null

Famous Painters and their Great Works of Art

kjs on 27th May 2022

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo was the illegitimate son of Messer Piero Fruosino da Vinci, a wealthy and powerful local lawyer and Caterina. He was born in a Tuscan village town of Vinci and his rural upbringing shaped how he thought about the world. He had a revolutionary way of thinking and he always looked for answers not just in the books of antiquity or the Bible, but in the natural world too.

‘Mona Lisa’, a Philosophical Piece For Him

Leonardo’s famous painting ‘Mona Lisa’ became a philosophical piece for him as, according to him, it showcases his investigations and ideas, his ideas about human anatomy, his observations of the natural world and the effects of atmosphere, etc. ‘Mona Lisa’ is one of art history’s most famous portraits ever painted as well as the one instantly recognizable artwork. Leonardo painted this artwork at the start of the 16th century which has fascinated viewers all over the world for centuries. Its technical excellence and the subject have raised a great deal of interest in the minds of art lovers. The painting is also known as ‘Portrait of Lisa Gherardini’. The painter has made use of his scientific knowledge and artistic experience to accurately capture the curious and intriguing expression of the face and eyes of the subject of the painting so much so that the eyes are said to be following you wherever you stand opposite the painting.

According to experts, this subject is looking at viewers with a soft smile on her face, her wandering eyes and sly smirk have been the central topic of debate since the artwork’s debut. This is because her ‘puzzling smile’ is said to say too much and not enough at the same time. However, some historians have called the painting ‘overrated’. According to them, their observations are caused because of ‘her small size’ and some others believe that da Vinci left the artwork incomplete due to her lack of eyebrows’. The painting occupied the centre stage of global attention after it was stolen and later recovered. It is said that the painting broke the Guinness World Record for being insured at US$100 million. It was estimated to be worth over US$870 million in 2021.

‘The Virgin of the Rocks’

Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh is one of the few renowned Post-impressionist painters in western art. He was one of the brightest stars and some of the other great artists in this art movement include Paul Cezanne, Paul Gaugin and Georges Seurat, etc.

‘Flowering Plum Orchard’

Some of the famous springtime paintings of Vincent van Gogh include ‘Flowering Plum Orchard’, ‘Almond Blossoms’, ‘The Flowering Orchard Ares France’, ‘Fishing in Spring, and ‘Riverbank at Springtime France’. Experts believe that van Gogh was an avid admirer of Japanese printmaking and he created several paintings inspired by this style. His painting ‘Flowering Plum Orchard’ is based on traditional ukiyo-e artist Utagawa Hiroshige’s ‘Plum Garden in Kameido’. Van Gogh added his twist to the original piece by featuring the tree trunks with red and blue colours and adding borders of different colours. Van Gogh painted this work in 1887. The painting is presently in Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

‘Almond Blossoms’

Vincent van Gogh made this famous painting in 1890. His younger brother, Theo Van Gogh had recently married and had just had a baby boy whom they named Vincent Willem. Almond trees normally flower in early spring and this natural phenomenon represents the blossoming of new life. Van Gogh appears to have received inspiration both from the flowering almond trees in the spring and from the birth of a new life at his ‘best, and probably, only true friend‘ and brother, Theo van Gogh’s home. Experts feel that the use of bold outlines and the specific view of the tree originate from Japanese printmaking.

‘The Flowering Orchard Ares France’

Vincent van Gogh was a prolific painter and he is said to have painted nearly fourteen canvasses between March and April 1888, depicting springtime in the city of Arles in France. His famous painting ‘The Flowering Orchard’ is one of them. Van Gogh must have been giving expression to his excitement in one of his letters that he wrote to his brother, Theo van Gogh, and termed his hyperactivity as ‘fury of work’. Art experts say that the painting shows the influence of Japanese printmaking with its angular and elongated branches. The inclusion of the scythe and rake in the painting makes this one of his only two orchard paintings that display the existence of human beings.

‘Fishing in Spring’

Vincent van Gogh painted this work in 1887 and art experts feel that the technique used in this painting demonstrates the influence of other greats like Paul Signac. The setting of the painting is the River Seine at the Pont de Clichy. Van Gogh and Paul Signac had painted together on numerous occasions.

‘Riverbank at Springtime France’.

