Melencolia I
1514 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
A winged figure sits with her compass idle among abandoned tools, and no print in history has drawn more scholarly argument.
★ 8.6
The Art canon
Sourced and hung.
Every work chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 704 works or filter by movement, subject, place, and artist.
Browse all 704 works or filter by movement, subject, place, and artist.
Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)
1950 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Pollock worked on the floor and moved around the canvas instead of standing at an easel, laying black enamel across raw cotton in 1950.
★ 8.6
View of Toledo
1610 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
El Greco moved the cathedral tower off its real site for the sake of the composition and lit the whole city with a green storm.
★ 8.4
Madame X
1884 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
The strap fell off her shoulder in the 1884 version, Paris was scandalized, her family demanded it come down, and Sargent repainted the strap.
★ 8.0
Otani Oniji III as Yakko Edobei
1794 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Sharaku made about 140 actor prints in ten months and then vanished so completely that people still argue about who he was.
★ 7.9
Portrait of Juan de Pareja
1650 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Pareja was Velázquez's enslaved assistant, freed soon after this was painted in Rome as a warm-up before the pope sat for him.
★ 7.8
The Harvesters
1565 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
One man lies flat on his back with his mouth open while the others cut wheat. Late summer, from the same series of months.
★ 7.7
Wheat Field with Cypresses
1889 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Van Gogh loved the cypress and compared it to an Egyptian obelisk, then set one flaming up the right side of a Provençal field.
★ 7.5
The Death of Socrates
1787 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Socrates reaches for the hemlock without looking at it, still arguing with his other hand while his students fall apart around him.
★ 7.4
Bain a la Grenouillere
1869 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Monet and Renoir set up side by side at this riverside resort and worked out the quick broken stroke that became Impressionism.
★ 7.3
Washington Crossing the Delaware
1851 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Almost every detail is wrong, including the flag and the boat, and Leutze painted it in Germany seventy-five years after the fact.
★ 7.2
Young Woman with a Water Jug
1662 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
One hand on the pitcher, one on the window latch, and morning light coming through onto a white cap. Nothing happens, perfectly.
★ 7.2
Fur Traders Descending the Missouri
1845 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
A trapper and his son drift downriver at first light with a chained animal at the prow, the water so still it doubles them.
★ 7.2
The Oxbow
1836 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Wilderness under storm on the left, farmland in sunshine on the right, and Cole himself down in the middle, tiny, looking up from his easel.
★ 7.2
Snap the Whip
1872 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Barefoot boys crack the whip outside a red schoolhouse and the last one is already stumbling. Painted just after the Civil War.
★ 6.9
Madonna and Child (Duccio)
1300 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Christ reaches up to push his mother's veil aside. Scorch marks on the original frame record centuries of candles set before it.
★ 6.8
Adam and Eve (Durer)
1504 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Cat, mouse, rabbit, ox and elk stand for the temperaments held in balance, and the cat is about to pounce.
★ 6.8
Kindred Spirits
1838 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Thomas Cole and the poet Bryant stand on a ledge in the Catskills. Durand painted it as a memorial after Cole died young.
★ 6.8
The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak
1863 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
Bierstadt went west with a survey expedition and came home with peaks lit like an opera set, which is what the country wanted.
★ 6.8
The Fortune Teller (de la Tour)
1630 · Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
While the old woman reads his palm, three young accomplices are quietly taking his purse and lifting a medal off his neck.
★ 6.8