The 14 Best Art References at the 2026 Met Gala

There were a few guests who opted to dress like figures from art history, and specifically, figures from Gustav Klimt's paintings. Hunter Schafer, for example, attended the Met Gala as Mäda Primavesi, the nine-year-old subject of Klimt’s painting by the same name. Created between 1912 and 1913, the portrait depicts the daughter of patrons Otto and Eugenia Primavesi, and just so happens to be sitting in the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s permanent collection.

In order to transform into Primavesi, Schafer (with the help of her stylist Dara Allen) tapped Prada to create a linen gown with an empire waist lined with rosettes that matched the child’s own. Schafer also wore an almost identical bow in her hair, and mimicked Primavesi’s juvenile makeup with pink cheeks and blue eyeshadow smeared across her lids. That is where the similarities end for the most part. In the portrait, Primavesi wears a dress by couture designer Emilie Flöge, who was a friend of Klimt. The dress stops just under the knee in layers of ruffles, while Schafer’s deteriorated into tatters. Holes and tears emerged under the actor’s bust, and by the time the skirt reached the floor, there were merely shreds of the original fabric. But underneath the linen, flowed a floral skirt of pleated silk chiffon that created a dramatic train behind Schafer. Perhaps, the idea was that Schafer found the Flöge dress in the Primavesis’s attic over a century after Mäda sat for her portrait. Though the piece was destroyed from decades of storage, she handed it to Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons to fix it up for her to wear to the Met Gala.

Schafer wasn’t the only one inspired by Klimt’s work. Gracie Abrams, too, came as a leading lady from the Austrian artist’s mind. She seemingly referenced two of his most famous paintings: The Kiss and Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.

Matthieu Blazy designed a gorgeous, gilded Chanel dress for the singer featuring an embellished off-the-shoulder neckline and halter straps. Embroidered fabric continued the decadence while a chiffon skirt draped in chains fell to the floor. Abrams looked like she was covered in the gold leaf Klimt used generously throughout his “Golden Period,” when he painted both works.

Madame X was another popular figure at the 2026 Met Gala, and Julianne Moore, Lauren Sánchez Bezos, Claire Foy, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley all attended the event dressed in their own takes on the controversial figure.

In 1884, John Singer Sargent painted a portrait of the young socialite Virginie Amélie Avegno Gautreau titled Madame X. In the original work, Gautreau was depicted in a black dress with a dramatic, sweetheart neckline, a fitted waist, and jeweled straps. One of those straps, however, was haphazardly falling off Gautreau’s shoulder. That may seem like nothing in the era of naked dressing, but in the late 19th century, when the portrait was displayed at the Paris Salon, it was considered vulgar. The backlash was so bad that Sargent reworked the painting and altered the strap so it was securely placed on Gautreau’s shoulder. Now, Madame X, which resides in the Met, is considered the American Mona Lisa, so it’s no surprise it was referenced multiple times on the Gala’s red carpet.

Moore tapped Bottega Veneta for her recreation, wearing a simple black dress with a white strap that hung off her shoulder, while Foy went for a similar effect with her Erdem design. Sánchez Bezos, meanwhile, was the most true to Madame X’s original silhouette, and her Schiaparelli gown featured similarly jeweled straps, one of which draped her upper arm. Huntington-Whiteley, in Burberry, meanwhile, ditched the straps altogether, a concept the people of 1880s France likely wouldn’t have been able to comprehend.

Paul Delaroche’s 1833 painting, The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, already has a place in fashion history. It was the inspiration for Alexander McQueen’s fall 1999 couture collection for Givenchy. At the 2026 Met Gala, however, Zegler tapped Prabal Gurung to turn her into the painting subject: the 17-year-old Queen of England who reigned for only nine days before being beheaded for high treason.

Delaroche’s painting depicts the final moments of Grey’s life, before she was deposed and killed in 1553 at the behest of her cousin, Queen Mary I. In the painting, Grey has been partially undressed, and she’s seen wearing a while silk underdress with a lace-up corset. Gurung took direct inspiration from this ensemble, placing Zegler in a similar top, albeit with a column skirt instead of Grey’s more voluminous alternative. The pièce de résistance, however, was the Jennifer Behr eye-covering Zegler wore over her face, solidifying the connection between her look and the famous painting.

Zegler was joined on the red carpet by another attendee who Gurung dressed to look like a character straight out of a painting. The Nepalese designer also designed a look for Angela Bassett based on Laura Wheeler Waring’s 1927 work Girl in Pink Dress, which is also part of the Met’s collection. Waring was an American artist known for her portrayals of Black women during the Harlem Renaissance. Girl in Pink Dress epitomizes Waring’s work, depicting a young woman with a coiffed bob wearing a pink, flapper-style dress featuring a shoulder of flowers. Bassett’s gown is decidedly more modern with its draped bodice and a beaded skirt, but the color and addition of a flower-adorned shoulder make the inspiration very clear.

The most shocking look of the evening was undoubtedly worn by Heidi Klum. The Queen of Halloween clearly tapped her spooky season team to turn her into Raffaele Monti’s Veiled Vestal sculpture. During an interview with Ashley Graham and Cara Delevingne on the red carpet, Klum explained that she was inspired by a trip to the Met when she saw Monti’s work.

Veiled Vestal in an 1847 sculpture that depicts the Vestal Virgin. At the time, the depiction of translucent fabric was very popular in sculpture, and William Cavendish, 6th Duke of Devonshire, who commissioned the piece, requested Monti employ the technique. Upon its completion, Veiled Vestal was displayed at Cavendish's West London Chiswick House, though it was moved to Chatsworth House in 1999. If the sculpture looks familiar to you, that’s because it was featured in the 2005 film, Pride and Prejudice.

