The Met Celebrates Early American Art

After years of renovation, the Met has reopened the third and last part of the American wing.

When John Singer Sargent sold his masterpiece “Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau)” to the Metropolitan, he commented, “I suppose it is the best thing I have done.” “Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau),” 1883–1884, John Singer Sargent (1856–1925), oil on canvas. Metropolitan Museum of Art

NEW YORK—Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Museum of Art opened the New American Wing Galleries for Paintings, Sculpture, and Decorative Arts after a decade of dedicated work. The renovation of an additional 26 galleries for American art completes the third and final phase of the American Wing renovation project.

The exhibited paintings and sculptures depict the life, struggles, and landscape of early American history. They also exalt the noble character of the human being.

Art, within the scope of its beauty, helps define the culture in which it is created. It is the visual representation of historic introspection, an unintentional discourse on the changes within human nature. Through the arts, we inadvertently hold mirrors up to ourselves.

In his painting “The Sortie Made by the Garrison of Gibraltar,” the artist John Trumbull depicts the sudden attack the British troops made against the Spanish on Nov. 27, 1781, during the American War of Independence.