Father, Mother, and Child in a Park

Father, Mother, and Child in a Park

John Christian Rauschner

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Born in Frankfurt, Germany, Rauschner came to the United States by 1799. Specializing in wax miniatures, he was based in New York, but like many portrait artists of the day, traveled extensively to other East Coast cities in search of sitters. The family in this ambitious landscape scene is unidentified. Rauschner lavishes attention on their fashionable appearance, from the hand-tinted facial features to the small pearls set in the woman’s elaborately styled hair. He includes such whimsical and wondrous details as the pet rabbit in the boy’s outstretched arms and a snail with real shell at the lower right of the composition.

The American Wing

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Father, Mother, and Child in a ParkFather, Mother, and Child in a ParkFather, Mother, and Child in a ParkFather, Mother, and Child in a ParkFather, Mother, and Child in a Park

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.