My introductory note to this little volume must be no more than an extremely personal, very fractional acknowledgment of the debt I owe to Theodore Rousseau. I began my career under his wise and friendly direction in the Department of European Paintings, and it was he who taught me how to look at a work of art and how to weigh its qualities. His own responses were so sincere and his manner of teaching so clear and so kindly that I think I have never, since those early days, confronted a painting, or indeed any object of artistic worth, without adopting in my critical attitudes and in my appreciation some of his own approach. The rare men who achieve this gift for warm communication with their colleagues never really die, because they pass on so much of what they have to offer, even to minds and hearts that differ widely from their own. Although few of us who knew him have his eye, we are nevertheless more effective because of what we learned from him. And all of this was true not only of his professional guidance to judgment and criticism but also of the example he set in his sensible and gentle way of dealing with human beings. In an effort to give some tangible presence to Theodore Rousseau's ideas about art and artists and to his original and penetrating understanding of the periods that produced them, the Museum has selected from his numerous writings these five essays that seem to be especially imbued with his perception and insight. Like all his work, they are much more than conventional scholarly analyses by an art historian. He loved a wide variety of objects and with singular directness wrote of them enthusiastically and with grace.

An aristocratic, alcoholic dwarf known for his louche lifestyle, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec created art that was inseparable from his legendary life.

Initially trained as a lawyer, Matisse developed an interest in art only at age twenty-one.

To me, photography is the simultaneous recognition, in a fraction of a second, of the significance of an event as well as of a precise organization of forms which gave that event its proper expression.

Met staff reflect on artworks that were made under extraordinary circumstances, from Henri Matisse's "Jazz" to an opera by Gertrude Stein.

Each lecture in The Life and Times series delves into the unique and fascinating life of one particular masterpiece within the Metropolitan Museum's collection.

Wealthy and powerful daimyô ordered magnificent wedding trousseaus for their daughters, and these trousseaus became symbolic of the social rank and the political alliances upon which the marriages were founded.

"There are these gorgeous, sublime images, but there's also a sense of worry."