Leo Martínez
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, or the Met, is one of the largest and most visited art museums in the world, with over 2 million artworks spanning 5,000 years. The Met's collection includes European, American, and Asian art, as well as ancient and modern pieces. The museum's collection of paintings is particularly renowned, with works from famous artists like Gauguin, Toulouse-Lautrec, Cézanne, van Gogh, Rembrandt, Pablo Picasso, and Claude Monet. Here are some of the most famous paintings housed at the Met:
| Characteristics | Values |
|---|---|
| Artist | Vincent van Gogh |
| Number of self-portraits | More than 20 |
| Other famous paintings | Wheat Field with Cypresses, Irises, Woman Rocking a Cradle, Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat, The Potato Peeler |
| Artist | Paul Cezanne |
| Famous paintings | The Card Players |
| Artist | Pablo Picasso |
| Famous paintings | Portrait of an American expat, Red and Blue period paintings |
| Artist | Claude Monet |
| Famous paintings | Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies, Garden at Sainte-Adresse |
| Artist | Diego Velázquez |
| Famous paintings | Juan de Pareja |
| Artist | Vermeer |
| Famous paintings | The Milkmaid |
| Artist | Katsushika Hokusai |
| Famous paintings | The Great Wave off Kanagawa |
| Artist | Auguste Rodin |
| Artist | Titian |
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What You'll Learn
Van Gogh's self-portraits
The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City is home to 17 paintings by Vincent van Gogh, the largest collection of the artist's work in the US. Among these are several self-portraits, which van Gogh turned to when he was short of funds and unable to hire a model. During this period, he produced more than 20 self-portraits, a practice he is still famous for today.
One such self-portrait is painted on the verso of an earlier work, The Potato Peeler, which van Gogh painted in Nuenen, the Netherlands, in February–March 1885. The self-portrait, titled Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat, was painted in Paris in the summer of 1887. The double-sided canvas is a highlight of the Met's collection, showcasing the artist's shift from dour, day-in-the-life scenes to kaleidoscopic dreamscapes rendered in evocative, slashing strokes.
Another self-portrait by van Gogh, titled Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat, is part of a trio of paintings in Gallery 826, alongside a self-portrait by Paul Gauguin and a portrait of Gauguin by van Gogh. The Met's collection also includes a self-portrait of Gauguin from circa 1894, described by a contemporary as resembling "a sumptuous, gigantic Magyar, or... Rembrandt in 1635."
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Monet's 'Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies'
Claude Monet's "Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies" is one of the most famous paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It is a masterpiece of Impressionist art and one of Monet's most well-known works, captivating art enthusiasts for over a century. The painting is part of Monet's renowned "Water Lilies" series, which he worked on for the last 27 to 30 years of his life, starting in 1897 or 1899.
"Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies" was painted in 1899 and measures 36 inches by 29 inches (91.4 cm x 73.7 cm). It is an oil painting on canvas that showcases Monet's pioneering Impressionist style and his fascination with the interplay of light, colour, and nature. The composition features a wooden bridge arching over a tranquil pond filled with luminous water lilies, known as Nympheas, a type of water lily native to Europe. The bridge, called the Japanese Bridge, was a central feature in Monet's garden at Giverny, France, and a frequent subject in his paintings.
Monet's use of colour in the painting is striking, with a vibrant palette of green, yellow, and orange hues bringing the scene to life. The water lilies themselves are a symphony of pinks, whites, and purples, their delicate petals floating serenely on the pond's surface. Monet's brushwork is a testament to his Impressionist technique, with short, quick brushstrokes capturing the fleeting effects of light and colour on the landscape. The result is a canvas that seems to shimmer and dance with energy, as if the scene is constantly shifting and changing before our eyes.
Beyond its aesthetic qualities, "Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies" also holds philosophical significance. The painting can be interpreted as a meditation on the relationship between humans and nature, with the man-made bridge blending seamlessly into the natural landscape, suggesting a symbiotic relationship between the two. The tranquil, almost dreamlike atmosphere of the scene invites contemplation and introspection, encouraging viewers to find moments of peace and beauty in the world around them.
Monet's "Bridge Over a Pond of Water Lilies" is a true masterpiece that continues to inspire and delight viewers over a century after its creation. Its universal appeal has made it one of the most famous and popular paintings in the world, and it is a highlight of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's impressive collection.
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Vermeer's 'The Milkmaid'
Vermeer's The Milkmaid, also known as De Melkmeid or Het Melkmeisje in Dutch, is an oil-on-canvas painting of a domestic kitchen maid by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. The painting is currently housed in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which considers it to be "unquestionably one of the museum's finest attractions." The exact year of the painting's completion is unknown, with estimates ranging from 1657 to 1661.
The Milkmaid depicts a young woman at the centre of the canvas, pouring milk from a jug into a bowl, carefully and attentively. The surrounding objects indicate a kitchen setting, but the indoor environment is relatively sparse. Vermeer's use of light and shadow is notable, with the light source coming from a window and creating a light-dark contrast between the maid and the rear wall. The artist also emphasised the silhouette by painting a white contour line along the figure's arm and shoulder.
The painting is unique among 17th-century Dutch genre paintings in that it features a kitchen maid as the sole subject of a single-figure portrait. Vermeer's depiction of the maid conveys a sense of empathy and dignity, and some interpret the character as embodying the ideals of womanhood in Dutch society during that time, including virtuosity and modesty. The maid's pose may have been inspired by Domenico Fiasella's painting Queen Artemisia (ca. 1645).
