Just a little something about me.
Kathryn Calley Galitz is a scholar of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century French art. At The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Galitz has organized international exhibitions on artists including Chassériau, Girodet, and Turner. She was a member of the curatorial team awarded Best Historical Show 2008 by the International Association of Art Critics for Gustave Courbet.
Dr. Galitz is a frequent lecturer, has appeared on radio and television, and has been a fellow at the Hermitage Museum, The Attingham Trust (Summer School and Royal Collection Studies), and the Art Institute of Chicago. She is the author the bestselling The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Masterpiece Paintings (Skira Rizzoli, 2016), which explores 5,000 years of painting and features some of The Met’s most important works. Her latest book, How to Read Portraits (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2024), explores the meaning of portraiture across time and cultures—from mummy portraits to realism to abstraction. Dr. Galitz has also authored numerous works on Neoclassical painting, including “The Family Paradigm in French Painting, 1789-1814,” “Jacques-Louis David’s Portrait of Comtesse Vilain XIIII and her Daughter,” and “François Gérard: Portraiture, Scandal, and the Art of Power in Napoleonic France” (Metropolitan Museum Bulletin, 2013).
Kathryn Calley Galitz received her Ph.D. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, and earned her M.A. from Williams College and B.A. from Smith College. She was a visiting professor of art history at New York University and has taught at Hunter College, CUNY. She serves as Vice President of the Board of Directors for American Friends of Attingham and as President Elect of the Alumni Advisory Council, Institute of Fine Arts, NYU.
