Famous historical picture
20 of the Most Famous Photographs in History
This collection of 20 famous photographs has been carefully chosen because of their importance in history. Each one of these iconic images has helped shape our history and alter the world which we live in. They are some of the most powerful and influential images ever captured by some of the most famous photographers in history.
Images have a way of cutting through and triggering an immediate emotional response like nothing else can. They open a window for us to view the world through the eyes of the photographer.
Photography has helped to reinforced history making it more tangible and real. It has also made the camera an important tool not only to document history but also to help change it.
Warning: Some of the images in this collection are very graphic and may be hard to see. So if you are averse to this sort of thing, please be forewarned.
#1 Henri Cartier-Bresson’s famous photo Man Jumping the Puddle | 1930
Henri Cartier Bresson | Man Jumping the Puddle | 1930In this, one of his most iconic photos, Henri Cartier-Bresson captured a scene through a fence behind the Saint-Lazare train station in Paris.
This image became the perfect example of what Cartier-Bresson referred to as “The Decisive Moment”.
“There is nothing in this world that does not have a decisive moment.”
Henri Cartier-Bresson
The French photographer is often referred to as the father of modern photojournalism.
He coined the term “The Decisive Moment” to refer to a moment when the photographer captures a fleeting second, immortalizing it in time.
#2The famous photo The Steerage by Alfred Stieglitz | 1907
Alfred Stieglitz’s famous photo The Steerage | 1907“I stood spellbound for a while. I saw shapes related to one another—a picture of shapes, and underlying it, a new vision that held me.”
Alfred Stieglitz
One of the most famous photographers of the early 20th Century, Stieglitz fought for photography to be taken as seriously as painting as a valid art form. His pioneering work helped to change the way many viewed photography.
His NYC galleries featured many of the best photographers of the day.
His iconic image “The Steerage” not only encapsulates what he called straight photography – offering a truthful take on the world. It also gives us a more complex and multi-layered viewpoint that conveys abstraction through the shapes in the image. And how those shapes relate to one another.
Note: Many years ago one of my instructors at my photography program in college showed us The Steerage and talked about how important it was, how significant. The 21-year-old version of myself didn’t get it.
I admit it took me many years to understand its genius and its message. So if you don’t “get” it right off the bat you’re in good company.
#3 Stanley Forman’s famous photo Woman Falling From Fire Escape |1975
Stanley Forman’s famous photo Woman Falling From Fire Escape |1975Forman was a well-known photographer working for the Boston Herald when he attended the scene of a fire.
What began as him documenting the rescue of a young woman and child quickly took a turn when the fire escape collapsed.
The pair began to fall and he continued shooting as they were falling. He capturing them swimming through the air. Forman only lowered his camera and turned at the last moment when he realized what he was witnessing was a woman plummeting to her death.
This famous photograph won Forman a Pulitzer prize. But its interesting legacy is the ethical questions it raised about when a photographer should stop shooting and whether it is appropriate to publish disturbing images. It also caused many municipalities to enforce stricter fire-escape safety codes, so you decide.
Read Also: 12 Famous Portrait Photographers You Need To Know
#4 Kevin Carter’s controversial photo – Starving Child and Vulture | 1993
Kevin Carter Pulitzer Prize-winning photo Starving Child and Vulture | 1993This image is another Pulitzer Prize-winning image.
As famous for its social impact, as it is the ethical issues it raised.
In 1993 South African photojournalist Kevin Carter traveled to Sudan to photograph the famine. His image of a collapsed child, with a vulture stalking over her, not only caused public outrage because of the horrific subject. It also stirred up a lot of criticism directed toward the photographer, for photographing the child, rather than helping her.
That day, and the onslaught that came after continued to haunt Carter until he took his own life in 1994.
For the record, the mother was apparently right next to the scene and the child was never in danger of being attacked by the bird. Notice that it was also shot with a longer telephoto lens which makes a scene look more compressed, making the bird appear closer to the child than reality.
If you want to learn more about this image and more shot by photojournalists in South Africa during the fall of Apartheid, check out The Bang Bang Club. Watch the trailer below, and you can watch the full movie on YouTube for $3.
