Artlovers Stories

The Creation of Adam

Michelangelo (1511)

the near-touching hands became one of the most recognizable images in art

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

Guernica

Pablo Picasso (1937)

it became the defining anti-war image of the twentieth century

Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid

Las Meninas

Diego Velázquez (1656)

its complex gaze, mirror and self-portrait structure made it endlessly modern

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

The Birth of Venus

Sandro Botticelli (1484)

its idealized beauty became the emblem of mythological Renaissance painting

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

David

Michelangelo (1501)

it is the defining Renaissance heroic nude and a civic icon of Florence

Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence

The Night Watch

Rembrandt van Rijn (1642)

it reinvented the civic group portrait with movement and dramatic light

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Scream

Edvard Munch (1893)

it became the quintessential image of modern anxiety

Munch Museum, Oslo

The Persistence of Memory

Salvador Dali (1931)

its melting clocks became the shorthand image of surreal time

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, New York

The Kiss

Gustav Klimt (1908)

its sensual embrace made it one of sculpture’s most famous couples

Österreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna

The Garden of Earthly Delights

Hieronymus Bosch (1490)

its fantastical imagery made it one of the most discussed paintings in history

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

The School of Athens

Raphael (1509)

it turned classical philosophy into the perfect Renaissance image of harmony

Pinacoteca Vaticana, Vatican City

Les Demoiselles d’Avignon

Pablo Picasso (1907)

it shattered pictorial conventions and opened the road to Cubism

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Liberty Leading the People

Eugène Delacroix (1830)

it fused revolution and allegory into one of France’s defining images

Louvre Museum, Paris

The Arnolfini Portrait

Jan van Eyck (1434)

its mirror symbolism and minute oil-paint detail changed portraiture

The National Gallery London, London

Impression, Sunrise

Claude Monet (1872)

it gave Impressionism its name

Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris

Nighthawks

Edward Hopper (1942)

its lonely diner became an icon of modern urban isolation

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

Katsushika Hokusai (1831)

its bold wave became the most famous Japanese print in the world

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

American Gothic

Grant Wood (1930)

it became one of the most parodied and recognizable American images

Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Sistine Chapel Ceiling

Michelangelo (1508)

its scale, anatomy and narrative ambition redefined monumental painting

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City

Water Lilies

Claude Monet (1914)

its immersive oval rooms anticipate modern installation and abstraction

Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris

Saturn Devouring His Son

Francisco de Goya (1819)

its terrifying psychological force made it one of art’s darkest images

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

The Calling of Saint Matthew

Caravaggio (1599)

its dramatic light and everyday realism transformed sacred painting

San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

Judith Slaying Holofernes

Artemisia Gentileschi (1612)

its visceral force made it a Baroque and feminist landmark

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The Third of May 1808

Francisco de Goya (1814)

its raw anti-war message transformed history painting

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Bal du moulin de la Galette

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1876)

its flickering light and urban leisure define Impressionism for many visitors

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

The Two Fridas

Frida Kahlo (1939)

its split identity and exposed hearts made it Frida’s most famous statement

Museo de Arte Moderno MAM, Mexico City

Olympia

Édouard Manet (1863)

its confrontational modern nude scandalized Paris

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

Christina’s World

Andrew Wyeth (1948)

its emotional distance and open field made it an American classic

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Campbell’s Soup Cans

Andy Warhol (1962)

it turned supermarket repetition into a defining Pop Art statement

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, New York

The Luncheon on the Grass

Édouard Manet (1862)

its picnic scene with a nude woman challenged academic convention

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

View of Delft

Johannes Vermeer (1660)

its atmosphere made it one of Europe’s great city views

Mauritshuis, The Hague

The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Nicolaes Tulp

Rembrandt van Rijn (1632)

it announced Rembrandt’s genius for drama and individual psychology

Mauritshuis, The Hague

The Spinners

Diego Velázquez (1657)

its layered narrative and hidden myth show Velázquez at his most subtle

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird

Frida Kahlo (1940)

its compressed symbolism made it one of Kahlo’s signature self-images

The Milkmaid

Johannes Vermeer (1658)

its quiet dignity and radiant everyday realism are quintessential Vermeer

Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Broadway Boogie Woogie

Piet Mondrian (1942)

it translated New York’s grid and jazz pulse into pure abstraction

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog

Caspar David Friedrich (1818)

it became the emblem of Romantic solitude and the sublime

Hamburger Kunsthalle, Hamburg

The Harvesters

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1565)

it elevated seasonal rural labor into a grand panoramic subject

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

The Oath of the Horatii

Jacques-Louis David (1784)

it defined Neoclassicism with moral clarity and severe geometry

Louvre Museum, Paris

Marilyn Diptych

Andy Warhol (1962)

its repeated fading face made celebrity and mortality inseparable

Tate Modern London, London

The Death of Marat

Jacques-Louis David (1793)

it turned a revolutionary politician into a modern martyr

The Hay Wain

John Constable (1821)

it became England’s iconic rural landscape painting

The National Gallery London, London

Ophelia

John Everett Millais (1851)

its jewel-like naturalism made it the iconic Pre-Raphaelite picture

Tate Britain, London

The Sleeping Gypsy

Henri Rousseau (1897)

its dreamlike stillness fascinated modern and surrealist artists

MoMA The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Pietà

Michelangelo (1498)

its polished marble and youthful Madonna established Michelangelo’s fame

The Card Players

Paul Cezanne (1890)

its quiet structural gravity shaped modern painting

Musée d’Orsay, Paris

The Wedding at Cana

Paolo Veronese (1562)

its vast theatrical banquet is one of the largest and most dazzling canvases in the Louvre

Louvre Museum, Paris

Wilton Diptych

Unknown English artist (1395)

it is one of the supreme survivals of medieval English painting

The National Gallery London, London

Maestà

Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308)

it is Siena’s grand civic and devotional masterpiece

Primavera

Sandro Botticelli (1477)

its poetic allegory became one of the key images of Florentine culture

Uffizi Gallery, Florence