The painting ‘Riverbank at Springtime France’ by Vincent van Gogh is an example of his transition from painting floral trees and branches to landscapes. In this painting, he captures the new spring season along the Seine River using light colours and different variations of brushstrokes. Art historians say that van Gogh had moved to Paris during this time and he was learning new methods of painting from his neo-impressionist contemporaries.

Vincent van Gogh – Self-portraits

‘Self Portrait With Straw Hat’

Van Gogh painted nearly twenty self-portraits of himself. This does not mean that he ever considered himself the most attractive or amiable model for a painter to paint on. This was the result of the financial compulsions that forced many painters to use themselves as hiring a model was expensive. Above all, van Gogh always lived in penury for the whole of his life and the situation would have been serious had it not been for the regular monetary help that he was receiving from his brother, the only person he was very close to until his death.

His painting ‘Self Portrait With Straw Hat’ is a classic example of van Gogh’s ability to make magic with colour and expression. This painting is quite simple in design and contained hundreds of tiny paint strokes that ultimately gave the painting a moving, lively quality. The light palette and the straw hat indicate summer days. Rural subjects were van Gogh’s obsessions during his short life. He painted ‘Potato Peeler’, another great painting, in 1885 and he painted himself in this self-portrait in 1887.

Elisabeth Lousie Vigee Le Brun

Le Brun is one of the finest 18th-century French painters and one of the most famous of all woman artists of her time. She was extremely talented and she achieved great success despite the difficulties that she faced during the turbulent times of the French Revolution. One of her famous paintings is ‘Julie Le Brun Looking in A Mirror’.

Elizabeth Le Brun married when she was 21 years of age. Her husband was an art dealer in Paris and this became an obstacle on her way to becoming accepted at first into the prestigious Academie Royle de Peinture et de Sculpture. However, as she happened to know Queen Marie Antoinette, she was admitted into the Academie at the age of 28. After the break out of the French Revolution, she had to flee France due to her closeness to the Queen and the Royalty. She stayed in Italy for a while before returning to France.

She became pregnant two years after marriage. She immediately fell in love with her daughter and cherished every moment she spent with her. A mother’s love for her child can be seen in many of her paintings of her daughter. She insists that one of her patrons, Duchesse de Mazarin, had eyes very much like those of Julie, her daughter. Her memoir mentions her at great length due to the duchess’s resemblance to her daughter.

‘Julie Le Brun Looking in A Mirror’.

She saw her daughter as an extension of herself and showered her love for the child by painting the various levels of her childhood passionately. ‘Julie Le Brun’ is one such wonderful piece of painting that accentuated her artistic excellence in using the brush, the colour, and her imagination to give ultimate effect to the portraits. Julie Le Brun Looking in a mirror is one such painting. The double image plays on reality versus illusion and shows even more so how talented artist Le Brun was. The painting is famous for its impossible ‘perspective’.

Gustav Klimt

Gustav Klimt was a famous Austrian symbolist painter. He is well-known for his paintings, murals, sketches and other areas of art. Klimt’s favourite subject was the female body and there were always broad hints of erotism in his paintings. Some of the important Klimt paintings from this period are ‘Pallas Athene’, ‘Judith I’, ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I’, ‘The Kiss’ and ‘Lady with Fan’.

‘The Kiss’

Klimt’s painting ‘The Kiss’ is a part of the Golden phase paintings and is a good example of his excellence in the art of painting. At a first glance, what one can see is a golden cocoon with two figures wrapped in a loving embrace. The man can be seen leaning down to kiss the woman below and the woman has surrendered to the act of love and the man’s embrace. The greenery that the couple are seen standing on and the composition around the couple represent the meadow. Flowers are dangling from the bottom of the woman’s quilt and falling over the edge of the embankment. What is important and worth watching in the painting is the golden quilt wrapped around the couple. Klimt painted this famous work with his characteristic gold leaf and silver. Gustav Klimt developed a new and almost unique method that allowed him to apply natural, wafer-thin gold leaf onto the canvas. In addition to gold leaf, Klimt also applied fine silver flakes to some are of the painting. With this technique, Klimt delivered an excellent and innovative contribution to the European style of Art.

