10 Most Famous Paintings of All Time

FOREIGN PAINTERS AND THEIR WORKS

Birth of Venus Sandro Botticelli

Created around 1485–87It depicts the goddess Venus (or Aphrodite as she is known in Greek mythology) emerging from the sea upon a shell in accordance with the myth that explains her birth.

Completed in 1486, Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus has become one of the most heralded works of the Renaissance and a lasting symbol of feminine grace and beauty.

TYPE: TEMPERA ON CANVAS

THE BIRTH OF VENUS DEPICTS SEVERAL GODS.

IT'S AN EARLY WORK ON CANVAS.

La Primavera by Botticelli

THE BIRTH OF VENUS HAS A COMPANION PIECE. 

IT'S BIGGER THAN YOU'D THINK.

Venus Rising from the Sea ('Venus Anadyomene')

IT MAY HAVE BEEN MEANT TO REPLACE A LOST MASTERPIECE. 

THE BIRTH OF VENUS MAY HAVE BEEN INSPIRED BY A POEM.

IT TOOK THE BIRTH OF VENUS CENTURIES TO FIND FAME. 

Water Lilies

Water Lilies (or Nympheas) is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet. The paintings depict Monet’s own flower garden at Giverny and were the main focus of his artistic production during the last thirty years of his life. The paintings are on display at museums all over the world. (video)

Claude Monet

WATER LILIES IS NOT ONE PAINTING BY MONET.

TYPE: OIL ON CANVAS

BEFORE HE PAINTED WATER LILIES, MONET PLANTED THEM.

THERE WOULD BE NO WATER LILIES IF MONET HAD OBEYED THE CITY COUNCIL. 

THESE PAINTINGS WERE THE FOCUS OF MONET'S LATER LIFE. 

MONET CELEBRATED THE END OF WORLD WAR I BY GIVING FRANCE WATER LILIES. 

Night Watch Rembrandt van Rijn

Completed in 1642

It depicts a city guard moving out, led by Captain Frans Banning Cocq and his lieutenant, Willem van Ruytenburch.

The painting was coated with a dark varnish which gave the incorrect impression that it depicted a night scene, leading to the name Night Watch. This varnish was removed only in the 1940s.

The painting is on display in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Completed in 1642, Rembrandt van Rijn's The Night Watch is not only a highlight of a career that spanned over 600 paintings, but also acclaimed as arguably the greatest portrait of the Dutch Baroque era. 

TYPE: OIL ON CANVAS

ITS ALTERNATE TITLES ARE MUCH LONGER AND MORE SPECIFIC. 

THE NIGHT WATCH IS NOT SET AT NIGHT. 

IT'S BIGGER THAN YOU'D THINK ... 

... WHICH MEANT THE VERSION YOU KNOW WAS EDITED. 

ITS RETURN TO PUBLIC DISPLAY WAS CELEBRATED WITH A FLASH MOB. (VIDEO)

The Scream Edvard Munch

The Scream is a series of expressionist paintings and prints by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, showing an agonized figure against a blood red sky.

The landscape in the background is Oslofjord, viewed from the hill of Ekeberg, in Oslo.

THE SCREAM ISN'T ONE PIECE, BUT FOUR.

TYPE: OIL, CRAYON, PASTEL, TEMPERA ON CARDBOARD

THE ORIGINAL NAME WAS NOT THE SCREAM.

THIEVES LEFT A MOCKING NOTE WHEN THE SCREAM WAS FIRST STOLEN.

ARMED GUNMEN STOLE THE SCREAM IN 2004.

TWO MILLION M&M'S WERE OFFERED AS A REWARD FOR ITS RETURN…

…AND IT KIND OF WORKED.

Girl with a Pearl EarringJohannes Vermeer

Sometimes referred to as “the Dutch Mona Lisa”, the Girl with a Pearl Earring was painted by Johannes Vermeer.

Very little is known about Vermeer and his works and this painting is no exception.

It isn’t dated and it is unclear whether this work was commissioned, and if so, by whom.

NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE WHO THE GIRL IS.

TYPE: TRONIE

THE GIRL MAY BE VERMEER'S DAUGHTER.

GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING ISN'T ITS ONLY NAME.

THE PAINTING ALSO HAS A NICKNAME.

THE UNCERTAINTY OF HER STORY IS A KEY TO ITS ALLURE.

Art of Painting

Young Woman with a Pearl

Necklace

VERMEER LIKELY USED THE SAME EARRING FOR ANOTHER OF HIS PAINTINGS.

Guernica Pablo Picasso

Guernica is one of Pablo Picasso most famous paintings, showing the tragedies of war and the suffering it inflicts upon individuals, particularly innocent civilians.

Picasso’s purpose in painting it was to bring the world’s attention to the bombing of the Basque town of Guernica by German bombers, who were supporting the Nationalist forces of General Franco during the Spanish Civil War.

Picasso completed the painting by mid-June 1937.  The painting can be seen in the Museo Reina Sofía in Madrid.

• ANOTHER STAGE OF GUERNICA INVOLVED COLOR.• Guernica is one of history’s most recognizable grayscale

paintings, but at one point during the piece’s development, Picasso entertained the idea of adding color to the project. He included a red teardrop sprouting from a crying woman’s eye, as well as swatches of colored wallpaper. None of these elements made the final cut.

• TYPE: OIL ON CANVAS

• ANTI-WAR MASTERPIECE

The Creation of Adam Michelangelo

The Sistine Chapel ceiling, painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512, at the commission of Pope Julius II, is one of the most renowned artworks of the High Renaissance.

