Top 10 Most Famous Paintings in the World

Paintings are being created for ages and the worlds oldest cave painting of an animal-drawn 45,500 yrs ago found in Indonesia. There no second thought that paintings create impressions in our soul. The artist in history is so talented that they can show the feelings of the whole world in one picture. There are numerous paintings in the world that are critically acclaimed and are still popular in the world. Here is the list of 10 most famous paintings in the world,

Most Famous Paintings in the World

1.Mona Lisa

• Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world which is always surrounded by mystery. There are aspects about the paintings such as the exact identity of the sitter or who commissioned the portrait and even how long Leonardo da Vinci worked on the painting to complete it.
• It is also the most studied and widely recognized painting in the world and there are academics who consider it the greatest masterpiece of all time.
• It is said that the portrait belongs to Lisa Gherardini who is the wife of Francesco Del Giocondo and also belived that the portrait has been completed between 1503 and 1506.
• The painting has been created with oil paint on a poplar wood panel and there are no visible brush marks.
• The title of the painting ‘Mona Lisa’ means ‘My Lady Lisa’ in English and now it is over 500 years old.
• According to the face-recognition software the expression of Mona Lisa is 83% happy, 9% disgusted, 6% fearful, and 2% angry.
• The painting is located in the Musee du Louvre in Paris, France, which has its own room and it is on display since 1797.

Image Source: Wikipedia

2.The Starry Night

• The Starry Night was painted by Vincent van Gogh before he committed suicide and listed as one of the most famous paintings in the world.
• The painting was completed in 1889 with oil paint on a canvas.
• It was created in the year 1889 and has depicted the view from his room at the sanitarium where he lives at that time.
• A note was written by Van Gogh to his brother Theo talking about the inspiration for The Starry Night.“This morning I saw the countryside from my window for a long time before sunrise, with nothing but the morning star, which looked very big,”
• The Starry Night is among the most popular paintings in the world.
• The painting is located in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City since 1941 and has been acquired by Lillie P. Bliss Bequest.
• It was painted by Vincent van Gogh in the ground floor studio and that too during the day time.
• Van Gogh Considered The Starry Night a “failure.”

Image Source: Wikipedia

3.The Last Supper

• The Last Supper is a 15th-century painting created by Leonardo da Vinci in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria Delle Grazie, Milan.
• He started working on painting in the year 1495 and finished “The Last Supper” in 1498. It is one of the most famous paintings in the world.
• One of the world’s most famous paintings is also listed as most studied, scrutinized, and satirized followed by Mona Lisa.
• The subject of the painting is Christ’s final meal with his apostles before Judas identifies Christ to the authorities who arrest him.
• Leonardo da Vinci depicted that one of the disciples that would betray him and he showed a total of 12 Disciples in the painting.
• The Last Supper is and one of the most popular paintings in the world because of two events, First one is, Christ, says to his apostles “One of you will betray me,” and the apostles react, each according to his own personality. Referring to the Gospels, Leonardo depicts Philip asking “Lord, is it I?” Christ replies, “He that dippeth his hand with me in the dish, the same shall betray me” (Matthew 26). The second one is, Leonardo also simultaneously depicts Christ blessing the bread and said to the apostles “Take, eat; this is my body” and blessing the wine and saying “Drink from it all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26).

Image Source: Wikimedia

4.Guernca

• Guernca is one of the masterpieces by Pablo Picasso that shows the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. It was completed during the Spanish Civil War in the year 1937.
• It was commissioned by the Spanish government that depicts the suffering of war, howvever, later, it became the symbol of peace.
• Guernca was an oil painting that was created on canvas measuring 11 feet tall by 25.6 feet wide.
• The painting has been located in Spain’s national museum in Madrid.
• It shows the tongues of the grieving woman, the bull, and the horse made in the shape of daggers that depicts screaming.

Image Source: Wikimedia

5.The Creation of Adam

• The Creation of Adam depicts God’s creation of man in his image and shows how God gives life to Adam, the first man.
• It was painted by Michelangelo between 1508 and 1512.
• The painting has been located in the Sistine Chapel of Vatican City.
• It is a fresco painting that illustrates the Biblical creation narrative from the Book of Genesis in which God gives life to Adam, the first man.
• This is also one of the most religious paintings in the world.
• The painting is just one of the nine scenes from the Book of Genesis and it is also heart touching to see the hands of God and Adam has become iconic of humanity.

Image Source: Wikimedia

6.The Scream

• The Scream is one of the most famous paintings in the world that shows the composition created by Norwegian Expressionist artist Edvard Munch in 1893.
• The German title of the painting was Der Schrei der Natur (The Scream of Nature) and the Norwegian title was Skrik (Shriek).
• The painter Edvard Munch only used oil and pastel on cardboard in order to draw one of the most famous paintings in the world.
• The painting is very close and similar to the Tales from the Crypt.
• The subject of the painting is the scream of nature and it depicts the suffering expression against a landscape.
• It has been stolen from the Munch Museum along with the Madonna and both of them has been recovered after two years.
• Edvard Munch took the inspiration of the scream from his last painting.

Image Source: Wikimedia

7.The Persistence of Memory

• The Persistence of Memory was drawn by artist Salvador Dali in 1931 and it is one of the most recognizable and popular paintings in the world.
• It is a canvas painting that was measured around 24 cm x 33 cm.
• It made the painter Salvador Dali world-famous when he was 28 years old.
• It was first shown at Julien Levy Gallery in 1932 where it was bought and given to the Museum of Modern Art in 1934.
• The orange watch in the bottom left of the painting is covered in ants because Salvador Dali is known to use ants as a symbol of decay in his paintings.
• There are some scholars who said painting has been inspired by Albert Einstein’s Theory of Relativity but Salvador Dali said he has taken inspiration from a wheel of Camembert cheese that had melted in the sun.

Image Source: Mike Steele

8.Three Musicians

• Three Musicians is a large painting measuring upto 2 meters wide and high that was created by Pablo Picasso in 1921.
• It is an oil painting but at first glance, it looks like a collage.
• Pablo Picasso drew on more painting and together they are known as Three Musicians.
• It was completed by Pablo Picasso in Fontainebleau near Paris.
• There is a musician in the middle of the painting who depicts the brightest garb that brings light to the centre of the piece.

Image Source: Wikipedia

9.Girl with a Pearl Earring

• The Girl with a Pearl Earring is an oil painting dating back to 17th-century completed by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer.
• It is believed that the painting has been completed in 1665 and it is a perfect example of a type of work called a tronie.
• The girl in the painting is belived to be Vermeer’s eldest daughter known as Maria who 12 or 13 years old when the painting was created.
• One of the most famous paintings in the world is also referred to as the Mona Lisa of the North or the Dutch Mona Lisa.
• The painting is also called by the names such as Girl In A Turban, Head Of Girl In A Turban, The Young Girl With Turban, and Head of a Young Girl.
• The painting is located in the collection of the Mauritshuis in The Hague since 1902.

Image Source: Wikimedia

10.Whistler’s Mother

• Whistler’s Mother is a masterpiece painted by the American outside the United States described as an American icon or a Victorian Mona Lisa.
• The painting is in Musee d’Orsay in Paris after it is owned by the French state in 1891.
• The painting also called the names of Victorian Mona Lisa and considered an American icon.
• The painting depicts Anna McNeill Whistler, who was the painter’s mother.
• It is also depicted as a painting of mothers love to get people to remember their mothers and feel good about them.

Image Source: Wikimedia

These are the 10 most famous paintings in the world. Kindly share and do post your comments.