‘Lady with Fan’

Some of the important Klimt paintings from this period are ‘Pallas Athene’, ‘Judith I’, ‘Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I’, ‘The Kiss’ and ‘Lady with Fan’. Gustav Klimt completed the canvas ‘Lady with Fan’ in 1918 when he was 55 years of age. The famous artist also died in the same year. Shortly after his death, the art collector Rudolf Leopold acquired the painting and exhibited it at an innovative cultural site in the centre of Vienna in 1920. The painting is a simple composition of a slender female figure embellished with what looks like primary oriental fabric. The lady is seen holding a fan, apparently hiding her partial nudity and her face exudes confidence. In the background, the artist has painted a garden full of blooming flowers and exotic birds majestically perched in the yellow-ocher density. Though there are examples of the painter’s works where there are instances of the artist having fiddled with the limits of decency, this marvellous painting is not at all in that category. This truly is a marvellous Italian masterpiece of art by one of the greatest artists in the history of art.

Thomas Gainsborough

‘Blue Boy’

‘The Blue Boy’ is one of Gainsborough’s most famous pictures that he painted in 1770. This painting has come to be known as one of the greatest works of 18th-century British art. It was an instant success and has remained so to date. Despite being a prolific portrait painter, Gainsborough had greater satisfaction from his paintings of landscapes. Along with another well-known painter, Richard Wilson, Thomas Gainsborough is known as the founding member of the Royal Academy. People also know him as the originator of the 18th-century British landscape school. Blue Boy was painted in homage to Sir Anthony van Dyck whom Gainsborough admired the most. The ‘Blue Boy’ is standing in an authoritative position known as ‘contrapposto‘ much used in classical art. The jutting elbow is another well-used pose in European portraiture. Art historians describe the pose as ‘indicative essentially of boldness or control and therefore of a masculine role.

Edgar Degas

”Blue Dancers’

Edgar Degas’ ‘Blue Dancers’ is sometimes referred to as ‘Dancers in Blue’. it is one of Degas’ most famous ballet dancer paintings. This is one of his paintings that marked his migration from the presentation of nudity as in ‘After the Bath’ towards a more innocent approach by portraying young ballerinas. Degas eventually became famous for his paintings depicting ballet and ballerinas. His painting ‘Blue Dancers’ is one among his over 200 paintings on this subject. Degas made this painting towards the end of his painting career. The painting illustrates four ballerinas in lavender-blue dancing attire. The dancing figures deeply engrossed in dance curve their bodies in their way and turn their faces from other figures as they focus on the dance. Degas’ paintings, ‘Dancers in Blue’, ‘Blue Dancers’, and ‘Green Dancer’ all make use of his symbolist work.

Raphael

‘Girl Holding a Unicorn’

‘St. Michael Overwhelming The Demon’

Eugene Delacroix

‘Dante And Virgil In Hell’

‘Dante and Virgil in Hell’ was Delacroix’s debut painting at the Paris Salon of 1822. Dante’s ‘Divine Comedy‘ was the inspiration for Delacroix to paint this canvas. Experts, however, think that the tragic feeling and the powerful modelling of its figures are reminiscent of Michelangelo and its rich colour shows the influence of Peter Paul Rubens. Delacroix showed an affinity with Lord Byron and other Romantic poets of his time. He also drew subjects from Dante, William Shakespeare and a few others from medieval history. Delacroix always admired the landscapes of famous English painter John Co

‘Liberty Leading The People’

Delacroix is considered one of the greatest romantic painters of French Romanticism and was often called ‘the Bernini’ or ‘ Michelangelo’ of his time. His painting ‘Liberty Leading The People’ is an allegory of the 1830 revolution which was an important phase of French history. Liberty is depicted as the ‘bare bosom centrepiece holding the Tricolore of France. This was the flag that the militia bore when storming the Bastille. After the revolution, the Tricolore replaced a blue flag with the gold fleur-de-lis and is used to date.

Liberty is famous iconography of ancient Greek origin. The figures alongside Liberty represent all classes of people fighting together. The main in the top hat is a member of the French upper class. Others in the same line are a factory worker, a student and others from other professions alongside one another. Delacroix’s excellence in depiction lies in his ability to create believable human figures. It is one of the most famous paintings and a masterpiece by this famous painter.

