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A nineteenth-century crowd viewing David's painting of Napolean crowning his wife Josephine in the Louvre

Friends of European Paintings

Friends of European Paintings was inaugurated in 2000 with the aim of giving individuals who are passionate about art an opportunity to engage closely with the Department's collections and curators. Friends go behind the scenes with exclusive talks and tours highlighting aspects of our permanent collection, exhibitions, and new acquisitions; visits to local private collections; luncheons and cocktail receptions; a dedicated newsletter; and other experiences that offer an insider's perspective on the activities of the Department and the works of art in our care. The group welcomes Friends at every level of art-historical knowledge. Annual dues support the Museum and the Department, including programming and acquisitions. Recently Friends dues supported the purchases of Simon Vouet's Woman Playing a Guitar (ca. 1618), Guido Cagnacci's The Death of Cleopatra (ca. 1645–55), and Adam Müller's The Hall of Antiquities at Charlottenborg Palace, Copenhagen (1830).

The generosity and enthusiasm of patrons has been vital to the growth of the Department of European Paintings since the inception of The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1870. Thanks to our benefactors, we now oversee an outstanding collection spanning the thirteenth to the early twentieth century. Visitors to our galleries enjoy masterpieces of the Medieval, Renaissance, and Baroque periods, through Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, and beyond. Our holdings of Rembrandt, Vermeer, El Greco, Degas, Monet, and Van Gogh, among others, are unrivalled in the United States. The Department's history of precedent-setting connoisseurship and scholarship continues in the twenty-first century with a dynamic program of exhibitions, acquisitions, research, online cataloguing, publications, and lectures, which reach a worldwide audience of art lovers.

Annual Dues: $10,000 (a portion of dues is tax-deductible)

Under-Forty Annual Dues: $5,500 (a portion of dues is tax-deductible)

Friends enjoy:

  • previews and tours of select European Paintings special exhibitions, ahead of other members and the public;
  • exclusive behind-the-scenes events and pop-up tours with the department's curators—including trips to private collections, visits to the Sherman Fairchild Center for Paintings Conservation at The Met, discussions of new acquisitions, concerts of period music, and more;
  • a dedicated newsletter; and
  • acknowledgment in the Museum's Annual Report.

Friends of European Paintings also receive benefits of Patron Circles Membership at The Met, including:

  • free, express admission to all of The Met's locations with up to four accompanied guests;
  • special access to the collection and new exhibitions during Morning Hours, Preview Days, Evening Receptions, and The Met After Hours;
  • invitations to Members-only events, concerts, and curator talks;
  • access to the Members-only Patrons Lounge and Balcony Lounge;
  • 10% discount on all public restaurants and venues at The Met, The Met Cloisters, and The Met Store;
  • subscriptions to the What's On calendar and The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin; and
  • reciprocal benefits at sixteen museums nationwide.

For a full list of benefits and information on the tax-deductible portion of your gift, contact the Development Department at 212–650–2075 or friends.groups@metmuseum.org.

Above: Louis Léopold Boilly (French, 1761–1845). The Public Viewing David's "Coronation" at the Louvre (detail), 1810. Oil on canvas; 24 1/4 x 32 1/2 in. (61.6 x 82.6 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2012 (2012.156)