Klum’s over-the-top look was created by prosthetic makeup designer Mike Marino and is actually made of “foam and latex.” Klum insisted it wasn’t as uncomfortable as it looked. “I can sit, I can eat, I can do everything,” she said.

Klum was in good company when it came to those who recreated sculptures at the Met. There were many dressed in statuesque ensembles, including Kendall Jenner, who opted for a slightly less literal approach from GapStudio by Zac Posen.

Jenner took inspiration from Winged Victory of Samothrace, the second-century Greek statue depicting the goddess of victory. Anyone who has visited the Louvre has seen the work, as it welcomes visitors at the top of its main staircase, making it the perfect piece to embody on the Met steps.

Along with Winged Victory, Posen was also inspired by the white t-shirt, a Gap staple. He used a lightweight cotton-viscose blend as well as liquid jersey with satin-face chiffon and organza to achieve the draped look on the dress. The fabrics covered up a leather corset, created by Abel Cepeda Ljoka and Will Kowall of Seks, which peeked out at Jenner’s bust for an extra touch of sex appeal.

And while Jenner didn’t display her wings while on the carpet, she had the opportunity to do so inside, lifting her satin-faced chiffon train to reveal the gorgeous printed effect.

What is cooler than dressing up like a figure from a historic painting? Dressing up as a figure from your own painting. American artist Amy Sherald attended the Gala in a custom Thom Browne look that turned her into a young woman in what is arguably her most famous work, Miss Everything (Unsuppressed Deliverance). She wore a black dress with white polkadots down one side, and a red pompom headpiece by Esenshel. White opera gloves and a red Hector bag completed this quirky ensemble.

Sherald first painted the work in 2014, citing Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as inspiration for the piece. In 2016, Miss Everything won first in the National Portrait Gallery’s Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Just last year, the work was used for the cover of The New Yorker. It feels fitting, then, for Sherald to pay homage to this important piece in her repertoire on an evening celebrating art.

The biggest flex of all, though? Dressing like yourself from your National Portrait Gallery painting. Venus Williams did just that, showing up to the Met Gala in a Swarovski dress that seemed to jump right off Robert Pruitt’s canvas, Venus Williams, Double Portrait. The tennis player, who co-chaired the event, had Giovanna Engelbert recreate the Wimbledon-plate-inspired necklace from the painting, while also incorporating hidden symbols, which represented her family and her career as well as Black tennis history.

“It reflects not just my journey but the legacy of those who came before me—especially pioneers like Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe, who paved the way,” she told Vogue. “It felt like a personal way to connect with ‘Costume Art’—using fashion to tell a story about legacy and progress and honoring those who made it possible.”

To appreciate the inspiration for Madonna’s Saint Laurent look, one must view it from afar. As the singer ascended the Met Gala steps on May 4, she was flocked by seven women holding a large bolt of grey chiffon that emerged from her like a seven-pointed star. The effect brings to mind the 1945 work by British-born Mexican surrealist artist Leonora Carrington, The Temptation of St. Anthony.

Carrington originally painted Temptation for a competition organized by film director Albert Lewin. He tasked multiple artists, including Max Ernst and Salvador Dalí, to create their own surrealist version of the much-repeated subject, and Ernst’s depiction won the competition. In Carrington’s work, St. Anthony is the focus, but Madonna, instead, looked toward the Queen of Sheba, depicted to the right of him, with her own array of colorfully dressed helpers. Like the Queen of Sheba, Madonna held a circular trumpet as she walked the carpet to really drive home the reference.

This isn’t Madonna’s first time interpolating Carrington’s work. She was also one of several female surrealist painters that helped inspire her ‘Bedtime Stories’ video. When it was released in 1995, it was the most expensive music video of all time.

While many attendees looked to fine art for inspiration, Luke Evans went in a different direction. He wore an outfit that immediately brought to mind Finnish artist Touko Valio Laaksonen, AKA Tom of Finland, who is known for his pencil drawings depicting hypermasculine male characters. The actor wore a full burgundy leather look from Palomo covered in silver studs and finished off with a matching tie, gloves, and leather belt. A hat, created by Spanish milliners Vivas Carrión, topped off the ensemble.

While neither Beyoncé, Olivier Rousteing, nor the singer’s stylist, Ty Hunter, has confirmed it, we’re pretty sure the singer’s 2026 Met Gala look was inspired by Caroline Durieux’s 1994 work, Visitor. Durieux was a New Orleans-based artist, and any Beyoncé fan knows her connection with the city. Plus, the design of her crystal and feather-covered look mimics the skeletal figure in the lithograph. On the red carpet, Beyoncé said the ensemble was about celebrating “juicy, curvy, thin, tall” bodies, but if we were gamblers, we would say Durieux was also on the mood board.

Not every art reference at the Met was so overt. Charli XCX opted for something more subtle. The singer wore a black strapless dress by Saint Laurent, punctuated by resin irises climbing up her torso. Yves Saint Laurent was famously a big fan of Van Gogh, and for his spring/summer 1988 collection, the designer looked specifically to the Dutch painter’s famed floral paintings, Irises and Sunflowers, creating jackets embroidered with the flowers. While we can’t imagine Charli wearing the very buttoned-up outerwear, this was her way of referencing Saint Laurent, his love of art, and a famous painting, while still remaining disctinctly Charli.

On the other end of the spectrum is Ben Platt, whose inspiration was clear the second he stepped on the red carpet. Platt turned his suit into a canvas, enlisting Tanner Fletcher to hand-paint and embroider an ivory silk wool suit with a scene referencing Georges Seurat’s famous painting, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.