Guido Reni

‘David With The Head Of Goliath’

Caravaggio

‘Death Of The Virgin’

Caravaggio painted his well-known painting ‘The Death of the Virgin’ when he was working in Rome during the period from 1601 to1606. The painting was commissioned y Laerzio Cherubini, a papal lawyer, for his chapel in the Carmelite church. The depiction of the Death of the Virgin caused a controversy stir and was rejected as unfit by the parish. A few people thought that Caravaggio modelled a prostitute, possibly his mistress, as the Virgin and the breach of decorum in this manner led to the rejection of the painting. Another painting made Carlo Saraceni, a close follower of Caravaggio, replaced Caravaggio’s painting. Peter Paul Rubens praised Caravaggio’s painting as one of his best works. Upon his recommendations, the painting was bought by Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. The painting was briefly exhibited between the first and the seventh of April 1607. Thereafter, the painting changed many hands and finally, it became the property of Louis XIV and the French Royal Collection. However, Caravaggio had fled Rome by then after he killed a man during one of his frequent brawls in Rome.

Jacques-Louis David

‘The Death of Marat’

Jacques made around 97 artworks in his lifetime. The famous artworks of David include ‘The Death of Marat‘ and ‘Napoleon Crossing the Alps‘. He is also known for the creation of one of his neoclassical paintings such as ‘Oath of the Horatii’. In his painting, ‘The Death of Marat’ Jacques has painted Jean-Paul Marat, a well-known figure who is credited with spearheading the French Revolution in the late 1700s. Marat was initially a journalist and later became a politician. His death became a moment that signified the turn of events that ended in the final shift in power from the aristocracy. A lady, who had sympathies for the group among the aristocrats that Marat had eradicated, stabbed Marat to death.

‘Coronation of Napoleon’

After multiple victorious military campaigns in Italy and Egypt, Napoleon took over as the leader of the Empire. His coronation took place on December 2nd, 1804. Napoleon commissioned Jacques-Louis David to paint the coronation event and gave him precise instructions regarding how and who David should depict in the painting. The painting shows over 100 individuals, mostly those from Napoleon’s family and inner circle. The painting also shows his mother, who did not even attend the coronation as she was against the event.

‘Death of Socrates’

The painting depicts an old man sitting on a bed in the centre of a room, addressing a group of men who have surrounded him. One among those who have surrounded the man in the centre gives him a bowl containing poison. David made this touching painting in 1787. The painting makes no sense without understanding the story behind the theme depicted in the painting. Socrates was a famous philosopher in ancient times. Socrates was sentenced to death as he was convicted of impiety. His famous student, Plato, recorded the death scene of Socrates in his work Phaedo. As Plato narrated the incident, Socrates surrounded himself with his closed pupils and discussed the immortality of the soul as he drank the deadly potion. This is one of Jacques David’s all-time greatest paintings.

‘Oath of the Horatii’

David painted ‘Oath of the Horatii’ in Rome four years before the French Revolution. Louis XVI commissioned Jaques Louis David with the task of painting Oath of the Horatii. It became one of the defining images of that time. In the painting, David shows three brothers swearing by their swords and expressing their solidarity and loyalty with Rome before the battle. In the painting, the father shows his support to them and the women were grieving. This painting became a symbol of patriotism and the face of the French Revolution. Experts say that the subject of the painting illustrates the nobility of putting civic duty before personal preference. It was exhibited at the salon of 1785.

‘Portrait of Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and Marie Anne Lavoisier‘

The painting is a portrait of a man and his wife, Husband Antoine Laurent Lavoisier and his wife Marie Anne working together. The beautiful wife is seen looking over her husband’s paperwork. The studious husband looks up at the wife in appreciation of her beauty. The painting is a depiction of an amiable family for everyone to see. Antoine Laurent and his wife had amassed immense wealth from tax farming. Tax farming was not an agricultural term but a financial one. The management of a variable revenue stream is assigned to a third party. The holder of the revenue receives fixed rents from the contractor. Mostly, tax farmers were private business people, some tax farmers were employed by governments. They were paid a salary and money collected by them was given to the government.

