Hours of fun on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website

Hours of fun on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website offers access to over 400,000 pieces from the collection. You can click on the following categories and then filter your search by: “Object type/Material”, “Geographic location”, “Date/Era and “Department”. To find an Open Access image to use in this post I took the easy way out and after clicking on Open Access I typed in “Manet” under “Search” at the top. Then I filtered for “Paintings”. And I ended up with 107 options. I chose Fishing ca. 1862–63. Once you’ve found an object you’re interested in click on the image and you can read a description of the work of art. Click on the artists name and learn about the artist. You may want to start with Collection Highlights. Enjoy!

Want more tips about how to cope at home? Sign up for our free daily newsletter.

Fishing ca. 1862–63 Edouard Manet The Metropolitan Museum of Art website Open Access

Hours of fun on the Metropolitan Museum of Art website

Collection Highlights

See highlights selected by curators from the Museum’s seventeen curatorial departments.

Open Access Artworks

Browse more than 406,000 hi-res images of public-domain works in The Met collection that can be downloaded, shared, and remixed without restriction.

MetCollects

MetCollects celebrates works of art new to the collection through the eyes of photographers and the voices of leading scholars and artists.

Spotlight

Arms and Armor at The Met

View highlights from one of the most extensive, comprehensive, and encyclopedic collections of its kind.

Islamic Art at The Met

View secular and sacred objects and discover the great diversity and range of the cultural traditions of Islam.

Asian Art at The Met

Explore one of the largest and most comprehensive collections in the West, with five thousand years of art objects from China, Japan, South and Southeast Asia, and Korea.

Favorites

Timeline of Art History

The Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History pairs essays and works of art with chronologies to tell the story of art and global culture through The Met collection.

#MetKids

#MetKids is a digital feature made for, with, and by kids. Explore an interactive map and watch behind-the-scenes videos that feature kids just like you.

Protecting Cultural Heritage

Director Max Hollein reflects on the multiple roles of The Met and the ways in which he will help lead the Museum on issues of cultural heritage.

The Met’s Mission statement

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded on April 13, 1870, “to be located in the City of New York, for the purpose of establishing and maintaining in said city a Museum and library of art, of encouraging and developing the study of the fine arts, and the application of arts to manufacture and practical life, of advancing the general knowledge of kindred subjects, and, to that end, of furnishing popular instruction.”[1]
This statement of purpose has guided the Museum for over 140 years.
On January 13, 2015, the Trustees of The Metropolitan Museum of Art reaffirmed this statement of purpose and supplemented it with the following statement of mission:
The Metropolitan Museum of Art collects, studies, conserves, and presents significant works of art across all times and cultures in order to connect people to creativity, knowledge, and ideas.
[1] Charter of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, State of New York, Laws of 1870, Chapter 197, passed April 13, 1870, and amended L.1898, ch. 34; L. 1908, ch. 219.

History of the Museum

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s earliest roots date back to 1866 in Paris, France, when a group of Americans agreed to create a “national institution and gallery of art” to bring art and art education to the American people.