Opened in 1870, the Metropolitan Museum of Art is one of the most beloved museums in the U.S. It holds one of the world’s most impressive art collections.
The museum is enormous. It spans 2 million square feet and holds over 2 million works of art. It’s spread across multiple floors and sections, making it impossible to see everything in one visit. Planning ahead is key.
This guide gives you an overview of the museum and highlights the masterpieces you can’t miss. Start by setting your priorities. The Met is too big to see in a few hours. It would take weeks to explore it all.
As you might guess, visiting can be overwhelming. Download the Met App or grab a museum map to stay on track and make the most of your time.
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General Logistics & Museum Layout
- Location: 1000 Fifth Avenue
- Hours:
- Sunday–Tuesday, Thursday: 10:00 am to 5:00 pm
- Friday & Saturday: 10:00 am to 9:00 pm
- Closed Wednesdays
- Tickets:
- General admission is $30 for adults, $22 for seniors, and $17 for students.
- Pay-what-you-wish for New York State residents and NY, NJ, CT students (with ID).
- Entrances:
- Main entrance at Fifth Avenue & 82nd Street
- Accessible entrance at 81st Street. This is by far the fastest entrance.
- The Met Cloisters and Met Breuer are separate locations.
The Met has three floors with different wings and galleries dedicated to various regions and time periods. Here’s the breakdown:
First Floor (main level)
- Great Hall (entrance)
- Egyptian Art (Temple of Dendur, mummies, sculptures)
- Greek & Roman Art
- Arms and Armor (iconic knights in armor)
- Asian Art (Chinese, Japanese, Korean)
- African, Oceanic, and Indigenous Americas Art
- European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
- The American Wing (furniture, Tiffany glass, period rooms)
- Medieval Art (the Cloisters collection tie-ins)
- Modern & Contemporary Art
Second Floor
- European Paintings (Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Vermeer, Monet)
- Islamic Art
- Asian Art Continued (Buddhist sculptures, Japanese prints)
- Drawings, Prints, and Photography
- American Paintings
- Textiles and Costumes (rotating exhibitions)
Third Floor (smaller and less frequently visited)
- Mainly houses temporary exhibitions and storage rooms.
- Some small, specialized galleries.
Must See Met Masterpieces
I had an extremely difficult time winnowing the list down, but I managed to pick out 20 masterpieces you can’t miss. Anything shorter would be an artistic crime against humanity.
This list is balanced, covering all the most important periods of Western art history. I would definitely walk through the museum with a map and this list in hand.
There are other wonderful masterpieces by Botticelli, Picasso, Miro, Mantegna, etc. But you can’t include everything in the top 20!
Here are my picks, in no special order.
John Singer Sargent, Madame X
This infamous painting scandalized Parisian society in 1884. It portrays Amelie Avegno Gautreau, an American socialite living in Paris.
Gautreau was a Parisian beauty married to a wealthy banker, who was not particularly discrete about her love affairs.
She caught the eye of Sargent, an ambitious American portrait artist, who was desperate to paint her. Eventually, Gautreau agreed to pose in a black evening dress.
When it was unveiled at the Salon, the critics hated everything about it — her oddly pale skin, the pose, and the cleavage-plunging dress.
The portrait ruined Gautreau’s reputation and it caused Sargent to flee to London. The artist eventually sold the painting to the Met, but stipulated that the title would be “Madame X.” He said it was “the best thing I had ever done.”
Rembrandt, Aristotle with a Bust of Homer
Rembrandt was a Dutch Baroque master, renowned for his dramatic use of light and shadow, deeply expressive portraits, and groundbreaking storytelling in historical and biblical scenes.
In this canvas of 1653, Rembrandt imagined the Greek philosopher Aristotle in a private moment of reflection.
One hand rests on a bust of the ancient poet Homer and the other toys with the links of a heavy gold chain. A portrait of Alexander the Great hangs from the chain.
The painting has a reduced palette of somber colors and is rather melancholy. It appears Aristotle is weighing the relative values of the material and spiritual worlds.
