Videos

With rarely seen architectural drawings, period photographs, and significant rare books and manuscripts from Morgan’s collection, this exhibition traces the design, construction, and early life of J. Pierpont Morgan’s Library.

Maurice Ravel’s Bolero started out as a ballet score commissioned by dancer Ida Rubenstein. Her troupe danced the composition's first performance at the Paris Opera in 1928. It was an instant hit. Our Assistant Curator of Music Manuscripts and Printed Music Robinson McClellan has more on this iconic piece of music.

Set on one day, 16 June 1904, James Joyce’s Ulysses follows the young poet Stephen Dedalus and the unlikely hero Leopold Bloom as they journey through Dublin. The groundbreaking novel links the epic to the ordinary, connecting characters and motifs from Homer’s ancient Greek poem the Odyssey with life in the Irish city that created Joyce.

Our multiyear restoration project restored the exterior of one of the finest examples of Neoclassical architecture in the United States and the historic heart of the Morgan.

The lionesses that flank the original entrance to our Library building were created by the acclaimed sculptor, Edward Clark Potter, who also created the lions at the entrance of the NYPL.

The Morgan will be seen in a new light! An important part of our project to restore the 1906 McKim, Mead, & White-designed library and improve the site surrounding it is a lighting design by New York City-based lighting designer Linnaea Tillett.

This symposium will feature presentations from an international group of experts, focusing on Holbein’s varied contributions to the development of sixteenth-century art. Held Friday, May 6, 2022.

The ornate brass and wooden doors to our J. Pierpont Morgan Library received a deep cleaning and much needed repairs as part of our restoration project. At the beginning of the project, they were removed from the building and sent to the Art Conservation Group in Long Island City to remove the dirt that has accumulated on the surface of the doors for over a century.

Sicilian artisan Orazio Porto comes from a family of artisans known for their work using the 2,800 year old Roman method of laying pebble pavements for generations.

As part of the second phase of a $12.6 million restoration project, this new outdoor space will add a new layer to our campus. It will enable visitors to experience the jewel of our campus—J. Pierpont Morgan’s library—from a different view.

Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait of Sir Thomas More, painted in 1527, is one of the pinnacles of the artist’s career. Xavier F. Salomon, Deputy Director and Peter Jay Sharp Chief Curator, The Frick Collection, explores the friendship between artist and sitter. Presented in conjunction with the exhibition Holbein: Capturing Character. Held Thursday, March 17, 2022.

In conjunction with Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, 800–1500, Sharon Liberman Mintz, Curator of Jewish Art at The Library of The Jewish Theological Seminary, and Adam S. Cohen, Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Toronto, will consider the production, use, decoration, and meaning of Hebrew illuminated books made in Central Europe between the thirteenth and sixteenth centuries

Listen to George Condo in conversation with Isabelle Dervaux, Acquavella Curator of Modern & Contemporary Drawings, to learn more about Condo's practice and the drawings in this recent acquisition.

The author of more than three thousand folk songs, Woody Guthrie (1912–1967) is one of the most influential songwriters and recording artists in American history.

Take a closer look at three touching, humanist drawings by Rembrandt (1606–1669) in the Morgan's collection. John Pierpont Morgan loved Rembrandt. He owned 500 prints by Rembrandt, and in 1909 acquired his first drawings by the artist.

This exhibition celebrates the life and work of American poet Gwendolyn Brooks (1917–2000). Though Brooks is generally well-known for her poetry, few recognize her expansive social and political impact.

This popular lunchtime series features some of the most exciting young musicians performing today. Join pianist Harmony Zhu performing Frédéric Chopin's Fantaisie in F minor, Op. 49, followed by the rarely heard Bedřich Smetana's Piano Trio in G minor, Op. 15 featuring cellist Jonathan Swensen and violinist Paul Huang. Held Wednesday, February 16, 2022.

To celebrate the exhibition Van Eyck to Mondrian: 300 Years of Collecting in Dresden, join distinguished cellist and director of the Dresden Music Festival Jan Vogler, and accomplished violinist Mira Wang, in highlights of a concert featuring Alessandro Rolla's Duo for violin and cello in B-flat Major, Johann Sebastian Bach's Suite No. 3 for cello solo in C Major, BWV 1009, and Hanns Eisler's Duet for violin and cello, Op. 7/1 (1924). Held Thursday, November 18, 2021.

Listen to violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins play a piece by Fritz Kreisler from 1911. Fritz Kreisler dedicated this piece to the virtuoso Belgian violinist and composer Eugène Ysaÿe.

Listen to Roger S. Wieck, the Melvin R. Seiden Curator and Department Head of Medieval & Renaissance Manuscripts share his insights on the Hours of Catherine of Cleves.

Celebrate the opening of the exhibition Van Eyck to Mondrian: 300 Years of Collecting in Dresden with Stephanie Buck, Director of the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett, who explores the history of the Dresden collection and share insights into a number of exceptional drawings on view in the exhibition.

Held Friday, October 22, 2021.

Building on the Morgan’s tradition of presenting to the American public distinguished works from outstanding institutions abroad, Van Eyck to Mondrian: 300 Years of Collecting in Dresden focuses on the exceptional drawing collection of the Kupferstich-Kabinett, Dresden.

Join Jeffrey F. Hamburger, exhibition co-curator and the Kuno Francke Professor of German Art & Literature in the Department of the History of Art & Architecture at Harvard University, for a lecture to celebrate the opening ofImperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, ca. 800–1500.

Imperial Splendor: The Art of the Book in the Holy Roman Empire, ca. 800–1500, offers a sweeping overview of manuscript production in the Holy Roman Empire, one of the most impressive chapters in the history of medieval art.

In 2018 the Morgan acquired eleven drawings from the Souls Grown Deep Foundation, an organization dedicated to supporting Black Southern artists and their communities.

A wonderful lineup of leading musicians perform Igor Stravinsky's iconic work L’Histoire du soldat, Wynton Marsalis' updated parable A Fiddler's Tale, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich's Romance for violin and piano featuring Tai Murray. The concert was recorded in the Morgan’s Gilder Lehrman Hall and is presented in cooperation with the Library of Congress Music Division. Held Friday, October 8, 2021.

Jack Whitten was one of the most innovative artists to emerge in the second half of the twentieth century. In this video, Rachel Federman, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Drawings, takes a look at Whitten's "Dispersal 'A' #2," a work emblematic of the type of experimentation associated with the groundbreaking artist.

Long before becoming one of the most celebrated figures in the history of science, Sir Isaac Newton (1642–1727) kept this pocket-sized memorandum book, filling it with notes distilled from his reading.

Did you know that Vincent van Gogh was an inveterate letter writer? In 2007 the Morgan acquired a set of letters by the post-Impressionist artist Van Gogh written to friends. Hear our Director Colin B. Bailey explain why these are some of the most moving and precious objects in our collection.