99. It’s a great documentary, but not for the faint of heart.
#5 Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Eddie Adams | Saigon Execution | 1968
Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Eddie Adams was on the streets of Saigon on the 1st February 1968 photographing the devastation of the war.
Eddie Adams | Saigon execution | 1968Still photographs are the most powerful weapon in the world. - Eddie Adams, PhotographerClick To Tweet
Believing he was witnessing a routine execution of a prisoner. He looked through the viewfinder of his camera, to capture the scene. But what he captured was the casual assassination of the prisoner.
This iconic photo became one of the most powerful images of the Vietnam War.
It helped fuel the anti-war movement and end US involvement in the war because it brought to life in a horrific visual, the magnitude of the violence occurring.
#6 Yousuf Karsh’s iconic portrait – Winston Churchill | 1941
Yousuf Karsh’s iconic photo, Winston Churchill | 1941“By the time I got back to my camera, he looked so belligerent, he could have devoured me. It was at that instant that I took the photograph.”
Yousuf Karsh
In the wake of the attack on pearl harbor, Churchill arrived in Ottawa, to thank the allies for their assistance.
Unaware that a photographer had been commissioned to take his portrait he refused to remove his cigar. Once the photographer was set up he walked towards Churchill, removed the cigar from his mouth and took his famous photograph with the scowl.
Of the incident, Churchill told Karsh “You can even make a roaring lion stand still to be photographed.”
This image is one of the most widely reproduced political portraits.
It gave photographers permission to take more honest, and even critical, portraits of political leaders.
#7 Nick Ut | The Terror of War | 1972
Nick Ut’s famous photo The Terror of War | 1972“The horror of the Vietnam War recorded by me did not have to be fixed.”
Nick Ut
25 miles northwest of Saigon, war photographer Nick Ut, captured one of the most harrowing images in the history of the Vietnam War. More often than not, the faces of those who suffer through the collateral damage of war are not seen.
But the harrowing image of 9-year-old Phan Thi Kim Phuc forced the world to see. A victim of mistakenly dropped napalm, she was later helped by Ut and received lifesaving treatment.
At the time of publication in 1972 many Newspapers had to relax their policies on nudity. The image remains controversial to this day, recently it was briefly removed from Facebook for the same reasons.
Nick Ut won a Pulitzer Prize for this famous image in 1973.
#8 Margaret Bourke-White’s famous photograph – Gandhi and the Spinning Wheel | 1946
Margaret Bourke-White’s famous photograph – Gandhi and the Spinning Wheel | 1946In 1946 Margaret Bourke-White, LIFE magazine’s first female photographer, was offered a rare opportunity to photograph Mahatma Gandhi. This dream opportunity quickly turned into a nightmare. She was made to overcome many challenges before gaining access to India’s ideological leader. Including to spin Gandhi’s famous homespun.
After two failed shoots, thanks to technical difficulties, it was third time lucky for Bourke-White.
This iconic image of Gandhi at his spinning wheel was captured less than two years before his assassination.
Note: Bourke-White was an icon for me coming up as a young photographer. She seemed fearless and went where even some men dared not to go. Her courage and fortitude influenced me and my work early in my career. There is a movie about her life (she’s played by Farrah Fawcett) called Double Exposure.
If you can get your hands on it, it’s a great watch.
#9 Lewis Hine’s famous image – Cotton Mill Girl | 1908
Lewis Hine | Cotton Mill Girl | 1908Established in 1904, the National Child Labor Committee, existed to fight for the rights of child workers in the USA. They realized that the most powerful tool they had was to show the real face of these children. They believed that seeing these images of child labor would awaken the citizens to demand change.
When Lewis Hine, an investigative photographer, came across Sadie Pfeifer, one of the smallest children at work. Standing at just 48 inches, he knew he had a shot that would change peoples views.
This photograph along with others was a crucial part of the campaign which led to a change in legislation. The outcome of which was a 50% cut in the number of child laborers over a 10 year period.
#10 Blind Beggar by Paul Strand | 1916
Blind Beggar by Paul Strand | 1916Paul Strand’s groundbreaking image of a blind woman was a candid portrait that departed from the more formal posed portraits of that time.
Strand not only captured a moment in time, when a country was changing rapidly, due to an immigration surge. But he also took the first image that paved the way for a new style – street photography.
