Washington Allston

Edward Augustus Brackett

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Born in South Carolina, Washington Allston (1779–1843) spent his early career largely abroad and earned widespread admiration, in both America and Europe, for his ambitious history paintings and evocative landscapes. After settling in Boston in 1818, he mentored local artists, including Brackett, a self-taught portrait sculptor. When Allston died in July 1843, his family commissioned a likeness from Brackett. Although the sculptor took a death mask, he smoothed and softened the effects of age in the final portrait bust. Brackett went on to model portraits of such local luminaries as Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Charles Sumner.

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