While the Met’s original collection, formerly belonging to its first president John Taylor Johnston, had consisted of a Roman stone sarcophagus and 174 paintings, under the guidance of its first founders it quickly outgrew its first lodgings. After purchasing a collection of Cypriot antiquities, the museum was forced to relocate to the Douglas Mansion (which was demolished in 1928). This, still, was not enough, and so the museum moved to its current building in 1880.
European Paintings
The Met’s collection of European Paintings consists of at least 2,500 works, covering a time period from the thirteenth to the twentieth century.
Broken Eggs by Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Study of a Woman’s Head by Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Allegory of Vigilance by Jean Honoré Fragonard
Madame Sophie de France by François Hubert Drouais
The Death of Socrates by Jacques Louis David
The Death of Socrates by Jacques Louis David
This collection contains a great number of works from Italian art, one of the world’s greatest collections of seventeenth-century Dutch paintings, impressive collections of Spanish art, and a great number of French works.
Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and Marie Anne Lavoisier by Jacques Louis David
Madame de Saint-Morys by Joseph Siffred Duplessis
Portrait of a Woman, said to be Madame Charles Simon Favart by François Hubert Drouais
Charles Claude de Flahaut by Jean-Baptiste Greuze
Juan de Pareja by Diego Velázquez
María Teresa, Infanta of Spain by Diego Velázquez
Portrait of a Man (possibly) by Diego Velázquez
Cardinal Fernando Niño de Guevara by El Greco
Portrait of an Old Man by El Greco
Saint Justina of Padua by Bartolomeo MontagnaThe Young Saint John the Baptist by Piero di CosimoThe Toilette of Venus by François BoucherVirgin and Child with the Young Saint John the Baptist and Angels by François BoucherAdam and Eve by François LemoyneThe Last Judgment by Jan van EyckThe Musicians by CaravaggioThe Musicians by CaravaggioTommaso Dipolco Portinari; Maria Portinari by Hans MemlingJudith with the Head of Holofernes by Lucas Cranach the ElderThe Martyrdom of Saint Barbara by Lucas Cranach the ElderChrist’s Descent into Hell by a follower of Hieronymus BoschA State Yacht and Other Craft in Calm Water by Jan van de CappelleA Vase with Flowers by Jacob Vosmaer
Study Head of an Old Man with a White Beard by Anthony van Dyck
Mrs. Grace Dalrymple Elliot by Thomas Gainsborough
James Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox by Anthony van DyckThe Miracel of the Loaves and Fishes by Jacopo TintorettoThe Adoration of the Magi by Quinten Massys
Bashi-Bazouk by Jean-Léon GérômeAn Egyptian Peasant Woman and Her Child by Léon BonnatVenice, from the Porch of Madona della Salute by J.M.W. TurnerWoman with a Parrot by Gustave CourbetThe Artist’s Wife by Albert BartholoméTea by James TissotVsevolod Mikhailovich Garshin by Ilya RepinConsuelo Vanderbilt, Duchess of Marlborough by Giovanni BoldiniThe Organ Rehearsal by Henry Lerolle
Mrs. Walter Rathbone Bacon by Anders Leonard Zorn
Pygmalion and Galatea by Jean-León Gérôme
The Birth of Venus by Alexandre Cabanel
Fun fact: This is a copy of an original painting held by the Musée d’Orsay.
The Storm by Pierre-Auguste CotMäda Primavesi by Gustav KlimtA Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges SeuratA Sunday on La Grande Jatte by Georges SeuratBouquet of Flowers in a Vase by Vincent van GoghRoses by Vincent van GoghWheat Field with Cypresses by Vincent van GoghWheat Field with Cypresses by Vincent van GoghOlive Orchard by Vincent van GoghThe Boulevard Montmartre on a Winter Morning by Camille Pisarro
Gold Colored Fox 