Hit the Books: Explore New and Beloved Met Store Reads

The Met Store's vast assortment of art books includes everything you need to brush up on your art history; dive deep into an artist, style, or era that interests you; explore a Museum show that you loved (or missed); or simply bring the beauty of art into your home. 

From coffee table books to exhibition catalogues, Met reads make perfect gifts for art lovers on any occasion. Below, shop a selection of bestsellers, new arrivals, and must-haves.

Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature

This full-color catalogue is presented concurrently with Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature, the first comprehensive exhibition dedicated to the artist in the United States. Held at The Met Fifth Avenue from February 8 to May 11, 2025, the show celebrates the 250th anniversary, in 2024, of Friedrich's birth. 

Friedrich (German, 1774–1840) reimagined European landscape painting by portraying nature as a setting for profound spiritual and emotional encounters. Working in the vanguard of the German Romantic movement, which championed a radical new understanding of the bond between nature and the inner self, Friedrich developed pictorial subjects and strategies that emphasize the individuality, intimacy, open-endedness, and complexity of our responses to the natural world. The vision of the landscape that unfolds in his art—meditative, mysterious, and full of wonder—is still vital today.

Monstrous Beauty: A Feminist Revision of Chinoiserie 

Coming soon to The Met Store, this eye-catching catalogue—produced alongside The Met’s exhibition of the same name, on view from March 25 to August 17, 2025—radically reimagines the story of European porcelain through a feminist lens. 

When porcelain arrived in early modern Europe from China, it led to the rise of chinoiserie, a decorative style that encompassed Europe’s fantasies of the East and fixations on the exotic, along with new ideas about women, sexuality, and race. This fragile material subsequently shaped both European women’s identities and racial and cultural stereotypes around Asian women. Shattering the illusion of chinoiserie as a neutral, harmless fantasy, Monstrous Beauty adopts a critical glance at the historical style and its afterlives, recasting negative terms through a lens of female empowerment. 

Sargent and Paris

Coinciding with The Met’s exhibition Sargent and Paris, on view from April 27 through August 3, 2025, this book (coming soon) explores the early career of John Singer Sargent (American, 1856–1925), from his arrival in Paris in 1874 as an 18-year-old art student through the mid-1880s, when his infamous portrait Madame X (1883–84) was a scandalous success at the Paris Salon. Over the course of one extraordinary decade, Sargent achieved recognition by creating boldly ambitious portraits and figure paintings that pushed the boundaries of conventionality. Sargent and Paris gathers diverse works from this period to illuminate his path to becoming an artist, which was indelibly shaped by his experiences in the French capital. These visually stunning images provide a compelling view of the Paris art world in the late 19th century. 

Superfine: Tailoring Black Style

The Costume Institute’s spring 2025 exhibition presents a cultural and historical examination of the Black dandy, from the figure’s emergence in Enlightenment Europe during the 18th century to today’s incarnations in cities around the world. Coming soon to The Met Store, Superfine: Tailoring Black Style delves into The Met’s exhibition, on view from May 10 through October 25, 2025. 

Inspired by Guest Curator Monica L. Miller’s 2009 book Slaves to Fashion: Black Dandyism and the Styling of Black Diasporic Identity, the exhibition explores the importance of sartorial style to the formation of Black identities in the Atlantic diaspora. Historically, the term dandy was used to describe someone—often a man—who is extremely devoted to style and approaches it as a discipline. Dandyism was initially imposed on Black men in 18th-century Europe as the Atlantic slave trade and an emerging culture of consumerism created a trend of fashionably dressed, or dandified, servants. Dandyism offered Black people an opportunity to use clothing, gesture, irony, and wit to transform their given identities and imagine new ways of embodying political and social possibilities. Superfine tells the Black dandy’s story over time through a range of media, such as garments and accessories, drawings and prints, and paintings, photographs, film excerpts, and more. Taken together, these narratives offer a history and description of Black dandyism as a discrete phenomenon that reflects broader issues of power and race in the Black diaspora.

Find the full list of upcoming Met exhibitions here.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings

This monumental book celebrates the greatest and most iconic paintings in The Met’s holdings. Its broad sweep of material makes it at once a universal history of painting and the ideal introduction to the beloved masterworks of this world-renowned institution. Lavish color illustrations and details of 500 masterpieces, created over 5,000 years by cultures across the globe, are presented chronologically, from the dawn of civilization to the present. These works represent a grand tour of painting: from ancient Egypt and classical antiquity to prized Byzantine and medieval altarpieces; from works from Asia, India, Africa, and the Americas to the greatest European and North American masters. This unprecedented book includes an introduction and illuminating texts about each artwork. 

