The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New-York

While in New York, we walked through Central Park to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (Met) and get in just as it started raining.

It is a very large museum, so we had to pick a few areas to visit. We started by the exhibition PUNK: Chaos to Couture. Then, we went to the gallery of European paintings, admiring on the way the collection of Rodin’s sculptures. In the end, we also went to see the temporary exhibition Birds in the Art of Japan.

There are so many high quality paintings that it is difficult to even pick a sample. The good news is that the Met Museum website is the gold standard of museum's website, with excellent photographs of the collection and an interactive map to visit virtually (or prepare your visit).

Cézanne paintings are in Gallery 825.

The Card Players - Oil on canvas (25 3/4 x 32 1/4 in. - 65.4 x 81.9 cm) by Paul Cézanne [Source: Met Museum]

The Met has an extensive collection of works by Degas. It is in fact one of the world's largest collections and it is featured in four rooms (Gallery 814 - Degas’s Sculpture ; Gallery 815 -Degas's Paintings and Pastels ; Gallery 816 -Degas's Paintings and Pastels ; and Gallery 817 -Degas's Paintings and Pastels).

The Dance Class - Oil on canvas (32 7/8 x 30 3/8 in. - 83.5 x 77.2 cm) by Edgar Degas

Dancers Practicing at the Barre - Mixed media on canvas (29 3/4 x 32 in. - 75.6 x 81.3 cm) by Edgar Degas

Paintings by Vincent Van Gogh are always popular and both the colours and the texture are striking.

Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat - Oil on canvas (16 x 12 1/2 in. - 40.6 x 31.8 cm) by Vincent van Gogh. Behind it, L'Arlésienne: Madame Joseph-Michel Ginoux

The reason the Self-Portrait with a Straw Hat is shown on a plynth in the middle of the room is because there is another painting on its verso: The Potato Peeler.

Irises - Oil on canvas (29 x 36 1/4 in. - 73.7 x 92.1 cm) by Vincent van Gogh

Roses - Oil on canvas (36 5/8 x 29 1/8 in.- 93 x 74 cm) by Vincent van Gogh

Monet is well represented, with paintings covering all periods.

Garden at Sainte-Adresse is an example of an early Monet displayed in Gallery 818. The application of paint is not fragmented in interlaced strokes as in the later works.

Garden at Sainte-Adresse - Oil on canvas (38 5/8 x 51 1/8 in. - 98.1 x 129.9 cm) by Claude Monet

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies is an example of Monet’s mid-career style

Bridge over a Pond of Water Lilies Oil on canvas (36 1/2 x 29 in. - 92.7 x 73.7 cm) by Claude Monet

The same goes for the painting Morning on the Seine near Giverny, dated from 1897, displayed in Gallery819.

Morning on the Seine near Giverny - Oil on canvas (32 1/8 x 36 5/8 in. - 81.6 x 93 cm) by Claude Monet

Gallery 830 features some early Picasso and Matisse, included the Seated Harlequin, which I really like.

Seated Harlequin - Oil on canvas, lined and mounted to a sheet of pressed cork (32 3/4 x 24 1/8 in. - 83.2 x 61.3 cm) by Pablo Picasso  [Source: Met Museum]

Go to the website of the Met Museum to have a look at their collection of paintings by

• Pissarro
• Renoir
• Seurat 
• ThePost-Impressionists (Van Gogh, Gauguin)
• Bonnard and Vuillard

You can also look at the Annenberg Collection of Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Masters (Gallery 821 ; Gallery 822 and  Gallery 823) that includes works by Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cézanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Picasso.

Details for the museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art

1000 Fifth Avenue

New York, New York 10028-0198

USA

Web site: http://www.metmuseum.org

Open 7 Days a Week

Sunday–Thursday: 10:00 a.m.–5:30 p.m.

Friday and Saturday: 10:00 a.m.–9:00 p.m.

Closed Thanksgiving Day, December 25, January 1, and the first Monday in May

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