10 Most Famous Paintings of All Time

It is hard to make a selection of the world’s most famous paintings and it is particularly hard to choose the criteria on which to base the selection. However, the following 10 marvelous wonders of art are the ones you must have seen somewhere, whether it was in a commercial, or in your art history book, or, if you are among the lucky ones, at an exhibition or in a museum.

La maja desnuda (The Nude Maja)

This is oil on canvas painting by Francisco Goya which is a depiction of a nude woman lying on a bed of pillows. Goya created another painting of the same woman in the same position but dressed, named La maja vestida or the Clothed Maja. Both paintings are housed in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

This painting has an unknown history and it has raised much controversy over the years. It is not known who the model is, and there are several versions the scholars suggested even though none of them is generally accepted. One of them is that the woman depicted is in fact a composition of several women. In 1930 two sets of stamps with the Naked Maja were issued in commemoration of Goya’s work which were barred in the U.S. and all mail with those stamps was returned.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

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Girl with a Pearl Earring or in Dutch Het Meisje met de Parel is a painting by Vermeer sometimes referred to as “the Mona Lisa of the North”. It is housed in the Mauritshuis gallery in The Hague. Little is known about this painting and about Vermeer’s work in general. Tracy Chevalier wrote a novel about this painting. It’s a fictional story about a relationship between the painter and his servant whom he hired to pose for him. In 2003 a film of the same name was made based on the novel, starring Scarlett Johansson and Collin Firth.

Guernica

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This painting by Pablo Picasso was created in response to the bombing of a small Basque village Guernica during the Spanish Civil War in 1937. This is a very large painting created on a mural-size canvas. It can be seen in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. Guernica depicts the suffering of people and animals and the distraction of buildings in a setting of violence and complete chaos. The tapestry copy of Guernica is displayed on the wall at the entrance to the Security Council at the United Nations Building in New York City.

The Last Supper

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This famous painting was created by Leonardo da Vinci and it represents the scene of The Last Supper when Jesus announces that one of his Twelve Apostles would betray him. The Last Supper is a mural painting that can be seen in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan. There has been much speculation on the hidden messages and symbols that this painting represents. One of the most famous theories about its mystical background is probably the belief among some writers and historians that the person to Jesus’ right is not John the Apostle but Mary Magdalene.

Mona Lisa

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This is arguably the most famous painting of all time due to its exquisite artistic value but, in great part, also due to the fact that this is the painting most used in popular culture. A countless number of books, films, paintings, portraits, songs and parodies make reference to this Da Vinci masterpiece.

The portrait is believed to be of a Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo. It is on permanent display in the Musee de Louvre in Paris and it is the property of the French Republic. Reportedly, about 6 million people see Mona Lisa each year.

The Persistence of Memory

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This is one of the most recognizable works of Salvador Dali. Sine 1934 it has been in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. This surrealist painting depicts a melting pocket watch which represents Dali’s perception of time. Like many other Dali’s paintings, the landscapes in the background are inspired by the landscapes of Catalonia, where Dali is originally from.

The Birth of Venus

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This is the depiction of the goddess Venus, having emerged from the sea as a fully grown woman created by Sandro Botticelli, a 15th century Italian painter. It can be seen at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. There are a number of interpretations when it comes to the meaning behind this painting due to the fact that there are no documents available describing its nature. This one, like all the other paintings mentioned in this feature, is often referenced in the popular culture.

The Scream

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The Scream is the name given to all four or any of the four paintings and pastels created by a Norwegian Expressionist Edvard Munch. These four versions were created for different media and two of those four versions are paintings. One of the paintings is housed in the National Gallery in Oslo, while the other is in the collection of the Munch Museum also in Oslo. The painter once stated that he was inspired by the scenery he once saw while walking the path and observing the city on one side, and the fjord below while feeling tired and ill. Suddenly, the sky turned red and he could hear the scream of nature.

The Starry Night

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When it comes to Van Gogh paintings, almost all of his work is famous outside the art historian circles and often referenced in the popular culture. However, the Starry Night is probably one of the paintings most of us must have seen somewhere at some point in time. It depicts the view from Van Gogh’s sanatorium window situated in Southern France. In a letter to his brother, Van Gogh explained that when he painted this picture he did not make a reference to religion or romance, but to the pure country nature, purer than the suburbs and the bars of Paris. The Starry Night has been in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York since 1941.

This painting and the creative genius of Van Gogh inspired Don McLean to write the song “Vincent” also known as “Starry, Starry Night” for its opening line.

At the Moulin Rouge

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It is the world’s most famous representative of bohemian lifestyle and one of the most talented artists of all time Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec who created this self-portrait. Montmartre, Moulin Rouge, the 19th century Paris, and many more hallmarks of this period in history have contributed to the worldwide recognition of this painting. It depicts a group of people sitting around a table: French writer Edouard Dujardin, dancer La Macarona, photographer Paul Secau, Maurice Guibert, English dancer May Milton and others. In the background on the left is Toulouse-Lautrec. The painting is on display at the Art Institute of Chicago.

Cover photo: www.studyblue.com

About the author

Lisa

Lisa is a young lawyer with various interests and hobbies to keep her mind off her work at times. She is a true fan of contemporary American literature, European movies, Asian food, African Wildlife and all those little things in life that make us genuinely happy.

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