Exploring Art History: The Stories Behind Famous Paintings and Their Creators

The History of Art: Exploring Famous Paintings and Artists

One of the oldest art forms – Painting, has been around us ever since our ancient ancestors first started producing charcoal creations on cave walls. Well, cave walls generations of artists have left their mark of the millennia, only some artworks have succeeded in transcending time and culture to be rewarded around the globe.

Here’s a look to the most famous paintings of all time found in museums around the world:

01. Mona Lisa:

The Mona Lisa has delighted onlookers ever since it was painted in the early 1500s by Leonardo da Vinci. Lisa del Giocondo, member of a wealthy family in Florence, is believed to be the woman depicted in this painting. In 1911, the Mona Lisa was stolen by an employee Vincenzo Peruggia, an Italian patriot who believe that Mona Lisa should be returned to Italy. Peruggia kept this painting in his apartment for two years. He was finally caught when he attempted to sell this painting to an art dealer in Florence. Today the Mona Lisa hangs again in Paris were 6,000,000 people see the painting each year.

02. Starry Night:

Vincent Van Gogh’s finest work Starry Night describes the view he could see out of his asylum window after he had a breakdown and cut off part of his own ear in 1888. The painting encompasses an iconic swirling night sky punctuated with stars overlooking a still sleeping village. The Dutch post impressionist painters stunning creation is now exhibited at the Museum of Modern art in New York and is one of the most valued works in their extensive collection.

03. The Last Supper:

Painted in the 1490s on the refectory wall in a monastery in the lawn, the Last Supper is one of the most recognizable artworks on earth. Well, the years have not been kind to the original, the convent still sees people come from all over the world to catch a glimpse of the fabulous fresco.

The marvellous mural depicts the scene where Jesus Christ tells the 12 apostles sitting to either side of him that one of them will betray him. Some writers have a view point that the person in the painting seated to the left of Jesus is Mary Magdalene rather than John the Apostle. This popular theory plays a central role in Dan Brown’s novel the Vinci code.

04. Girl with a Pearl Earring:

Although it is often compared with the Mona Lisa, Johannes Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl earring is in fact a tronies not a portrait. Thought to have been painted around 1665 by the Dutch master, the captivating artwork depicts and imagined rather than real girl wearing a blue turban and a sizeable glimmering Pearl earring. Tracy Chevalier wrote a historic novel fictionalising the circumstances of the painting’s creation. The novel inspired a 2003 film with Scarlett Johansson as Johannes Meyers assistant wearing the Pearl earring.

05. The Scream:

The Scream is a series of expressionist paintings and prints by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, showing in agonised figure against a bloody red sky. The landscape is the background of Oslo Ford main from a hill in Oslo. Several versions of the scream in various media has been created by Edward munch. The first version created by Edward was painted in 1893 and is currently on display in the National Gallery of Norway. the painting was stolen in 1994 and later on was recovered several months later in 2004. Another version of The Scream was stolen from the museum only to be recovered in 2006.

06. Night Watch:

Arguably the most famous artwork of the rich museum in Amsterdam, the Night Watch is one of the most magnificent paintings whoever emerge from the Dutch golden age. It was painted in 1642 by Rembrandt Van Rijn. The painting portrays a group of civic guards who are heading off to practice the shooting. Former to this existence, the painting was coated with a dark varnish which caved the incorrect impression that it depicted in night scene leading to the name Night Watch. The painting is famed for its dramatic use of light that makes it seem as if the life size figures are actually moving before us.

07. Water Lilies:

Consisting of some 250 different paintings, Cloude Monet’s Water Lily series was painted at his home in Giverny, France between 1896 and 1926. The main subject of the paintings is the water lily pond in the back of his garden with the various other flowers, a wooden bridge and imagistic weeping willow also featuring. One of the great French impressionists, Cloude Monet’s paintings are instantly recognizable and are on display in museums around the world.

08. The Great Wave of Kanagawa:

The most famous painting to come out of Japan, The Great Wave of Kanagawa was produced by Hokusai, using a wood block print technique sometime between 1829 and 1833. The stunning scene with its vivid blues sees an enormous wave threatening to engulf three fishing boats. As it was developed as part of the artist 36 views of Mount Fuji series, the iconic volcano can be spotted in the background. Due to the fact that numerous prints were made, original impressions of the Great Wave of Kanagawa can be found in the British Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of art among others.

09. Nighthawks:

Another of the Art Institute of Chicago’s Most famous artworks is Nighthawks, which was painted by Edward Hopper in 1942. In the oil painting, we can see four people in a dine late at night. Light shines out of the brightly lit interior illuminating the darkness outside through the large glass window. Well, many take it to depict loneliness and isolation, Hopper himself said it alluded more to potential predators in the night. One of American arts most popular and purity paintings, Nighthawks is the most renowned and recognizable of Hoppers artworks.

10. The Persistence of Memory:

One of the greatest and most distinctive works of surliest art of all time, Salvador Dali’s The Persistence of Memory really does stand out from the crowd. The melting pocket watches draped across oblique landscape can easily be seen in the painting painted in 1931. The strange scene is widely thought to be inspired by Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity. One of the most famous painting can we found at the Museum of Modern art in New York.

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