A Reconnaissance

Frederic Remington

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

After 1900 Remington produced an evocative series of nocturnes that feature darkness as an essential narrative element. Rendered in a muted palette of blue, green, and brown, A Reconnaissance depicts three cavalry soldiers and their horses in a moonlit, snow-blanketed landscape. An officer and scout have ventured forth to a hillcrest to survey a distant tree line, alert to the possibility of confrontation. By turning the figures away from the viewer, Remington creates an aura of moody mystery and enhances the suspense of an uncertain outcome.

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