The Met’s Can’t-Miss Masterpieces: A First-Timer’s Guide

The Metropolitan Museum of Art on New York's Fifth Avenue is one of the largest art museums on earth — roughly two million square feet holding 5,000 years of human making. You will not see it all in a day, and trying to is the surest way to see nothing well. Here's how to spend a first visit.

What should a first-timer see?

Start with the European paintings on the second floor, where the Met's greatest hits cluster. A short list worth building a route around: - Van Gogh at the Met — Vincent van Gogh's cypresses, irises, and unflinching self-portraits, several in the same few rooms. - *Degas's The Dance Class* — [Edgar Degas](/artist/Edgar%20Degas) at his most tender and observant, young dancers caught between poses. - Cézanne's The Card Players — two men, a table, a bottle, and a quiet monumentality that reshaped modern painting. - Emanuel Leutze's Washington Crossing the Delaware — a wall-sized, unabashedly dramatic piece of American myth-making. - Hokusai's Great Wave** — the Met holds an impression of Katsushika Hokusai's most famous print, a good reason to detour into the Asian galleries.

If Degas pulls you in, our piece on who Edgar Degas really was is a good companion.

How should you plan a visit?

Choose two or three areas and go slowly — the Met rewards depth, not distance covered. A useful shape for a half-day: the European paintings, one ancient wing (the Egyptian galleries and the Temple of Dendur are a favorite), and one thing you know nothing about, picked at random. That last one is often what you'll remember.

This is the whole DiscoverArt idea in a building: slowness is a feature. Ten minutes with one painting beats a jog past a hundred. Sit on a bench, let your eyes adjust, and confirm the day's hours, any closed galleries, and admission details with the museum before you go — wings rotate and travel.

What's free to explore?

Much of the Met is free to explore online, right now, from anywhere. The museum's open-access collection puts hundreds of thousands of images in the public domain, which means you can wander its Van Goghs, Degas dancers, and Hokusai prints without a plane ticket.

That's a good way to plan — or to keep looking after you've left. Browse the Met's works on DiscoverArt, react to what stops you, and let the feed learn which corner of that enormous building is really yours. Start exploring here.