Rembrandt’s virtuoso technical brushwork is on display. Just look at the folds of Aristotle’s clothing. The chiaroscuro (light dark contrasts) give the work its expressive power.
Jacques-Louis David, The Death of Socrates
The French artist David was one of the prominent artists of the Neoclassical period of art history. And this is one of the Met’s most important paintings.
The painting depicts the Greek philosopher Socrates’ noble suicide. He’s about to take a goblet of poison hemlock for having refused to renounce his beliefs. In his final moments, he discourses on the immortality of the soul.
He’s surrounded by his followers. Plato sits, dejected, at the foot of his bed.
Technical examination of Jacques Louis David’s masterpiece reveals that the refinements seen in the artist’s preparatory drawings didn’t end when he began painting. Rather, they continued through all stages of its execution.
The painting was praised for its classical subject matter, harmonious composition, and precise draughtsmanship—three qualities that characterize Neoclassicism.
Duccio, Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels
The Sienese artist Duccio is recognized as a pioneer in the early development of Western art. Although his artworks contained traditional Byzantine elements, he imbued his creations with a sense of lyricism and authentic human emotions.
There are very few Duccios in the US. This is a small devotional painting capturing the intimate relationship between the Christ child and his mother.
Mary’s face is sorrowful, as if she knows what awaits the baby. Christ touches the folds of his mother’s veil.
The background is still Byzantine. But you can see elements of a naturalism that was emerging in 14th century painting.
The Met acquired this painting in 2004. The museum forked out $45 million, making it one of the most expensive Old Master paintings ever purchased at the time.
Peter Bruegel the Elder, The Harvesters
The primacy of landscape in Bruegel’s painting signals a turning point in the development of Western art.
Landscapes were no longer simply the backdrop for a religious scene. They were the actual subject.
This painting is a scene of peasants working the land. The vignettes drawn from everyday life and prefigure the rise of genre painting in 17th century Northern Europe, particularly the Netherlands.
Harvesters belongs to a series of six painting, five of which still survive. It represents July and August, a period when the wheat is harvested mid-day.
In its iconography, the painting recalls late medieval calendar cycles that depict the labors associated with each month.
El Greco, View of Toledo
El Greco, or Dominikos Theotokopoulos, was an incredible artist from the late Spanish Renaissance.
Art historians find it difficult to put El Greco into a specific art category. And honestly, they might have a point. But, to me, he lines up fairly well with the Italian Mannerists.
The Met’s View of Toledo is one of only two surviving landscapes by El Greco. The other is at the El Greco Museum in Toledo.
It’s not a straightforward landscape. Rather, he drew from the medieval tradition of emblematic city views popularized in 16th century prints.
The painting bears all the hallmarks of El Greco’s later years. His brushstrokes are relaxed and impressionistic. Buildings are reduced to simple geometric forms.
Caravaggio, The Musicians
Caravaggio’s paintings are undeniably among the most stunning works in the history of Western painting.
As a revolutionary, Caravaggio almost single-handedly pioneered the 17th century Italian Baroque style, leaving a lasting impact on the art world. The naturalism of his style was a dramatic rupture from late 16th century painting.
In this artwork, Caravaggio painted directly from the model. Each youth in this painting was captured separately.
The artist portrays himself as the cornet player, second from the right. The figure of the lutist may also be a self-portrait.
Despite its realism, the painting is an allegory of music and love, the latter evoked by the presence of a winged Cupid holding grapes (an illusion to wine).
This very early painting launched Caravaggio’s career. It was copied in oil beginning in 1615, attesting to the artist’s prominence just 5 years before his death.
Johannes Vermeer, Young Woman with a Water Pitcher
Vermeer was the premiere painter of the 17th century Dutch Golden Age. Vermeer paintings are scarce.
There are only 35 or so in existence and the Met has an impressive one. It was the first Vermeer to appear in a public collection in the US.
Vermeer’s painting depicts a woman at her daily toilette. It’s an interior scene, which has a popular genre at the time.
