African American expatriate of his generation. Harper’s interest in painting regional subjects outside of Paris’s urban environs was shared by many American artists in these years. In transitional works such as this scene, Harper revealed the influence on his art of the French Barbizon painters as well as the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Trees, Early Afternoon, FranceThe Trees, Early Afternoon, FranceThe Trees, Early Afternoon, FranceThe Trees, Early Afternoon, FranceThe Trees, Early Afternoon, France

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.