Theodore Gericault

‘The Raft Of Medusa’

Theodore Gericault was a famous French Romantic artist. He made this painting ‘The Raft of Medusa’ in 1819, depicting the survivors of a shipwreck who were adrift and starving on a raft in the wild sea for days together. Gericault proved his artistic excellence and astonished viewers by painting the harrowing details of the gruesome incident. The French Revolution inspired his interest in the depiction of contemporary events. Individual suffering is vividly portrayed in this large painting, measuring 13.75×23.5 feet.

The painting tells the harrowing story that followed the 1816 shipwreck of the French Royal Navy frigate ‘the Medusa’, which ran aground off the coast of Senegal. The shortage of a sufficient number of lifeboats forced some 150 shipwreck survivors to board a raft that was too small to accommodate them all. Starvation during the 13-day ordeal forced them to kill one another and resort to cannibalism due to a severe shortage of food. Only a handful of them had survived the horrendous saga when finally they were rescued at sea.

Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer was one of the greatest masters of the Dutch Golden Age.

‘Study of A Young Woman’

Johannes Vermeer was a great painter and was a contemporary of a few other great painters like Rembrandt and Frans Hals. Compared to Dutch powerhouse painters like Rembrandt and Frans Hals, Vermeer was much less known during his lifetime. His artwork started being recognised towards the end of the 19th century. Vermeer was still an obscure figure until the famous Hollywood movie ”Girl With a Pearl Earring‘ starring Scarlett Johannson was made in 2003. The theme of this film is based on Vermeer’s painting ‘Study Of A Young Woman’.

Vermeer used a live model while painting this work and it was not intended to be a portrait. These paintings were made as a form of collectors’ items that displayed intriguing character types or exotic costumes. Experts feel that the blue silk around the model’s shoulders was placed intentionally for the eyes of the buyer and this displayed the artists’ powers of invention and execution. Though the eyes of the girl in the picture appear piercing, the look on her face portrays innocence.

‘The Milkmaid’

Johannes Vermeer’s famous painting ‘The Milkmaid’ is sometimes called ‘The Kitchen Maid’. In this painting, Vermeer depicted an ordinary domestic scene in a kitchen and the subject of the painting is a milkmaid in action while pouring milk from a jug. Experts are of the view that this painting of Johannes differed from his other works in the way that he chose to paint a simple, sturdy and older woman as the subject for his painting as opposed to the affluent and elegant young ladies that he normally chose. ‘The Milkmaid’ is considered to be one of Vermeer’s most notable works. He has brilliantly captured a scene from everyday life in a natural atmosphere.

‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’

Vermeer’s painting ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’ was made in 1665. This painting is possibly one of his most famous works. The painting was originally named ‘Girl with a Turban’. It is also quite often dubbed ‘The Mona Lisa of the North. There was speculation regarding the identity of the subject of the painting. However, experts feel that the young woman in the painting was none other than the oldest daughter of the painter himself. There is also a view among the experts that this is not a real portrait. Instead, it has been labelled as a ‘tronie’, a popular type of painting during the Dutch Golden Age referring to the study of an unidentified person who became the subject of the artwork. The girl gazes fixedly at the viewer with a captivating expression on her face that is pleasantly surprising and generates curiosity in the audience. This painting is also proof of the artist’s incredible ability to understand and manipulate light and dark.

Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt van Rijn is famous as a painter of light. He is also one of the famous portrait painters. His well-known portraits include many of his own portraits.

‘Self-Portrait’ (1660) by Rembrandt van Rijn

In this painting, Rembrandt has depicted his own portrait. Rembrandt was a dedicated self-portraitist all his life, and roughly forty self-portraits by him survive today. In this example, painted when Rembrandt was fifty-four, the artist was unsparing in depicting the signs of ageing in his own face, building up the paint in high relief to convey his furrowed brow, the heavy pouches beneath his eyes, and his double chin. The recent removal of a synthetic varnish has revealed more of Rembrandt’s working method, showing for example how he flipped the brush to incise with its butt end the rough curls spilling out of his cap.

Frida Kahlo

‘The Two Fridas’

Frida Kahlo was a famous Mexican female artist known for portraits. She painted numerous iconic self-portraits throughout her career. Her famous painting ‘The To Fridas’ is a piece of thought-provoking art that portrays the dual nature of the artist’s life at that time. She painted this self-portrait at the time of her divorce from her fellow artist Diego Rivera. The two had a very explosive and unpredictable relationship