This is not only paintings: alongside Ingres, Delacroix and Gerome you get photographs, illustrated books, arms and armor, textiles, ceramics and metalwork, roughly 180 objects from 12 Met departments. The argument is how Islamic art reached European dealers and rewired European design, and how artists then staged fantasies with what they collected. If you like shows that complicate their own pictures, start here.
What to expect
Four connected galleries sit between the European Paintings and Islamic Art wings, and you can enter from either side — the primary door is Gallery 453. Large Orientalist canvases hang near the actual metalwork, textiles and ceramics used to stage them. The final stretch turns to Osman Hamdi Bey, an Ottoman painter looking back at the genre from inside it.
Good to know
- Take the 4/5/6 to 86th Street; the 81st Street entrance avoids the main-steps queue.
- Enter at Gallery 453 for the intended sequence, or drift in from the Islamic Art wing for a different read.
- It sits between two permanent wings, so budget extra time to get pleasantly lost.
- New York State residents and NY/NJ/CT students can pay what they wish.
- Step-free throughout, with benches in most of the four galleries.
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Common questions
How many objects are on view?
Approximately 180, drawn from 12 Met departments along with rarely seen loans from the US and abroad.
Which artists should I look for?
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, Eugene Delacroix, Jean-Leon Gerome and the Ottoman painter Osman Hamdi Bey.
Is it only paintings?
No — it also includes drawings, photographs, illustrated books, architecture, arms and armor, textiles, garments, glassware, ceramics and metalwork.
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