Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Beeson, Nora B.
1972
320 pages
431 illustrations
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When the Metropolitan Museum came into being in 1870, the founders stressed its role in giving popular instruction. Ever since then its public has expressed interest in obtaining a general guidebook to all the multiple facets of its encyclopedic collections. But a museum is a living, constantly changing institution, and the preparation of such a guide presents many problems. The scope and depth of the Museum's holdings are described with flexibility in mind, so that alterations to the building and changes in the collections can be readily accommodated in future editions of this Guide. The number of pages allocated to each department is restricted to multiples of eight pages; this will permit revisions in future editions.

A guidebook, however, should not be a straitjacket. It is impossible to locate accurately all works at all times because paintings and objects are constantly being cleaned, restored, loaned to other museums, or rehung within the Metropolitan.

In designing a guide that is easily portable and of interest to a large public, severe restrictions have had to be imposed. The text serves an introductory function and is not intended to give the kind of detailed information found in a catalogue or scholarly publication. Many other books published by the Museum are available to anyone wishing to follow his own special interests: a series of popular handbooks and comprehensive catalogues of various aspects of the collections are available in the Museum's bookshops; the Bulletin of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a general interest magazine covering all phases of Museum activity, appears regularly throughout the year; and the Journal of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a collection of scholarly monographs, is issued annually. An independent guide covers the collection at The Cloisters, our branch museum of medieval art at Fort Tryon Park.

Midshipman Augustus Brine, John Singleton Copley  American, Oil on canvas, American
John Singleton Copley
1782
The American School, Matthew Pratt  American, Oil on canvas, American
Matthew Pratt
1765
George Washington, Gilbert Stuart  American, Oil on canvas, American
Gilbert Stuart
begun 1795
Molly Wales Fobes, Rufus Hathaway  American, Oil on canvas, American
Rufus Hathaway
1790
Still Life: Balsam Apple and Vegetables, James Peale  American, Oil on canvas, American
James Peale
ca. 1820s
Still Life with Cake, Raphaelle Peale  American, Oil on wood, American
Raphaelle Peale
1818
The Falls of Niagara, Edward Hicks  American, Oil on canvas, American
Edward Hicks
ca. 1825
Queen Victoria, Thomas Sully  American, Oil on canvas, American
Thomas Sully
1838
View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, Massachusetts, after a Thunderstorm—The Oxbow, Thomas Cole  American, Oil on canvas, American
Thomas Cole
1836
Heart of the Andes, Frederic Edwin Church  American, Oil on canvas, American
Frederic Edwin Church
1859
Cider Making, William Sidney Mount  American, Oil on canvas, American
William Sidney Mount
1840–41
Fur Traders Descending the Missouri, George Caleb Bingham  American, Oil on canvas, American
George Caleb Bingham
1845
California, Hiram Powers  American, Marble, American
Hiram Powers
1850–55, carved 1858
The Champion Single Sculls (Max Schmitt in a Single Scull), Thomas Eakins  American, Oil on canvas, American
Thomas Eakins
1871
Still Life—Violin and Music, William Michael Harnett  American, Oil on canvas, American
William Michael Harnett
1888
Moonlight Marine, Albert Pinkham Ryder  American, Oil and possibly wax on wood panel, American
Albert Pinkham Ryder
1870–90
Arrangement in Flesh Colour and Black: Portrait of Theodore Duret, James McNeill Whistler  American, Oil on canvas, American
James McNeill Whistler
1883
Madame X (Madame Pierre Gautreau), John Singer Sargent  American, Oil on canvas, American
John Singer Sargent
1883–84
The Cup of Tea, Mary Cassatt  American, Oil on canvas, American
Mary Cassatt
ca. 1880–81
Arques-la-Bataille, John Henry Twachtman  American, Oil on canvas, American
John Henry Twachtman
1885
Showing 20 of 263

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Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, N.Y.), ed. 1972. Guide to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. 1st ed. New York.