Famous Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum
Posted by Susan Benford
The collection of famous paintings in the Metropolitan Museum is indisputably one of the world's most comprehensive. Its 2 million square foot facility houses 2 million works of art spanning 5,000 years. So where do you start in the Met Museum, and how do you avoid missing its most famous artwork?
When I began seriously frequenting art museums, I wanted to learn which famous paintings were most memorable in the history of painting, which art museums housed them, and what political and social forces had shaped each famous painter and painting. I couldn't find a product that met these specs, so I created one (for details, click here); the result is 250 Masterpieces in Western Painting, a set of art history flashcards of the famous paintings discussed most often by today's art historians.
After some 17,000 pages in nearly two dozen art history books, this is the famous artwork leading art historians discuss most often:
- Bierstadt, Albert. The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak. Oil on canvas, 1863
- Bingham, George Calleb. Fur Traders Descending the Missouri. Oil on canvas, ca. 1845 (see this painting below, and read about it here)
- Bonheur, Marie-Rosalie (Rosa). The Horse Fair. Oil on canvas, 1853 (see this masterpiece below, and read about this trend-setting famous painter here.)
- Campin (The Master of Flemalle), Robert. Merode Altarpiece (Triptych of the Annunciation). Tempera and oil on wood, 1425 - 1430
- Caravaggio, (Michelangelo Merisi).The Musicians. Oil on canvas, ca. 1595. See this painting below. Is it four young men, or two viewed from different angles? This is discussed in Masterpiece Cards!
- Christus, Petrus. A Goldsmith in his Shop, Possibly St. Eligius. Tempera and oil on wood, 1449
- Cole, Thomas. View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, MA, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow). Oil on canvas, 1836. See below. Customers of Masterpiece Cards know that the name "Noah" is hidden in this painting. Where? Get your own Cards and discover this and more!
- Constable, John. Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds. Oil on canvas, circa 1825
- Courbet, Gustave. Woman with a Parrot. Oil on canvas, 1866
- Daumier, Honore. The Third Class Carriage. Oil on canvas, 1863 - 1865. See this art painting below. An ardent defender of the poor and those who could, as here, only afford third-class rail tickets, Daumier frequently portrayed those displaced by industrialism.
- David, Jacques-Louis. Death of Socrates. Oil on canvas, 1787
- Eakins, Thomas. Max Schmitt in a Single Scull. Oil on canvas, 1871
- El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos). View of Toledo. Oil on canvas, circa 1604 - 1614. Is this art painting real or imagined? It's some of each, as we explain in Masterpiece Cards.
- Goya, Francisco de. Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuniga. Oil on canvas, circa 1798
- Goyen, Jan van. Pelkus Gate near Utrecht. Oil on panel, 1646
- Hartley, Marsden. Portrait of a German Officer. Oil on canvas, 1914. In this painting, Hartley eulogizes a young Prussian lieutenant. In Masterpiece Cards, we explore who he was, why he mattered to Hartley, and the meaning of the initials (Kv.F) and numbers ("4" and "24"). Without this context and history, the painting remains enigmatic.
- Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique. Princess de Broglie. Oil on canvas, 1853
- Kauffmann, Angelica. Telemachus and the Nymphs of Calypso. Oil on canvas, 1783. See below. Kauffmann was the dominant female painter of her time, and produced numerous history paintings. Astonishingly, she was forbidden - like other female painters - from working with nude men or women.
- Labille-Guiard, Adelaide. Self-Portrait with Two Pupils. Oil on canvas, 1785
- Louis, Morris. Alpha-Pi. Acrylic on canvas, 1961. Morris poured water-soluble acrylic paint on raw canvas, so that the paint seeped into the canvas' weave rather than sitting on the surface.
- Matisse, Henri. Promenade Among the Olive Trees. Oil on canvas, 1905
- Memling, Hans. Maria Baroncelli Portinari and Tommaso di Folco Portinari. Oil on wood, circa 1470
- Modigliani, Amedeo Reclining Nude. Oil on canvas, 1917
- Monet, Claude. Rouen Cathedral: The Portal (In Sun). Oil on canvas, 1894
- Murillo, Bartolome Esteban. The Virgin and Child. Oil on canvas, 1675 - 1680
- O'Keeffe, Georgia. Black Iris III, Oil on canvas, 1926
- Panini, Giovanni Paolo. Modern Rome. Oil on canvas, 1757. Inspired by Rome's standing buildings and abundant ruins, Panini painted them and embellished the scenes with imaginary backgrounds. We'll i.d. for you in Masterpiece Cards some of the famous artwork arrayed in his Modern Rome, below!
- Picasso, Pablo. Portrait of Gertrude Stein. Oil on canvas 1906 (read about this painting here).
- Pollock, Jackson. Autumn Rhythm (Number 30). Oil on canvas, 1950.
- Rembrandt. Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer. Oil on canvas, 1653 (See this art painting below, read about it here).
- Rubens, Peter Paul. Venus and Adonis. Oil on canvas, circa 1635
- Sargent, John Singer. Madame X. Oil on canvas, 1894 (see Madame X below, and read about this painting here)
- Stuart, Gilbert. George Washington. Oil on canvas, 1795
- van Goyen, Jan. Pelkus Gate near Utrecht. Oil on panel, 1646
- Velazquez, Diego. Juan de Pareja. Oil on canvas, 1650. Given that most of Velazquez's work is in Spain, don't miss this gem!
- Vermeer, Jan. Young Woman with a Water Jug. Oil on canvas, circa 1665
- Watteau, Jean-Antoine. Mezzetin. Oil on canvas, circa 1718.
Note: The titles in orange are included in
250 Masterpieces; the others were often cited by art historians, but not as often as those in orange. Think runnerups. For more information, visit
www.TheMasterpieceCards.com. Know a great thing when you see it? Own your own by clicking
here.