Famous Paintings: Basics

Mona Lisa

Painted by Leonardo da Vinci around 1503 to 1506; it hangs in the Louvre in Paris. Famous for the enigmatic smile and the soft 'sfumato' technique.

💡 Did you know? It only became world-famous after its spectacular theft in 1911.

The Last Supper

Leonardo's mural (1495 to 1498) in Milan captures the moment Jesus announces the betrayal: a masterpiece of composition and perspective.

💡 Did you know? Because Leonardo experimented with a new technique, the work began to decay within his own lifetime.

The Creation of Adam

Michelangelo's ceiling fresco (c. 1511) in the Sistine Chapel shows God giving life to Adam with a touch of the finger.

💡 Did you know? Some argue the figures around God are arranged like an anatomical brain.

The Birth of Venus

Sandro Botticelli (c. 1485) shows the goddess Venus born from the sea on a shell: a key work of the Florentine Renaissance.

💡 Did you know? It was one of the first large paintings made on canvas rather than wood.

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Johannes Vermeer (c. 1665) painted this 'tronie' (character head) with the famous pearl earring and the glance over the shoulder.

💡 Did you know? It is often called the 'Mona Lisa of the North'.

The Night Watch

Rembrandt's huge group portrait (1642) of an Amsterdam militia, famous for its movement and dramatic light.

💡 Did you know? The name is misleading: after cleaning it turned out the scene is set in daylight; the painting had merely darkened.

The Starry Night

Vincent van Gogh (1889) painted the swirling night sky with a view from his asylum in Saint-Rémy.

💡 Did you know? He painted it from memory and during the day, not at night.

Sunflowers

Van Gogh's glowing Sunflowers series (1888) was made in Arles to decorate the room for his friend Gauguin.

💡 Did you know? The vivid yellows came from a pigment that was new at the time (chrome yellow).

The Scream

Edvard Munch (1893) distilled existential dread into a screaming figure under a blood-red sky: an icon of Expressionism.

💡 Did you know? There are four versions; two were spectacularly stolen and later recovered.

The Kiss

Gustav Klimt (1907 to 1908), the centrepiece of his 'golden period': an embracing couple in shimmering gold leaf.

💡 Did you know? Klimt used real gold leaf: a craft he knew from his father, a gold engraver.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa

The Japanese woodblock print by Katsushika Hokusai (c. 1831) shows a huge wave in front of Mount Fuji.

💡 Did you know? It is a print, not a painting: which is why thousands of impressions exist.

Liberty Leading the People

Eugène Delacroix (1830) shows Marianne with the tricolour on the barricades of the Paris July Revolution.

💡 Did you know? In France the image long featured on the 100-franc banknote.