Who wrote, painted, composed it?

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

He worked on it for almost his whole life.

💡 Did you know? Faust makes a pact with the devil Mephisto.

William Shakespeare

He is seen as the greatest dramatist in literature.

💡 Did you know? “Hamlet” and “Macbeth” are his too.

Leo Tolstoy

The novel is set during the Napoleonic Wars.

💡 Did you know? It is one of the longest novels ever written.

Fyodor Dostoevsky

The student Raskolnikov commits a murder.

💡 Did you know? The novel explores guilt and conscience.

Franz Kafka

“Kafkaesque” means oppressively absurd.

💡 Did you know? He was barely known in his lifetime.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“One sees clearly only with the heart.”

💡 Did you know? The author was himself a pilot.

George Orwell

“Big Brother is watching you.”

💡 Did you know? “Orwellian” means a surveillance state.

Jane Austen

It centres on Elizabeth Bennet and Mr Darcy.

💡 Did you know? Her novels are set in England around 1800.

Miguel de Cervantes

It is seen as the first modern novel.

💡 Did you know? His servant is Sancho Panza.

Ludwig van Beethoven

Beethoven led music from the Classical era into Romanticism. Strikingly, he composed some of his greatest works when he was already almost deaf.

💡 Did you know? The 'Ode to Joy' from his 9th Symphony is today the anthem of the European Union.

Antonio Vivaldi

The Venetian Baroque composer wrote hundreds of instrumental concertos. 'The Four Seasons' musically depicts birdsong, storms and ice.

💡 Did you know? Vivaldi was also a Catholic priest: nicknamed 'the Red Priest' for his red hair.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

The Russian composer created some of the most famous ballets ever, including 'Swan Lake' and 'The Nutcracker'. His music is famous for its melodies and emotion.

💡 Did you know? His '1812 Overture' calls for real cannon shots as an instrument.

Giuseppe Verdi

Verdi was the leading Italian opera composer of the 19th century. Works like 'Aida', 'La Traviata' and 'Rigoletto' still fill opera houses today.

💡 Did you know? The prisoners' chorus from 'Nabucco' became a kind of unofficial anthem of Italy.

Richard Wagner

Wagner revolutionised opera with vast 'music dramas'. His 'Ring of the Nibelung' consists of four operas and lasts around 15 hours in total.

💡 Did you know? For his works he had his own festival theatre built in Bayreuth.

Pablo Picasso

His painting “Guernica” became an anti-war symbol.

💡 Did you know? In black and white it shows the horror of the bombing.

Leonardo da Vinci

Begun around 1503 in Florence. Leonardo took the painting with him to France and kept working on it for years; today it hangs in the Louvre.

💡 Did you know? It became world-famous through a theft: in 1911 an Italian handyman stole it, and for two years the empty space was in every newspaper.

Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh painted it in 1889 at the asylum in Saint-Rémy: the view from his window, with a village added from memory.

💡 Did you know? During his lifetime van Gogh sold almost nothing. His paintings now fetch hundreds of millions.

Edvard Munch

Munch made several versions between 1893 and 1910, in oil, pastel and as a lithograph.

💡 Did you know? Munch pencilled on one version: it could only have been painted by a madman. A 2021 analysis confirmed the handwriting is his own.

Rembrandt

The group portrait of an Amsterdam militia company dates from 1642 and hangs in the Rijksmuseum.

💡 Did you know? The title misleads: the scene takes place in daylight. It only looked dark because varnish and soot had yellowed over the centuries.

Gustav Klimt

Painted in 1908/09 during Klimt's Golden Period, when he applied gold leaf directly to the canvas.

💡 Did you know? Klimt's father was a gold engraver: working with gold leaf was a craft he had known since childhood.