The artist’s subject embodies the period’s feminine archetype. Her virtue and purity are suggested by the gleaming silver watch pitcher and string of pearls in the open jewelry box.
You can see Vermeer’s preoccupation with light. Natural light filters in through the window, playfully changing the images slightly.
Vincent Van Gogh, Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat
Van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist who spent most of his life in France.
He only sold a few paintings in his lifetime. But he may now be the world’s most popular painter.
While living in Paris, Van Gogh painted a series of 20 self-portraits in two years, including the Met’s Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat.
Van Gogh painted self-portraits because he could rarely afford models. He also used the genre to experiment with technique.
This portrait, from 1887, has a dramatically lightened palette. You can see he’s experimenting with the Impressionists’ broken brushstrokes and some of the Divisionism of Georges Seurat.
Edgar Degas, The Dance Class
Edgar Degas was fascinated by the ballet world in Paris. Starting in the 1870s, he began capturing dancers during performances and studio rehearsals.
In this exquisite pastel, Degas shows ballerinas resting in their dressing room before going on stage.
Degas masterfully captures the texture of their tulle skirts, tied with large sashes. The artificial light hits the dancer with her back to the viewer.
As usual, Degas gives the painting a slightly raised perspective and cropped composition to add a sense of immediacy.
Giotto, Adoration of the Magi
Giotto was the greatest painter of the 14th century. Along with Duccio, he revolutionized the art of painting in the West.
Renowned in his lifetime, Giotto was celebrated for the naturalism of his style, which paved the way for the Renaissance.
In the painting, you can see his convincing sense of space. And this came a full century before Leon Battista Alberti’s treaties on perspectiveQ
At once austere and tender, this image belongs to a series of seven narrative scenes of the Life of Christ. But Giotto humanized the image. Just look at the concern on Mary’s face.
Bronzino, Portrait of a Young Man
Bronzino was the prize pupil of the Mannerist artist Pontormo. He became famous as a portraitist of the Medici family duke and duchess.
This compelling portrait epitomizes Bronzino’s meticulous precision. The artist painted a number of his literary friends in the 1530s, and this may have been one of them. Notice the book in his right hand.
The settling evokes the interior of a Florentine palazzo. The man has a somewhat mask-like expression.
Typical of Mannerism, the portrait reflects a new aesthetic of cool perfection, hardened contours, and an enamel finish. I find it quite stunning.
Gilbert Stuart, George Washington (The Athenaeum Portrait)
This is an iconic portrait. I mean, it’s the face on our dollar bill.
In 1793, Gilbert Stuart, already established a a portraitist in London and Dublin, returned to the US after two decades abroad. He was intent on securing a commission to paint the portrait of George Washington.
Stuart became the most successful and resourceful portraitist of America’s early national period.
He possessed enormous natural talent, which he devoted to the representation of human likeness and character, bringing his witty and irascible manner to his works.
Here, Washington’s face has an alert, expressive quality. Stuart executed two additional life portraits of Washington and many replicas, three of which belong to the Met.
Jean-Auguste-Dominque Ingres, Princess de Broglie
Ingres was a French Neoclassical painter known for his precise draftsmanship, sensual portraits, and idealized forms that blended academic tradition with a distinctive, almost surreal elegance.
When it was shown, this absolutely exquisite portrait was called a “delicious incarnation of nobility.” Although Ingres didn’t love portraiture, he was a true master of the genre. Such was his fame that he could often choose his own subjects.
The princess is clad in a fashionable ice blue satin dress. Ingres meticulously rendered the textures of the fabric, her jewelry, and her porcelain-like skin, demonstrating his famous attention to detail and smooth, polished finish.
The subject’s expression is serene yet melancholic, reflecting her reserved personality and possibly foreshadowing her early death at age 35. The portrait is a blend of idealization and psychological depth. You can see both the sitter’s aristocratic refinement and an air of introspection.