For those wishing to experience the unparalleled collection of The Met, or to study masterpieces of painting from throughout history, this important volume is sure to become a classic, cherished work.

ART IS…

With over 180 works from The Met collection, ART IS... looks at art with short, concise observation, reflections, and reactions. Because there are no absolute explanations, readers are encouraged to observe, debate, and develop their own definitions of art. This engaging book offers nearly 200 illustrated definitions of art, all presented as simple, concise observations and reactions. Reaching across time and form, from ancient statues to medieval tapestries to Baroque instruments to Impressionist paintings to contemporary costumes, the selected works represent the Museum's vast collection, and are sure to inspire both novice and seasoned art lovers to create their own definitions of art.

The Met’s How to Read Series

From European armor to Islamic carpets and Chinese ceramics, the Museum’s popular How to Read series is perfect for the art-curious bookworm. Met scholars from across curatorial departments illuminate how to interpret artworks within their areas of expertise.

The Unicorn Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Written by one of the world's leading authorities on medieval textiles, The Unicorn Tapestries is an essential book for anyone interested in art from the Middle Ages. It traces the origins of the seven so-called Unicorn Tapestries at The Met Cloisters, as well as possible interpretations of their enigmatic meanings. These exquisite tapestries were likely woven in the southern Netherlands from French cartoons between 1495 and 1505. The imaginatively conceived scenes, which display individualized faces and naturalistically depict the flora and fauna of the landscape, are beautifully captured in silk, wool, and metal yarns. Today, the tapestries are regarded among the most beautiful and complex extant artworks from the late Middle Ages.

100 Dresses

This book presents 100 fabulous gowns from the permanent collection of The Met’s Costume Institute. Featuring designs by Coco Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Gianni Versace, Vivienne Westwood, Alexander McQueen, and many others, this one-of-a-kind collection presents a stunning variety of garments. Ranging from the buttoned-up gowns of the late 17th century to the cutting-edge designs of the early 21st century, these dresses reflect the sensibilities and excesses of each era while providing a vivid picture of how styles have changed—sometimes radically—over the years. 

Vogue & The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute

The Costume Institute's annual fashion exhibition is the most prestigious of its kind—the show's opening-night gala, produced in collaboration with Vogue magazine, is regularly referred to as the party of the year, and draws a glamorous A-list crowd. Each exhibition—from 2005's Chanel to 2011's Alexander McQueen: Savage Beauty and 2012's Schiaparelli and Prada: Impossible Conversations—creates a provocative and engaging narrative drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors. This updated and expanded edition of Vogue & The Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute includes material from 2015's China: Through the Looking Glass, 2018's Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination (the most visited exhibition in the Museum's history), and 2019's Camp: Notes on Fashion. 

The Met Board Books

Immerse your little ones in the enriching world of art with our board books published in collaboration with DK. Available individually and as a set, The Met Colors: A Colorful Book of Art, The Met Black and White: A High Contrast Book of Art, The Met 123: A Counting Book of Art, and The Met ABC: An Alphabet Book of Art board books teach both observational and memory skills through fun activities, and introduce young kids to beloved artworks in The Met collection.

The Met 5000 Years of Awesome Objects

Kids of all ages can explore The Met from the comfort of home. Each page in this book brings you closer to the past as you learn about the people of different cultures and ages through the artworks they left behind. This book combines exclusive Met photography with colorful, quirky illustrations in a resource that parents can trust, with a design that kids will love.

What the Artist Saw

This charming illustrated series considers what inspired famous artists, from Frida Kahlo to Vincent van Gogh, and encourages the creation of new works.

My Met Sticker Collection

Kids can curate their very own art collections with this sticker book featuring treasures in The Met collection. From dancers to dragons, masks to mummies, this interactive book of over 200 stickers brings marvelous Met masterpieces to life. My Met Sticker Collection is the perfect introduction to the world of art, history, and culture for children ages 6 and above, who will learn fun facts about spectacular paintings, amazing artifacts, and world-famous sculptures and the artists behind them.

The Met Dress-Up Paper Dolls

Published in partnership with The Met's Costume Institute, this book guides young readers through 170 years of fashion, from the 1880s to the present day. Learn about key moments in fashion history through lavishly illustrated scenes, must-know facts, and highlights from select designers represented in the Costume Institute's collection. Then, turn to the back of the book to press out and play with three paper dolls, complete with 14 stylish outfits to dress them up in.

Shop more books online and at Met Store locations around the Museum.