Mexican Girl Dying
By 1846; carved 1848
Medium
Marble
Dimensions
20 1/4 x 54 1/2 x 19 1/2 in. (51.4 x 138.4 x 49.5 cm)
Classification
Sculpture
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Bequest of Annette W. W. Hicks-Lord, 1896
Accession Number
97.13.2a–e
Tags
Art Historical Context
In the hallowed halls of The American Wing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Thomas Crawford's *Mexican Girl Dying* (conceived by 1846, carved 1848) stands as a haunting marble sculpture measuring 20¼ × 54½ × 19½ inches. This American neoclassical masterpiece, bequeathed by Annette W. W.-Lord in 1896, captures a young girl's final moments with exquisite sensitivity, her form reclining in eternal stillness amid profound suffering. Crafted from luminous white marble—a medium prized in the 19th century for its ability to convey both idealized beauty and raw emotion—Crawford employs classical te...