famous paintings

An artist’s work may be a masterpiece as far as he is concerned but it may not seem that way to everybody. However there are some paintings that have lasting appeal and have left an indelible impression on us .Such works can be regarded as famous. No sooner than we mouth the word famous painting, the first thing that comes to our minds is the “Mona Lisa” by Da Vinci. Housed in the Louvre, it is also known as La Giaconda. It is an oil painting painted on a wooden panel. The painting was commenced in 1503 and took about 4 years to complete. There is something about the painting that has lured commentators to write about it at length. The intriguing smile has evoked many a comment and has been responsible for the famous book by Dan Brown “The Da Vinci code”.

The mixed reactions that the smile produces have often been referred to as the “Mona Lisa Syndrome”. The more one looks at the painting, the more enigmatic does the smile appear to be----a mystery of sorts which perhaps will never really be resolved. The ambiguity surrounding the smile had the Italians sum it up in one word   “sfumato”—which means blurry and indefinable, leaving it to the imagination of the viewer to interpret.

Another of Da Vinci’s paintings which is equally famous is “The last Supper”. The painting is huge and is said to cover one whole wall. It depicts Christ with his 12 horrified disciples who had gathered together for a particular purpose. Christ was to tell them of the treachery that came from within. The painting finds a place in Milan, in the convent of Santa Maria Della Grazie. Da Vinci was a procrastinator by nature and left behind many unfinished works. However, since the painting “the Last supper “ had been commissioned to The Duke of Milan who had been paying him for 18 years, Da Vinci had no other option but to complete it. 

Michelangelo not only painted, he sculpted, wrote poetry and was an architect. In fact, he was referred to as the Renaissance Man. No history of painting will be complete without mentioning his fresco “The creation of Adam”. It was completed in the year 1511 and its completions signaled a new era in Christian Paintings. The painting tells the story of how God created Adam---the first man. God is depicted to be surrounded by many cherubs and a female who is presumed to be Eve. God stretches out his right arm to invoke Adam with the spark of life and Adam stretches out his left to receive it. In between the fingers there is that little space which is yet to be covered. The original index finger of Adam which was damaged beyond repair because of a crack in the ceiling was repainted by a restorer in the mid 16th century.

Claude Monet was an Impressionist. He took to painting at a very young age and later along with Eugene Boudin, he tried his hand at Landscapes and also oils. “The Seine at Argenteuil” was one of his best works. Landscapes and seascapes were his favorites. Water and reflections were an obsession with him. The Artist’s garden In Giverny, “The water lilies” and “the Japanese Bridge” were painted by him when he arrived in Giverny in 1883. The painting”The water Lilies” was more than 60 feet long. Most of Monet’s favorite paintings featured parts of his garden which he loved. The visible brushstrokes, the light composition, the wonderful blend of colors, the absence of detail were salient features in all his paintings.

Van Gogh’s style of painting was perhaps unique. His innovative techniques and styles made his paintings look unique. The swirls of his brushstrokes, and the visual metaphors that he created ensured his fame. “The red Vineyard” which he produced along with Paul Gauguin is very famous. He was a mentally disturbed person and when he was recovering from his problems, he produced the very famous and enigmatic painting”the starry night”. Stars are glowing in a swirling sky amidst the hills. A large black ambiguous object in the fore-front however has been speculated upon at length. What needs to be emphasized is that the artist’s emotions come through splendidly. “The sunflowers” perhaps epitomizing Van Gogh’s life depicts the flower from its prime to its death. “The wheat Field with crows” stated to be his last work is filled with dark clouds and black crows. It depicts his highly intense and disturbed frame of mind—the dark objects   perhaps acting as harbingers of what was to come.

Picasso’s somber Painting “the old Guitarist” shows a blind man poorly dressed and playing a guitar. This painting is significant in the sense that it captures the painter’s mood after the death of his close friend. “Guernica” is perhaps his best work. It depicts the violence and brutality shown by the Nazis when they bombed “Guernica”. Another Picasso painting which sold for more than a 100 million dollars is “Garcon a la pipe”. Carefree, bright, vivid and warm, it is an oil painting of a boy with a pipe in his hand. All his paintings were stand alones in the sense that they actually spoke. 

In India, the murals on the walls of the Ajanta and Ellora caves in Aurangabad have been painted with a lot of imagination. Focusing mainly on didactic and devotional themes, the life of Buddha and the Jataka tales unfold very methodically. M. F. Hussain is another Indian artist who has won worldwide acclaim for his paintings. “Sunhera Sansar” was publicly exhibited in his first art exhibition. . Rembrandt, Raphael, Dali, the list just goes on and on. Even the Atlanta painting which was painted by a couple of German painters is worthy of mention.

There are so many famous paintings by various artists and yet no 2 paintings look the same. They are different and yet they have a common denominator in that all of them speak one language—the language of the brush and the language of paint.

 

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