Works of art on motherhood at the Met

See a collection of Mary Cassatt's artwork

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's digital collection includes 15 of Cassatt's works, including several iconic watercolors, like "Portrait of the Artist" and "Mother Playing with Child." Alongside them, you can read helpful contextual information assembled by Cassatt scholar H Barbara Weinberg.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, explained

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, founded in 1870, houses 1.5 million works spanning centuries—from ancient Egyptian artifacts to impressionist masterpieces. Its iconic Fifth Avenue building, designed by architect Richard Morris Hunt, and tranquil Cloisters location reflect its dedication to showcasing global creativity.

What to see at the Met

With hundreds of thousands of objects on display at any given time, how do you decide what to see at the Met? This video tour from Behind the Masterpiece walks through some of the museum’s most popular and interesting works, like the ancient Temple of Dendur and John Singer Sargent's 'Portrait of Madame X', explaining their cultural context and why they’ve captivated visitors for so many years.

A photographer's long-lost collection of images of mothers

Professional photographer Ken Heyman discovered a 50-year-old box of photos labeled "Mothers" in his storage unit, with images depicting various mothers with their children in touching, candid scenes. Check out the finest of the group with this gallery.

See Salvador Dalí's art at MoMA

The Museum of Modern Art in New York City hosts some of Dalí's most recognizable works, including "The Persistence of Memory," pictured below, and its famous melting clocks. MoMA acquired the painting in 1934, after it became a sensation in 1932.

The latest data on US motherhood

Here’s a snapshot of what motherhood looks like in the U.S. today, drawn from government data and Pew Research Center surveys. The list includes seven headline statistics with visual graphs, including the average age of a mother's first childbirth...

Reflections on lesser-known objects at the Met

Nate DiMeo’s podcast The Memory Palace tells the stories hidden beneath the surface of familiar people and places. In 2016, he was named the Met’s Artist in Residence. While there, he produced eight episodes about the museum, exploring its lesser-known objects and lore. Check out the first of the series here.

Experience Maya culture through art—both ancient and modern

This gallery showcases how Maya culture endures through both ancient monuments and modern artistic expressions, tracing visual traditions from pre-Columbian carvings and murals to contemporary works created by Maya artists.

The dark side of museum collections

Using the example of a sacred Nepali religious object that was stolen from a village in the 1980s and which later appeared in the Met’s collection, this article looks at the controversies that have swirled around some of the museum’s pieces. In addition to the Nepali statue, the piece outlines decades of questionable collection practices––some of which are clear-cut cases of theft.

Pictures of paintings: a virtual art museum

If you can't get to the art museum, maybe try bringing the art museum to you. This independent project presents photographs of select classic, public-domain paintings in an interactive format so you can get the full museum effect from home. Note:...

The history of Mother's Day in the US

Mother’s Day is a holiday honoring motherhood that is observed in different forms throughout the world. Learn about the origins of the official holiday in the US with this in-depth breakdown of the holiday, from the 19th-century women's movement to the commercialization of Mother's Day sales.

MoMA hosted 1962's 'Symposium on Pop Art,' which made the term 'pop art' official

MoMA's history with pop art and its conceptual roots extends to its early origins, and its collection of works includes iconic works like Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans" and Lichtenstein's "Drowning Girl."

The world's most famous portraits

"Afghan Girl" (1984), "Migrant Mother" (1936), and Marilyn Monroe in a billowing skirt (1954) are among the most famous portraits of all time. Capturing both unbelievable tragedy and delight, these 15 images are some of the most captivating in human history.

Met Gala fashion over the decades

Check out the wildest, most impressive Met Gala looks of past decades. This video covers notable outfits from every year of the event. From themes like “The Eighteenth-Century Woman” to First Lady Jackie Kennedy Onassis to the many looks of Rihanna, the video walks viewers through every stitch and sequin. An inside look into just what makes the Met Gala one of the most important fashion events of the year.

