English
DonateMembershipTickets

Mountain Dream Tarot: A Deck of 78 Photographic Cards

Bea Nettles American
1975
Not on view
The idea to create a set of photographic tarot cards came to Nettles in a dream during the summer of 1970, while she was on an artist’s residency in the mountains of North Carolina. She subsequently reinterpreted the ancient symbolism of the traditional tarot deck, enlisting friends and family members as models for photographs that she augmented with hand-painted additions. In 2007 the image Nettles created for the Three of Swords card was used as the disc graphic for Bruce Springsteen’s album Magic.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: Mountain Dream Tarot: A Deck of 78 Photographic Cards
  • Artist: Bea Nettles (American, born Gainesville, Florida, 1946)
  • Date: 1975
  • Medium: Photographically illustrated tarot cards
  • Classification: Books
  • Credit Line: Purchase, Dorothy Levitt Beskind Gift, 1977
  • Object Number: 1977.556.2
  • Rights and Reproduction: © Bea Nettles
  • Curatorial Department: Photographs
More Artwork
Gray and Brass, John Sloan  American, Oil on canvas, American
John Sloan
1907
[Follett Family Album of Children Costumed for a Fancy Dress Ball], Owen Angel  British, Albumen silver prints from glass negatives with applied color
Owen Angel
ca. 1880
Necklace, Meta Overbeck  American, Gold, emeralds, Montana sapphires, topazes, enamel, American
Meta Overbeck
Louis C. Tiffany
Manufacturer Tiffany & Co.
ca. 1914–15
Scenes and Calligraphic Excerpts from The Tale of Genji, Tosa School  Japanese, Shikishi (poetry cards) mounted in an orihon album; calligraphies: ink on decorated paper; paintings: ink, color, and gold on paper, Japan
Tosa School
Inscriptions by Ono no Ozū (Ono no Tsū)
early 17th century
Man and Two Women (Henderson Ledger Artist B), Frank Henderson  Native American, Pencil, colored pencil, and ink on paper, Arapaho
Frank Henderson
ca. 1882

Research Resources

The Met provides unparalleled resources for research and welcomes an international community of students and scholars. The Met's Open Access API is where creators and researchers can connect to the The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.

To request images under copyright and other restrictions, please use this Image Request form.

Feedback

We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please contact us using the form below. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.

Send feedback

Content Notice

The Metropolitan Museum of Art presents over 5,000 years of art from around the world, and our online collection reflects ongoing work conducted over the course of our more than 150-year history. You may encounter objects or images that may be inappropriate for some viewers or information that may be outdated.