The Plantation
Unknown Artist
ca. 1825
Medium
Oil on wood
Dimensions
19 1/8 x 29 1/2 in. (48.6 x 74.9 cm)
Classification
Painting
Culture
American
Department
The American Wing
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, 1963
Accession Number
63.201.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
Welcome to The American Wing, where *The Plantation* (ca. 1825), an enchanting oil-on-wood painting by an unknown American artist, captures the rhythms of early 19th-century life. Measuring 19 1/8 x 29 1/2 inches, this folk art gem depicts a sprawling landscape with grand houses, ships dotting the horizon, and verdant fields, evoking the prosperity of a coastal plantation. The modest wooden panel—common in vernacular American painting—allowed for intimate, detailed scenes that brought domestic settings to life without the grandeur of canvas. Painted around 1825, during America's antebellum ex...