Peonies Blown in the Wind

John La Farge

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

La Farge, one of the most innovative and versatile artists of the nineteenth century, achieved renown as a painter in oils and watercolors, an illustrator, a muralist, and a designer of stained-glass windows. Among the first to incorporate opalescent glass and other unconventional materials, his windows were unprecedented. This one is the first of a series of at least seven that La Farge created between 1880 and 1909, all based on the theme of peonies in the wind, adapted from Chinese and Japanese handscrolls and porcelains. It was installed in the Newport residence of Henry Gurdon Marquand, president of the Metropolitan Museum from 1889 to 1902.

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