#11 The Iconic V-J Day in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstaedt | 1945
The Iconic V-J Day in Times Square by Alfred Eisenstaedt | 1945“People tell me that when I’m in heaven, they will remember this picture.”
Alfred Eisenstaedt
Alfred Eisenstaedt’s mission through this photograph was to “to find and catch the storytelling moment.” In this post-WWII photograph in Times Square, he did just that.
His famous photograph of the soldier and dental nurse has become one of the most iconic images of the 20th century, signifying the joyous end to years of war.
#12 The first photograph in history – by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce – View from the Window at Le Gras |circa 1826
This is the FIRST photograph ever taken, it was made by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce | View from the Window at Le Gras circa 1826Interestingly the first permanent photograph ever taken was not by an artist, but by inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niépce.
His fascination with printing led him to set up a camera obscura at his studio in France in 1826.
The window scene was cast on a pewter plate and presented a crude copy of the scene outside his window. It was an 8-hour exposure and there is only one copy, a positive image. This is why the image is somewhat confusing because the sun had moved across the courtyard during the exposure, causing shadows on both sides to appear.
His groundbreaking work paved the way for the development of modern photography.
#13 James Nachtwey | Famine in Somalia | 1992
James Nachtwey | Famine in Somalia | 1992“Dare we say that it doesn’t get any worse than this?”
New York Times Magazine reader upon seeing Nachtwey’s image
Unable to get an assignment to document the 1992 famine in Somalia photojournalist James Nachtwey decided to go alone.
Supported on the ground by the Red Cross, Nachtwey captured the horrors of the famine.
This, his most haunting image captures a woman in a wheelbarrow waiting to be taken to a feeding center.
After the publication of his harrowing images the Red Cross received the biggest wave of public support since WWII and were able to save ONE and a half million people.
I have been a witness, and these pictures are my testimony. The events I have recorded should not be forgotten and must not be repeated. -James NachtweyClick To Tweet
#14 Alberto Korda’s iconic photo of Che Guevara, Guerillero Heroico | 1960
Alberto Korda | Guerillero Heroico | 1960Little did photographer Alberto Korda realize when it took two frames of Fidel Castro’s young associate, as an afterthought, that it would become such an iconic image.
Upon his death 7 years later his portrait of Che Guevara would become the iconic image of rebellion and revolution for people around the world. Even still today it is prevalent in the Cuban culture and around the world.
Controversial as Che was, whether you consider him a hero or a villain, the portrait stands the test of time.
#15 Philippe Halsman | Dalí Atomicus | 1948
Philippe Halsman shot this famous photo Dalí Atomicus in 1948Philippe Halsman’s life’s work was to capture the essence of those he photographed. Knowing a standard portrait of the flamboyant Salvador Dali was not going to wash, he set out to create something extraordinary.
Halsman even roped in his wife and daughter to assist in throwing the cats and water into the frame. After 26 shots they finally captured this image that has echoes of Dali’s own artwork in it. Note: Remember that was all film so had to be done in a single frame, there was no Photoshop!
Halsman and Dali both had an unusual sense of style and creativity – some might even say bizarre.
They collaborated on many projects together including Halsman recreating one of Dali’s painting of a skull using human nude figures.
Halsman helped to shape modern-day portrait photography. His images of Dali, Albert Einstein, Marilyn Monroe and Alfred Hitchcock broke the mold and encouraged photographers to collaborate with their subjects.
Note: One of my favorite coffee table photography books is Halsman at Work. It includes not only stunning photographs but the stories behind how he made them, narrated by his wife Yvonne who worked alongside him taking photos of him working.
#16 Dorothea Lange | Migrant Mother | 1936
Dorothea Lange | Migrant Mother | 1936On assignment for the Resettlement Administration, Dorothea Lange was tasked to capture the plight of those most affected by the Great Depression in 1936.
Lang tightly framed 32-year-old Thompson and her young children drawing the viewer into the pain and exhausting etched on her face which appears aged beyond her years.
Upon her return, Lange’s, now famous photograph, became the most iconic image of the 160,000 taken to document this desperate time.
The government acted upon seeing the suffering and sent 20,000 pounds of food.
