The history of art is full of great milestones in painting. Graphic representations that have left an indelible mark on our evolution and yes, also on our retinas.
For this reason, we wanted to collect some of the most famous paintings in the world where, surely, many are missing, but we wanted select 27 of them that are not only the best known, but also the ones we like the most.
Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’
Also known as the Gioconda, it was painted by Leonardo Da Vinci in the 16th century and has been considered the most famous painting in the world that, today, we can see in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
Gustav Klimt’s ‘The Kiss’
It is probably the best-known work of this painter that not only stands out for its symbolism, but also for its large size: an oil painting with gold and tin foil on canvas measuring 180 x 180 centimeters that he created at the beginning of the 20th century and that is currently in the Belvedere Gallery in Belvedere Palace in Vienna, Austria.
‘The Starry Night’ Vincent Van Gogh
It is a Post-Impressionist oil on canvas painted in 1889 and depicts the view from the painter’s east-facing window of his asylum room in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise. It is one of the most famous works of Van Gogh, also known for his Sunflowers, the Irises, his famous Self-Portrait and many others that we could name, but this is the one that is considered his masterpiece. It is located at the MoMA in New York.
‘The Scream’ by Edvard Munch
We continue with another painting that we all know: El Grito, of which eye, there are several versions. The original and most famous of 1893 is in the Oslo National GalleryNorway, while two other versions are in the Munch Museum in the same city and a fourth, recently sold at auction for a record price, belongs to a private collection.
Rembrandt’s ‘Anatomy Lesson’
Back in 1623, the surgeons’ guild commissioned this group portrait from a very young Rembrandt and the result could not be more magnificent where realism prevails thanks to the accuracy with which the painter depicted the muscles and tendons. It is preserved in Mauritshuis in The Hague.
‘The Arnolfini Marriage’ by Jan van Eyck
It is the masterpiece of the Flemish painter van-eyck, which has been the subject of multiple robberies, looting and other stories. It is also a painting that has a large number of interpretations and is loaded with symbolism, which makes it one of the most enigmatic pieces in the history of art. To see it we have to go to the National Gallery in London.
‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ Johannes Vermeer
Another jewel of painting is known as The Girl with a Pearl Earring or Girl with a Turban, it is one of the masterpieces of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer made between 1665 and 1667. The painting is currently in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague.
‘Las Meninas’ by Diego Velazquez
The Prado Museum in Madrid houses one of the most important paintings in our history painted by Velázquez and considered the masterpiece of the painter of the Spanish Golden Age. Las Meninas recreates the family, homely and intimate atmosphere of royalty, whose center is the portrait of the Infanta Margarita surrounded by her small court.
‘Liberty Leading the People’ by Eugene Delacroix
Then you can not miss this great representation of freedom guiding a human barricade. A work of romanticism that we can see in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
‘The Birth of Venus’ by Sandro Botticelli
Another wonder of painting is this painting by the Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli, one of the masterpieces of the Florentine master and the Italian Quattrocento that is currently in the Uffizi Museum in Florence.
Grant Wood’s ‘American Gothic’
This work is much more recent, from 1930, and it is simply great this is a representation of a couple of farmers standing in front of their house that represents American regionalism, which was not without criticism since it was assumed that the artist was only ridiculing the people. It is located at the Art Institute of Chicago.
‘The Executions of May 3’ by Francisco de Goya
And we return to Spain with a key date, May 3 in Madrid, which was captured by Francisco de Goya, capturing the struggle of the Spanish people against French domination within the framework of the May 2 uprising, at the beginning of the War of Independence. Spanish. We can see it in El Prado in Madrid.
‘Dance at the Moulin de la Galette’ by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
The Musée d’Orsay in Paris has this canvas on its walls, which is one of the most emblematic of the museum’s early stages of Impressionism. Renoir captured on-site one of the balls that were frequently held at the Moulin de la Galette, located in the Parisian district of Montmartre.
‘The bar at the Folies Bergère’ by Édouard Manet
And continuing in Paris, we have to talk about a bar at the Folies-Bergère, an impressionist bar, where everything in the painting is a reflection except for the bar and the staring waitress. Today we can see it at The Courtauld Gallery in London.
Bosch’s ‘Garden of Earthly Delights’
It is an impressive triptych, Bosch’s most complex and enigmatic creation and one that represents the destiny of humanity. One of those paintings in front of which we spend hours and hours and that we can see in the Prado Museum.
Pablo Picasso’s ‘Guernica’
Painted in Paris between the months of May and June 1937, its title alludes to the bombing of Guernica, which occurred on April 26 of that year. We can see it at the Reina Sofía National Art Center Museum.
‘The Creation of Adam’ by Michelangelo
If you go to Rome and visit the Vatican, do not forget to look at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel where the Creation of Adam is hidden, illustrating one of the nine episodes of Genesis represented there by the Tuscan artist, in which God gives him life to Adam, the first man. A marvel.
‘The Persistence of Memory’ by Salvador Dalí
Dalí’s legendary painting of soft clocks is one of those that leaves no one indifferent as it is fascinating and one of the stars of the MoMA in New York. Apparently melting clocks are an unconscious symbol of the relativity of space and time.
Magritte’s ‘Son of Man’
Another mythical contemporary painting is this one in which the surrealist Belgian painter René Magritte painted it as a self-portrait even though his face cannot be seen. It is in a private collection today.
‘The Last Supper’ by Leonardo da Vinci
Another mythical painting in the history of art is this one that has inspired hundreds of stories, books, speculations and even movies. It is a mural that Leonardo da Vinci painted between 1495 and 1498 and is located on the wall on which it was originally painted, in the refectory of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria delle Graziein Milan, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1980.
‘Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte’ by Georges Pierre Seurat
Seurat completed this, which is considered his masterpiece, in the 1880s and with which he launched the pointillist movement by portraying the monumental scene in which the artist applied millions of points of paint on his canvas. It is located at the Art Institute of Chicago.
The Raft of the Medusa by Théodore Géricault
A work full of cruelty, death and realism that, in addition, was based on a real event full of controversy. A huge oil painting that is in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
‘The Death of Marat’ by Jacques-Louis David
This work typical of neoclassicism is a classic in the history of art and the French Revolution that could not be missing from this selection. The piece shows Marat in the moments after his murder, slumped over his blood-soaked bathtub with the quill still in his hand. A painting that is worth knowing the story behind.
Claude Monet’s ‘Impression of the Rising Sun’
We could talk about its famous lilies, without a doubt, but the beauty of this image goes much further. It is kept in the Marmottan Monet Museum in Paris and was painted around 1872 representing the port of Le Havre, the city where Monet spent part of his life.
Rembrandt’s ‘The Night Watch’
Another of the most famous, important and beautiful works of the painter, a masterpiece of universal painting by Rembrandt in 1642 and where the militia of Captain Frans Banning Cocq appears at the moment in which he gives an order to his second lieutenant, indicated by the gesture of the hand and the open mouth. It is located in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (The Netherlands)
‘The Young Ladies of Avignon’ by Pablo Picasso
Although we have already seen Guernika, we could not miss this painting by Picasso with the Ladies of Avignon, a milestone in the Cubist (or proto-Cubist) style that is preserved in the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
‘Night Owls’ by Edward Hopper
And we end with this work by Hopper, which is a portrait of the loneliness of New York City where the characters silent, lost in their thoughts, where the spectators become spies of the monotony, it is incredibly embodied in each stroke. We can see it at the Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago (United States).
Photos | Unsplash and Wikipedia