See the exhibition before it closes on Sunday! From the decade before the Revolution to the eve of World War I, many of America’s most celebrated painters captured in their finest works the spirit of their respective eras. They recorded and defined the emerging character of Americans as individuals, citizens, and members of ever-widening communities. American Stories: Paintings of Everyday Life, 1765–1915 brings together for the first time more than 100 of these iconic pictures that tell compelling stories of life’s tasks and pleasures. The first overview of the subject in more than 35 years, the exhibition includes works from the Met’s own collection, along with loans from leading museums and private lenders.

Image: Mary Cassatt, 1844–1926. A Woman and a Girl Driving, 1881. Philadelphia Museum of Art, Purchased with the W. P. Wilstach Fund, 1921 (W1921-1-1). Photograph by Graydon Wood