Jean Antoine Watteau's Mezzetin is among the Museum's most evocative works. Katharine Baetjer, curator in the Department of European Paintings, spoke with Associate Email Marketing Manager Jennette Mullaney about this small, striking painting.

Fellow Katharine J. Wright examines some of the provocative "ad art" in Watson Library's periodicals.

Curator Katharine Baetjer examines an African servant depicted in a mid-career double portrait by French artist Nicolas de Largillierre.

This publication catalogues The Met’s remarkable collection of eighteenth-century French paintings in the context of the powerful institutions that governed the visual arts of the time—the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, the Académie de France à Rome, and the Paris Salon. At the height of their authority during the eighteenth century, these institutions nurtured the talents of artists in all genres. The Met’s collection encompasses stunning examples of work by leading artists of the period, including Antoine Watteau (Mezzetin), Jean Siméon Chardin (The Silver Tureen), François Boucher (The Toilette of Venus), Joseph Siffred Duplessis (Benjamin Franklin), Jean-Baptiste Greuze (Broken Eggs), Hubert Robert (the Bagatelle decorations), Jacques Louis David (The Death of Socrates), the Van Blarenberghes (The Outer Port of Brest), and François Gérard (Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord). In the book’s introduction, author Katharine Baetjer provides a history of the Académie, its establishment, principles, and regulations, along with a discussion of the beginnings of public art discourse in France, taking us through the reforms unleashed by the Revolution. The consequent democratizing of the Salon, brought about by radicals under the leadership of Jacques Louis David, encouraged the formation of new publics with new tastes in subject matter and genres. The catalogue features 126 paintings by 50 artists. Each section includes a short biography of the artist and in-depth discussions of individual paintings incorporating the most up-to-date scholarship.

This catalogue supplies basic information on all paintings, oil sketches, and finished pastels by European artists born before 1865 belonging to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The name, dates, and nationality of each artist are given; medium, dimensions, inscriptions, and accession information are supplied for all works; each text is accompanied by an illustration of the work described. The Department of European Paintings has custodial responsibility for most of these pictures, but also included here are works given to, bequeathed to, or acquired for other departments of the Museum—most importantly the Robert Lehman Collection. The Museum's holdings number approximately 2,500 works. The greatest strengths are in the areas of French painting (about 800 works) and Italian painting (about 700 works); the balance is represented by the Dutch, British, Netherlandish, German, Spanish, and Flemish schools.This catalogue presents the collection chronologically and by national and regional school. Entries by artist are ordered in accordance with their known or implied birth dates; the works of individual artists are also arranged chronologically. There is an index by artist as well as an index by accession number. The text is complete as of March 1, 1995.