Michelangelo painted the fresco ceiling of the Sistine Chapel—including the most famous panel called “The Creation of Adam,” which depicts God giving life to the first man—entirely standing up.

The artist invented a series of scaffolds specially designed to attach to the chapel walls with brackets so he and his assistants could be close enough to the ceiling to reach above their heads to work and paint.

TYPE: FRESCO

The Last Supper Leonardo da Vinci

The Last Supper is a 15th century mural painting in Milan created by Leonardo da Vinci and covers the back wall of the dining hall at the monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. It represents the scene of The Last Supper when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve Apostles would betray him. Leonardo began work on The Last Supper in 1495 and completed it in 1498 though he did not work on the painting continuously.

• IT'S BIGGER THAN YOU THINK. • Countless reproductions have been made in all sizes, but the

original is about 15 feet by 29 feet.

• YOU WON'T FIND IT IN A MUSEUM. • Although The Last Supper is easily one of the world’s most

iconic paintings, its permanent home is a convent in Milan, Italy. And moving it would be tricky, to say the least. Da Vinci painted the religious work directly (and fittingly) on the dining hall wall of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie back in 1495. 

• ALTHOUGH IT’S PAINTED ON A WALL, IT'S NOT A FRESCO. • Frescos were painted on wet plaster. But da Vinci rejected this

traditional technique for several reasons. First off, he wanted to achieve a grander luminosity than the fresco method allowed for. But the bigger problem with frescos—as da Vinci saw it—was that they demanded the painter rush to finish his work before the plaster dried.

• DA VINCI USED A BRAND NEW TECHNIQUE ON HIS FUTURE MASTERPIECE.• In order to spend all the time he needed to perfect every

detail, da Vinci invented his own technique, using tempera paints on stone. He primed the wall with a material that he hoped would accept the tempera and protect the paint against moisture. 

• RENOVATIONS ELIMINATED A PORTION OF THE LAST SUPPER.• In 1652, a doorway was added to the wall that holds the

painting. Its construction meant that a lower central chunk of the piece—which included Jesus' feet—was lost.

• TYPE: TEMPERA ON GESSO, PITCH AND MASTIC

Starry Night Vincent van GoghThe Starry Night was painted by Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh.

Starry Night is one of his most famous paintings and has become one of the most well known images in modern culture.

The painting shows the village of Saint-Rémy under a swirling sky, in a view from the asylum towards north. The cypress tree to the left was added into the composition.

• IT DEPICTS VAN GOGH’S VIEW FROM AN ASYLUM.• THE STARRY NIGHT MAY BE ABOUT MORTALITY.• The dark spires in the foreground are cypress trees, plants most

often associated with cemeteries and death. This connection gives a special significance to this van Gogh quote, "Looking at the stars always makes me dream. Why, I ask myself, shouldn't the shining dots of the sky be as accessible as the black dots on the map of France? Just as we take the train to get to Tarascon or Rouen, we take death to reach a star."

• VAN GOGH SOLD ONLY ONE OR TWO PAINTINGS IN HIS LIFE—AND NEITHER WAS THE STARRY NIGHT.• THE LIGHTS OF THE STARRY NIGHT SEEM TO FLICKER BECAUSE OF HOW THE HUMAN BRAIN WORKS. • The video explains how van Gogh's painting is an accurate

depiction of turbulence, "one of the most supremely difficult concepts nature has ever brought before mankind.“ (video)

• TYPE: OIL ON CANVAS

Mona Lisa Leonardo da Vinci

The most famous painting of all time, the Mona Lisa was painted by Leonardo da Vinci during the Renaissance in Florence.

He began painting the Mona Lisa in 1503 or 1504 and finished it shortly before he died in 1519.

The painting is named for Lisa del Giocondo, a member of a wealthy family of Florence.

In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen by Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian patriot who believed the Mona Lisa should be returned to Italy. After having kept the painting in his apartment for two years, Peruggia was finally caught when he attempted to sell it to the directors of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

Today, the Mona Lisa hangs again in the Louvre in Paris where 6 million people see the painting each year.

• "MONA LISA" IS NOT HER NAME.• The painting’s subject is Lisa Gherardini, whose wealthy—and

presumably adoring—husband Francesco Del Giocondo commissioned the work. This explains the less prevalent title for this painting, La Gioconda. The name Mona Lisa (or Monna Lisa, as the Italians prefer) roughly translates to "My Lady Lisa.“

• SHE'S SMALLER THAN YOU MIGHT THINK.• Mona Lisa's influence in culture is massive, but the oil-on-wood

panel painting measures just 30 by 21 inches and weighs 18 pounds.

• HER EYEBROWS ARE A MATTER OF DEBATE.• Some claim the subject’s lack of eyebrows is representative of

high-class fashion of the time. Others insist her AWOL eyebrows are proof that Mona Lisa is an unfinished masterpiece. But in 2007 ultra detailed digital scans of the painting revealed da Vinci had painted on eyebrows and bolder eyelashes. Both had simply faded over time or had fallen victim to years of restoration work.

• THE PAINTING SITS IN THE WORLD'S PRETTIEST PRISON.• Mona Lisa gets her own room at the Louvre, one that is climate

controlled to keep her in the ideal environment. Additionally, the work is encased in bulletproof glass to prevent threat and injury.

• PABLO PICASSO WAS A SUSPECT IN THE CAPER.• Because he'd been caught buying stolen Louvre pieces before, Picasso was brought in for questioning. But the true thief would not be caught until 1913.• TYPE: OIL ON POPLAR

References• http://www.touropia.com/most-famous-paintings/• http://mentalfloss.com/