Famous paintings

1.

CLAUDE MONET  - Impression sunrise - 1872

He was a founder of French impressionist painting. Monet's ambition of documenting the French countryside led him to adopt a method of painting the same scene many times in order to capture the changing of light and the passing of the seasons. 

2.

JAN VERMEER Girl with a pearl earring - 1665

Considered by many to be “the Dutch Mona Lisa” or the “Mona Lisa of the North”, this beautiful painting by the Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer features, well… a girl with a pearl earring. The painting was completed around 1665 and is on display in the Mauritshuis Gallery in the Hague, the Netherlands. He specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He evidently was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings.

3.

GUSTAV KLIMT   The kiss - 1908

The Kiss is a realistic yet geometric depiction of a kissing couple. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body.He was the most influenced by Japanese art and its methods.

Where: Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna (Austria)

Oils and golden leaves

4.

SANDRO BOTTICELLI The birth of Venus 1485

He was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. 

5.

EDVARD MUNCH  The scream - 1893

The Scream exists in four versions: two pastels (1893 and 1895) and two paintings (1893 and 1910). There are also several lithographs of The Scream (1895 and later). It has been widely interpreted as representing the universal anxiety of modern man. Munch wrote of how the painting came to be: "I was walking down the road with two friends when the sun set; suddenly, the sky turned as red as blood. I stopped and leaned against the fence, feeling unspeakably tired. Tongues of fire and blood stretched over the bluish black fjord. My friends went on walking, while I lagged behind, shivering with fear. Then I heard the enormous, infinite scream of nature."

Where: National Gallery, Oslo

Value: $123 mln. The Scream was once stolen and the thieves left a note "Thanks for the poor security." 

It was painted using oil and pastel on cardboard.

6.

LEONARDO DA VINCI The last supper - 1498

Located on the ceiling of The Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, Rome. The Creation Of Adam was painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512 and it is just one of nine scenes from the book of Genesis that are painted on the center of the ceiling of the chapel.

7.

PIERRE AUGUSTE RENOIR Dancing at the Moulin de la Galette - 1876

Value: $143 mln.
8.

SALVADOR DALI The persistence of memory - 1930

Where: Museum of Modern Art, New York, the USA

The Persistence of Memory is one of the most recognizable pieces in art history. This work of art is known to make people ponder on their way of life and the way they spend their time, and it is also thought that this wonderful painting was inspired by Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity.

9.

WASSILY KANDINSKY Composition VIII - 1923

He was a Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting one of the first recognised purely abstract works.

10.

VINCENT van GOGH "Portrait de L’Artiste Sans Barbe" 

This painting by Van Gogh is an interesting piece because it shows the artist without his beard. It is also one of the few paintings sold by Van Gogh, and it fetched a whopping $71.5 million in 1998, making it one of his most expensive paintings ever sold.

11. 

PABLO PICASSO "The Portrait of Dora Maar"

Pablo Picasso is one of the most accomplished Spanish painter, and his skill is most evident in this painting. He is the founder of a style called Cubism that shows the same picture from different angles. This picture is about a woman’s face, believed to that of Picasso’s lover, shown from different angles, thereby marking the first of many paintings in cubism style.

12. 

JOHN CONSTABLE "The Hay Wain" 

Oil on canvas. 

He was an English Romantic painter. Although his paintings are now among the most popular and valuable in British art, Constable was never financially successful. "The Hay Wain"  hangs in the National Gallery in London and is regarded as "Constable's most famous image" and one of the greatest and most popular English paintings.

13. 

PAUL GAUGUIN"Two Tahitian Women"

He was a French post-Impressionist artist. Gauguin's art became popular after his death. 

14. 

PAUL CEZANNE "The Basket of Apples"

Cezanne is considered the greatest master of still life painting and this is one of his most important works in the genre. It is also noted for the beautifully painted unbalanced parts and the fruits which are about to fall from the table.