The Milkmaid is one of approximately 45 works by Vermeer, who is often referred to as the "master of light." Only 34 of his paintings survive, and The Met in New York City has the honour of holding five of them, more than any other museum in the world. The Frick Collection, just a few blocks away, also has three Vermeer paintings on display.
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Cézanne's 'The Card Players' series
Cézanne's The Card Players series is one of the most famous paintings at the Met. The series consists of five paintings of card players, which are generally acknowledged as masterpieces. The paintings were created in the early to mid-1890s and are executed in oil on canvas. The version of The Card Players at the Metropolitan Museum of Art is considered the earliest of the five paintings in the series. It depicts eccentrically-proportioned figures surrounding a table, with three playing cards and a fourth observing the game, his contemplative attitude indicated by his pipe. The setting is sparse, with a table, three chairs, a pipe rack, and a swag of yellow fabric hanging from the rear wall. The tabletop is the clear focus of attention, supporting the players' arms and hands, which frame objects such as pipes, cards, and a grey rectangle, possibly a tobacco pouch.
Cézanne carefully crafted this composition from figure studies he made of local farmhands, fine-tuning the poses and positions until they fell perfectly into place. He referred to the paintings as "souvenirs of the museums," reflecting their art historical references to past European masters. The series is believed to have been influenced by Gustave Caillebotte's The Besique Game (1880) and Jean-François Raffaëlli's illustration from Joris-Karl Huysmans' "Les Habitués de café" (1889). The inclusion of a standing observing figure and a similar point of view can be seen in Caillebotte's work, while the grander scale and quieter concentration among the figures set Cézanne's work apart from the brawling tavern scenes of Dutch seventeenth-century genre paintings.
The Card Players series is also notable for Cézanne's engagement with art history and his desire to modify it and take it in a new direction. The subject matter of the series is indebted to earlier depictions of card and game players by Baroque and Rococo artists such as Caravaggio. Cézanne's dealer Ambroise Vollard noted the influence of paintings in the Louvre and engravings after major European predecessors. The models for the series included Paulin Paulet, who posed for the figure on the right in the Met's painting, as well as for the Barnes Collection's painting and two other two-character card-playing scenes in the Musée d’Orsay and a private collection.
The chronological order of the series has been the subject of debate, although there is a broad consensus that the multi-figure compositions preceded the two-figure paintings. The largest work in the series is now at the Barnes Collection in Philadelphia, followed by the Met's painting, with the remaining three works containing just two card players confronting each other in strict profile. In these later paintings, the table is narrower and mostly cleared of objects, except for a centrally placed wine bottle.
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Velázquez's 'Juan de Pareja'
The Portrait of Juan de Pareja is a painting by Spanish artist Diego Velázquez of the enslaved Afro-Hispanic Juan de Pareja, who was owned by Velázquez at the time the painting was completed. It is the earliest known portrait of a Spanish man of African descent. The painting is on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.
Pareja was an enslaved studio assistant to famed Spanish painter Velázquez. In 1649, Velázquez, as court painter to Philip IV of Spain, was sent to Rome to purchase works of art for the Alcázar in Madrid. He brought with him Pareja, who served as an assistant in the artist's workshop. In Rome, Velázquez painted the portrait of Pareja, who sat for the portrait in a three-quarter profile with his right arm crossed in front of his chest, like a military commander. The palette is sombre, and the light is muted, but Pareja’s keen gaze shines through. The painting is notable for capturing the complete humanity of someone Velázquez treated as “not completely human in the same [way].”
Pareja was freed by Velázquez upon their return to Spain in 1654; the manumission document still survives. Pareja went on to become an artist in his own right, and his paintings were the focus of an exhibition at the Met in 2023.
The Portrait of Juan de Pareja has inspired several works by other artists. The portrait inspired the 1965 novel I, Juan de Pareja by Elizabeth Borton de Treviño, which won the children's literary prize the Newbery Medal in 1966. Surrealist painter Salvador Dalí reinterpreted Velázquez's painting in his 1960 work Portrait of Juan de Pareja, the Assistant to Velázquez. French-Senegalese artist Iba N'Diaye restaged the Velázquez portrait in his 1985–86 painting Juan de Pareja agressé par les chiens (Juan de Pareja menaced by dogs). In 2000, Peruvian painter Herman Braun-Vega depicted Pareja painting a version inspired by Picasso's Cubist studies of Velázquez's Las Meninas.
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Frequently asked questions
The Met is home to a vast collection of famous paintings, including:
- Vincent van Gogh's The Potato Peeler
- Pablo Picasso’s 1906 portrait of Gertrude Stein
- Diego Velázquez's painting of Juan de Pareja
- Paul Cezanne's The Card Players
- Washington Crossing the Delaware
Aside from paintings, the Met also has a vast collection of sculptures, decorative arts, and furniture. Some famous sculptures include:
- Isamu Noguchi's Water Stone installation
- The Astor Chinese Garden Court
The Met has a few famous paintings by female painters, including:
- Mary Cassatt's paintings of sensual, naked women
- A painting by Labille-Guiard, one of the few women admitted to the Académie Royale at the time, teaching two female pupils