Claude Monet, La Grenouillere
Monet is one of the most important and pivotal figures in Western art history. He’s the poster boy for Impressionism, and a symbol of French painting.
La Grenouillere marks the emergence of his Impressionist style. In the summer of 1869, Monet set up his easel beside Auguste Renoir and captured three views of this popular bathing spot.
At the time, the artist dismissed the works as “bad sketches.” Yet he still included one in the second Impressionist exhibit.
In the painting, Monet uses the signature Impressionist broken brushstrokes, especially in the surface of the water. Contrary to the polished surfaces of Academic art, Monet tried to capture a moment in time.
Gustav Klimt, Mada Primavesi
Gustav Klimt is Austria’s most famous painter. He’s was a founding member of the Vienna Secession, and is renowned for his intoxicating and sensual portraits of women during his Golden Period.
There are only 5 Klimt paintings in the US. Most of them are in Vienna. And one of them, a portrait of a young girl, is at the Met.
This was Klimt’s only commissioned portrait of a child. The work has rich decorative patterning consistent with Klimt’s usual style.
The background is playful and exuberant. Klimt conjures an imaginary landscape of fish, birds, and the girl’s favorite bulldog on the left.
The painting was significant to Klimt. He included it in several international exhibitions before his death in 1918.
Picasso, Gertrude Stein
Picasso, of course, is the most famous painter of the 20th century. And the Met owns one of his most famous, Portrait of Gertrude Stein.
The painting is a key link between Picasso’s Rose Period and Cubism.
Picasso met the American writer in Paris and was entranced by her physical presence and intelligence.
Stein claimed to have sat for Picasso 90 times. Picasso repeated fussed with her head.
In the end, he gave it a sculptural and mask-like quality — as decisive break from his usual style. Stein eventually gifted the painting to the Met.
Modigliani, Reclining Nude
Amedeo Modigliani was an Italian painter and sculptor known for his distinctive elongated portraits and nudes. He blended modern abstraction with a lyrical, melancholic elegance.
In 1916, he began a celebrated series of reclining nudes, which were influenced by Italian Renaissance representations of Venus and other idealized female figures.
Unlike Titian’s Venuses, however, the artist’s sensual nudes dispense with any pretext of narrative.
The painting depicts an outlined body, set against a dark red background. The model languorously extends the width of the frame, with her legs cropped by the frame.
Her raised arms recall other sleeping goddesses, like Ariadne. But none of the mythological forerunners have hair under their arms. Critics called Modigliani the lone “painter of women from life.”
Mark Rothko, No. 13 (White, Red on Yellow)
Mark Rothko was a leading Abstract Expressionist, known for his large-scale color field paintings that evoke deep emotional responses. Color was his primary means of expression.
This 1958 painting embodies his “classical” period. His luminous, layered rectangles of color seem to float on the canvas, drawing viewers into a meditative, almost spiritual experience.
There are subtle variations in the edging of the rectangles, the thickness, and paint applications, belying the seeming sameness of the images.
In this one, the gauze-like transparency of the white rectangle counterbalances the red rectangle. The yellow one in the center, a bit dense, is a visual intermediary.
Like most of his paintings, this one is unframed.
Jackson Pollock, Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)
Pollock was a pioneering Abstract Expressionist known for his revolutionary drip painting technique.
He created dynamic, chaotic compositions that were a radical break from traditional artistic practices. He focused on the process of painting, not the image itself.
Pollock made his first “drip” painting in 1947. He would fling, drop, and pour thinned enamel paint onto the raw canvas using a stick or knife instead of a brush.
He moved around the canvas as he worked from all four sides. There is no central focus. Instead, critics described Pollock’s artwork as an “all-overness” and “action painting.”
I hope you’ve enjoyed my guide to the most famous paintings at the Met. You may enjoy these other art-related guides:
- Best Museums in the US
- Florence art bucket list
- Venice art bucket list
- London art bucket list
- Italy art bucket list
- Best museums in Paris
- Best museums in Rome
- Best museums in Madrid
- Best museums in London
- Best museums in Barcelona
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