The Met at 150: 5,000 Years of Art about Theater

The Metropolitan Museum of Art was founded 150 years ago today, April 13, 1870, by an act of the New York State Legislature, which makes it a good day to sift through its vast online collection to present artwork about theater and actors. The work below was created by such familiar painters and sculptures as Picasso, Renoir, Degas, Seurat, Toulouse-Lautrec, and also by artists going back thousands of years, whose names are lost to history. Click on any photograph to see it enlarged and read the caption.

Happy Birthday, Met. Eager to see you reopen when it’s safe to do so.

Kabuki actor around 1849

Marble disk with two theater masks in relief, 3rd quarter of 1st century A.D. Roman,

Allen & Ginter (American, Richmond, Virginia) Edwin Booth, from the Actresses and Celebrities series (N60, Type 1) promoting Little Beauties Cigarettes for Allen & Ginter brand tobacco products, 1887 American, Albumen photograph; Sheet: 2 3/8 × 1 1/2 in. (6 × 3.8 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, The Jefferson R. Burdick Collection, Gift of Jefferson R. Burdick (63.350.202.60.13) http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/422317

Georges Seurat (French, Paris 1859–1891 Paris) Circus Sideshow (Parade de cirque), 1887–88 Oil on canvas; 39 1/4 x 59 in. (99.7 x 149.9 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Stephen C. Clark, 1960 (61.101.17) http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/437654

The Actor by Pablo Picasso, 1904-05

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (French, Albi 1864–1901 Saint-André-du-Bois) The Coiffure: Playbill for the Théâtre Libre, 1893 French, Lithograph printed in color, on japan paper; 19-11/16 x 13 in. (50.0 x 32.99 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Bequest of Scofield Thayer, 1982 (1984.1203.140) http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/334380

The Civilians performing in the Petrie Court Cafe on September 12, 2014, as part of their year-long theater in residency at the Met..

An actor in terra-cotta from early 4th century BCE

Costumes de Théâtre, Saïgon, Cochinchine 1866

Two men dueling on a stage in front of an audience, illustration for ‘Teatro Infantil de Juan Tendrio,’ published by Antonio Vanegas Arroyo, 1880-1910

The Actor Rouvière in the Role of Hamlet, Recoiling Before the Ghost 1866. The composition was designed for the tomb of the actor Philibert Rouvière in Montmarte Cemetery in Paris. The tomb relief was subsequently stolen. In this cast from the Barbedienne foundry, Préault’s signature was effaced and replaced with that of the much later sculptor Dalou.

Theater costume design for warrior with a dagger and gun 1926

Noh Costume (Nuihaku) with Ivy, Incense Wrappers, and Bamboo Blinds first half of the 18th century.. Elegant nuihaku, like this one, were worn wrapped around the waist as outer garments, mostly by actors playing female roles. On stage, actors could take advantage of the light-reflecting qualities of the applied metallic leaf.

Theater District at Dawn on Opening Day of the Kabuki Season ca. 1780 Utagawa Toyoharu Like Broadway in New York, the Sakaichō and Fukiyachō quarters were the center of Edo’s theater district, which was particularly lively on the night of kaomise, the opening ceremony of the Kabuki season.

The Actress Ellen Andrée 1879 Edgar Degas

The Old Actress 1926 by Max Beckmann

Actress Tilla Durieux (Ottilie Godeffroy, 1880–1971) 1914 Auguste Renoir

The Irish actress Elizabeth Farren made her London debut in 1777 as Kate Hardcastle in Oliver Goldsmith’s She Stoops to Conquer. She was at the height of her career when this canvas was exhibited in 1790. Seven years later, she married the twelfth earl of Derby.