Artwork

Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda) is a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo Da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance. The work is owned by the French government and hangs in the Musée du Louvre in Paris, France with the title Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo. The painting is a half-length portrait and depicts a woman whose expression is often described as enigmatic. The ambiguity of the sitter's expression, the monumentality of the...

''''''Guernica is a painting by Pablo Picasso, depicting the Nazi German bombing of Guernica, Spain, by twenty-eight bombers, on April 26, 1937 during the Spanish Civil War. The attack killed between 250 and 1,600 people, and many more were injured. The Spanish government commissioned Pablo Picasso to paint a large mural for the Spanish display at the Paris International Exposition (the 1937 World's Fair in Paris). The Guernica bombing inspired Picasso. Within 15 days of the attack, Pablo...

The Scream (Skrik, 1893-1910) is a seminal series of expressionist painting by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, depicting an agonised figure against a blood red skyline. It is said by some to symbolise the human species overwhelmed by an attack of existential angst. The landscape in the background is Oslofjord, viewed from the hill of Ekeberg, in Oslo (then Kristiania), Norway. Munch created several versions of The Scream in various media. The Munch Museum holds one of two painted versions (1910...

Vincent van Gogh created many self-portrait during his lifetime. Most probably, Van Gogh's self portraits are depicting the face as it appeared in the mirror he used to reproduce his face, i.e. his right side in the image is in reality the left side of his face. The first self-portrait by Van Gogh that survived, is dated 1886. All Self-Portraits executed in Saint-Rémy show the artist's head from the left, i.e. the side with ear not mutilated. Van Gogh painted Self-Portrait without beard just...

The Self-Portrait with a friend (also known as Double Portrait) is a painting by Italian High Renaissance painter Raphael. In this double portrait the artist himself stands behind an unknown man (a friend or a pupil, perhaps Polidoro da Caravaggio or Giovanni Battista Branconio, for whom Raphael had built a palace next to St. Peter's Basilica in 1518), on whose shoulder his hand rests familiarly. Raphael looks out of the picture with a serious expression. The friend's gesture is not meant for...

La persistencia de la memoria (1931) or The Persistence of Memory is one of the most famous paintings by artist Salvador Dalí. The painting has also been popularly known as Soft Watches, Droopy Watches, The Persistence of Time or Melting Clocks. It has been owned by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City since 1934. It is, however, currently on display at the Salvador Dalí Museum, in St. Petersburg, Florida, (1 February–1 June 2008). The Persistence of Memory will return to Museum of...

The Madonna of Port Lligat is the name of two painting by Salvador Dalí. The first was created in 1949, measuring 49 x 37.5 centimetres (19.3 x 14.8 in), and is now housed in the Haggerty Museum of Art in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dali submitted it to Pope Pius XII for approval, which was granted. Dalí created a second painting in 1950 with the same title and same themes, with various poses and details changed, measuring 144 x 96 centimetres (57.7 x 37.8 in); as of 2004 the 1950 Madonna is...

The Ghost of Vermeer of Delft Which Can Be Used As a Table (1934) is a painting by Spanish surrealist Salvador Dalí. The title refers to the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer. In this image Vermer is represented as a dark spindly figure in a kneeling position. The figure’s outstretched leg serves as a table top surface, on which sits a bottle and a small glass. This leg tapers to a baluster-like stub, however there is a disembodied foot nearby. One wrist of the Vermeer figure rests on a crutch...

The Luncheon on the Grass , originally titled The Bath (Le Bain), is an oil on canvas painting by Édouard Manet. Painted between 1862 and 1863 it measures 208 by 264.5 centimetres (81.9 x 104.5 in). The juxtaposition of a female nude with fully dressed men sparked controversy when the work was first exhibited at the Salon des Refusés in 1863. The piece is now in the Musée d'Orsay, Paris. In 1863, Manet shocked the French public by exhibiting his Déjeuner sur l'Herbe ("Luncheon on the Grass")....

Bal au moulin de la Galette, Montmartre (commonly known as Le Moulin de la Galette) is an 1876 painting by French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris Bal au Moulin de la Galette, Montmartre is also a smaller version of Renoir’s Impressionist painting of the same name in a private collection. (for smaller version of painting, larger version is in Musée d'Orsay, Paris) Owned by John Hay Whitney, on May 17, 1990, his widow sold the painting for US$78 million at Sotheby's...

Liberty Leading the People is a painting by Eugène Delacroix commemorating the July Revolution of 1830, which toppled Charles X. A woman personifying Liberty leads the people forward over the bodies of the fallen, holding the tricolore flag of the French Revolution in one hand and brandishing a bayonetted musket with the other. Delacroix painted his work in the autumn of 1830. In a letter to his brother dated 12 October, he wrote: "My bad mood is vanishing thanks to hard work. I’ve embarked...