#17 Eadweard Muybridge | The Horse in Motion | 1878
Eadweard Muybridge | The Horse in Motion | 1878Embarking on a task to discover whether a horse takes flight when galloping. Photographer Eadweard Muybridge was commissioned by California governor Leland Stanford to prove his theory.
Muybridge developed a technique to capture the horse using an exposure lasting just a fraction of a second. He had 12 cameras lined up that were triggered to photograph in rapid succession by the galloping horse.
The series of images Muybridge captured didn’t just prove that a horse does indeed take flight. They also led the way for a new way of using photography with other technology to capture the truth.
This method led the way for the development of animation and motion pictures.
#18 W. Eugene Smith | Country Doctor | 1948
W. Eugene Smith | Country Doctor | 1948“I do not seek to possess my subject but rather to give myself to it,”
W. Eugene Smith
Smith’s aim was to see the world from the perspective of his subjects and for the viewers looking at his work to do the same. This image is taken from his photo Essay “Country Doctor” was taken after Smith had spent 23 days with the subject.
Following the doctor around and really getting to know him, Smith was able to capture the essence of his subject through a single frame. This image and accompanying essay became a template for the form which many have emulated since.
But the image was part of the large photo essay which set a new standard for this genre of photography, photojournalism.
#19 Robert Capa | The Falling Soldier | 1936
Robert Capa | The Falling Soldier | 1936Capa’s image of a Spanish militiaman being shot was taken without him ever looking through his viewfinder.
Captured by holding his camera above his head while in the trenches this image took war photography to a different level. Soon after, journalists began to be formally embedded into army units as their importance in capturing and documenting the horrors of war was realized.
#20 Harold Edgerton | Milk Drop Coronet | 1957
Harold Edgerton | Milk Drop Coronet | 1957Electrical-engineering professor Edgerton began a series of experiments in his MIT lab, inventing a camera that would photograph a fleeting moment in the dark.
Combining high-tech strobe lighting and a camera shutter that would enable the photographer to capture a moment invisible to the naked eye. He set up a milk dropper next to a timer along with his camera.
His stop-motion photograph was able to freeze the impact of a drop of milk on a table and cemented photography’s importance in the world of advancing the human understanding of our physical world.
Keep studying
I want to remind you these are just 20 of the many really important images that have been created over the years.
There are so many more significant photo and photographers, so I encourage you to continue reading and researching.
For starters, you can read about 12 Famous Portrait Photographers from History that You Need to Know and also 25 of the most famous photographers from the past who’ve taken the iconic photos you’re familiar with (or maybe not.)
Please share your favorite famous images in the comments below, and tell us how it’s significant and why it’s important to you.
61 Famous Photos | Powerful Images That Made History
Some photos are memorable. Others are downright world-changing.
So what is it that makes an image stick in the collective memory and become truly iconic?
It’s not enough to capture a moment in history. The most influential, powerful and famous photos are the ones that capture the deeper significance of that moment: the energy and emotion; the triumphs of the human spirit and the consequences of our errors; our helplessness, our glory, our power.
They make history real. They stir emotions in us that don’t diminish with passing years or repeated viewings. And they inspire us to change, so we can make more positive historical moments in the future.
It’s qualities like those that have made these 61 images some of the most famous in the world.
Take a look below at our curation and accompanying web story. Please note – some of the photos may be disturbing.
The Terror Of War, Nick Ut, 1972
The Burning Monk, Malcolm Browne, 1963
Starving Child And Vulture, Kevin Carter, 1993
Lunch Atop A Skyscraper, 1932
Tank Man, Jeff Widener, 1989
Falling Man, Richard Drew, 2001
Alan Kurdi, Nilüfer Demir, 2015
Earthrise, William Anders, NASA, 1968
Mushroom Cloud Over Nagasaki, Lieutenant Charles Levy, 1945
V-J Day In Times Square, Alfred Eisenstaedt, 1945
Pillars Of Creation, Nasa, 1995
Fire Escape Collapse, Stanley Forman, 1975
A Man On The Moon, Neil Armstrong, Nasa, 1969
Jewish Boy Surrenders In Warsaw, 1943
Migrant Mother, Dorothea Lange, 1936
The Hindenburg Disaster, Sam Shere, 1937
Dalí Atomicus, Philippe Halsman, 1948
Leap Into Freedom, Peter Leibing, 1961
Flag Raising On Iwo Jima, Joe Rosenthal, 1945
Hitler At A Nazi Party Rally, Heinrich Hoffmann, 1934
Gandhi And The Spinning Wheel, Margaret Bourke-White, 1946
The Pillow Fight, Harry Benson, 1964
First Cell-Phone Picture, Philippe Kahn, 1997
Muhammad Ali Vs.
