Firescreen

John La Farge

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

According to family tradition, John La Farge composed this panel in 1884 as a tenth wedding anniversary present for his close friends Richard Watson Gilder (1844-1909) and his student, Helena de Kay (1846-1916), a painter. A wreath encircling their initials and the year 1874 inscribed in gold commemorate their marriage. It originally functioned as a window in an inglenook in the Gilders' home and his wife's studio, at 103 East Fifteenth Street. About 1890, Stanford White (1853-1906), a member of the Gilders' artistic circle, remodeled the house, removed the panel from its architectural setting, and refitted it as a freestanding fire screen. The use of opalescent glass and delicate glass jewels is characteristic of the early work of La Farge.

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