Charity
ca. 1770–80
Medium
Lead-glazed earthenware
Dimensions
Height: 8 1/8 in. (20.6 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Pottery
Culture
British, Burslem, Staffordshire
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Frederick C. Hewitt Fund, 1911
Accession Number
11.133.3
Tags
Art Historical Context
This charming lead-glazed earthenware figure titled *Charity*, created around 1770–80 by Ralph Wood the Younger in Burslem, Staffordshire, embodies one of the three Christian virtues. Standing just over eight inches tall, the sculpture depicts a woman surrounded by children, a traditional motif symbolizing compassion and maternal care. Crafted in the heart of Britain’s pottery region, it reflects the era’s growing interest in accessible decorative arts that conveyed moral messages within the home. Ralph Wood the Younger belonged to a prominent family of Staffordshire potters renowned for thei...
About the Artist
Ralph Wood the Younger · 1748–1795
Ralph Wood the Younger was born in Burslem, Staffordshire, in 1748, the son of the celebrated potter Ralph Wood the Elder and a member of a family that stood at the center of the Staffordshire ceramics industry during its most creative and internationally influential period. Growing up in the workshops of his father, he absorbed from childhood the technical traditions of English earthenware produc...