Marina Abramović wanted to create a shared consciousness between audience and performer in ‘The Artist Is Present’

The HBO documentary follows the preparation and execution of Abramović’s 2010 MoMA show, taking a deeper look into the emotional experience. Performing was both physically and emotionally taxing for the artist, and visitors were often moved to tears while connecting with her. (This resource contains some artistic nudity.)

One Martin Wong painting contains a secret homage to graffiti culture

After the Metropolitan Museum of Art acquired painter Martin Wong's "Houston Street," they discovered there was another work on the back of the canvas that featured contributions from some of the luminaries of the 1980s New York graffiti scene.

How Monet’s paintings changed the way we see London

Between 1899 and 1901, legendary French Impressionist painter Claude Monet produced over 100 paintings of London consistently shrouded in fog. Art historians claim this series left a permanent mark on how we perceive the capital city, inevitably layered in obscuring and dramatic mist. See some of the paintings and read more here.

Why art history is filled with miserable brides

Paintings from the 19th century are filled with unhappy brides. The women are often visibly disturbed by their pending nuptials, sometimes even during the wedding ceremony. This Artnet article unpacks four famous examples of this trend, analyzing how and why the respective artists portrayed these disappointed figures.

Mary Cassatt's mural from the 1893 World's Fair mysteriously disappeared

The massive mural was called "Modern Woman" and was displayed in the Woman's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition, better known as the Chicago World's Fair. When the fair closed in October of that year, the mural was put into storage, but it later went missing. It hasn't been located since. All that remains are black and white photos of it, like the one below.

Explore Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings of New York

While the artist is most commonly associated with painting natural landscapes, specifically in the American Southwest, O’Keeffe also captured the industrial world while living in New York City. Her time in New York played a crucial role in establishing her reputation in the art world.

Calculate the salary of a mother's work

While traditional parenting roles are changing, mothers do a ton of work at home, from cleaning and cooking to managing household finances. This quick calculator estimates the salary a mother (or caregiver) should receive based on number of...

See 16 art pieces that were inspired by or evoke elements of top phobias

CBC News informally polled readers about their fears and then found works of art either inspired by or nodding to those topics.

How metaphors shape the way we think

A metaphor is often viewed as a form of art, deployed only in special circumstances to help an audience grasp something complex or unique. But metaphors are far more fundamental than that, shaping much of how we think about our relationship to others and the world. This article explores how a focus on the metaphors we use can clarify and strengthen our thinking. Learn more here.

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

View a collection of digital museum resources about the Apollo program

Created by the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, this collection includes detailed biographies of astronauts and scientists who worked on the program and interactive features on the technologies that made it possible.

See a day in the life of an Aztec midwife

This illustrated story follows Xoquauhtli, a midwife in the Aztec Empire, as she juggles childbirth duties during the festival of Teteoinnan, navigating the tension between professional responsibility and participation in the empire’s religious ceremonies, including ritual sacrifice.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

Mid-century modern graphic designers, known for their bright colors and bold lines in advertising, also found success with children's books.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

Graffiti dates back to at least ancient Pompeii, where citizens scrawled messages to one another on public walls

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Use this tool to calculate the dollar value of your parental mental load, from meal planning to coordinating after-school care, then see resources that help generate solutions.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

See a 3D reconstruction of Tenochtitlan, the Aztec capital that was home to an estimated population of 200,000 to 400,000.

Dorothy's famous entrance into Oz in 'The Wizard of Oz' relied on analog tricks, including a body double and sepia-toned paint, as much as it did on technology

Tattoos remain visible on your skin thanks to immune cells called macrophages

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

A 2019 Facebook event called on attendees to "Storm Area 51, They Can't Stop All of Us," resulting in countless memes, the creation of a music festival, and eventually the arrests of those who did try to approach the area.

Cultural norms about how to handle the bodies of loved ones in communities in West Africa have hampered Ebola responses.

The Nasdaq's 'Magnificent 7' companies are responsible for roughly 40% of the Nasdaq 100 index's gains, while the remaining 93 companies account for the other 60%.