Sonny Liston, Neil Leifer, 1965
Saigon Execution, Eddie Adams, 1968
Gorilla In The Congo, Brent Stirton, 2007
Michael Jordan, Co Rentmeester, 1984
A wave approaches Miyako, Japan, Mainichi Shimbun/Reuters, 2011
A couple kisses on a street after riots broke out in Vancouver, British Columbia, Rich Lam/Getty Images, 2011
United Airlines Flight 175 approaches the south tower of New York’s World Trade Center, Kelly Guenther. 2011
A view of the Costa Concordia, 2012
The space shuttle Endeavour, 2012
Palestinian camp of Yarmouk line up to receive food supplies in Damascus, Syria, 2014
G7 Leaders Summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada, German Federal Government, 2018.
Heart surgeon after 23-hour-long (successful) heart transplant. His assistant is sleeping in the corner, James Stanfield, 1987
Flower power, Bernie Boston
Lennon & Yoko, Annie Leibovitz, 1980
The First Photograph Upon Discovery of Machu Picchu, Hiram Bingham, 1911
Prince Charles & Princess Diana.
Tim Graham, 1981
First Aerial Photograph, James Wallace, 1860
Footprint On The Moon, Buzz Aldrin, 1969
Sharbat Gula – Steve McCurry – 1984
Einstein’s Birthday, Arthur Sasse, 1951
Race organizers attempt to stop Kathrine Switzer from competing in the Boston Marathon. She became the first woman to finish the race, 1967
The Gadget, The First Atomic Bomb, Los Alamos National Laboratory, 1945
Sunset on Mars, NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit, 2005
Milk Drop Coronet, Harold Edgerton, 1957
View from the Window at Le Gras (the first permanent photo ever recorded as being taken), Nicéphore Niépce, 1827
D-Day, Robert Capa, 1944
The Tetons and the Snake River, Ansel Adams, 1942
Winston Churchill, Yousuf Karsh, 1941
Guerillero Heroico, Alberto Korda, 1960
The Wright brothers’ first flight, 1903
The floating bodies in Tsunami, 2004
The Loch Ness Monster, Ian Wetherell, 1934
Nelson Mandela and wife Winnie with raised clenched fists following his release from prison in South Africa after 27 years, 1990
Fall of the Berlin Wall, 1989
The last known Tasmanian Tiger (now extinct), 1933
Titanic leaves port, 1912
Ferdinand Porsche showing a model of the Volkswagen Beetle to Adolf Hitler, 1935
The crew of Apollo 1 practising their water landing, 1966
We hope you enjoyed our curation of the most famous photographs of all time.
Perhaps you remember where you were when some of these moments occurred?
Or perhaps you think we should have included another influential photo?
Whatever the case, be sure to join in the discussion in the comments below.
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Not always famous paintings are painted in one manner, most often it is a combination of several directions. The mixing of different genres gave birth to a new trend in art - the subject-thematic.
Plot works are such works in which a certain idea, action, where there are several participants, people or inanimate objects are present. In such paintings, the author describes a moment or event in a person's life.
Narrative pictures are characterized by the display of real events and carry social significance.
Combination of thematic works can be varied :
• Religious and historical.
• Life and religion.
• Image of battle scenes against a landscape.
• Portrait and historical era.
In a word, any events that take place in a person's life or in the development of society can become an idea for an artist to create a thematic canvas.
Historical plot pictures.
These include works that reflect grandiose events that took place in the past. A recognized master artist who worked in the historical genre was V. I. Surikov. His most famous paintings are “Suvorov Crossing the Alps”, “Morning of the Streltsy Execution”.
The legendary "7 Deadly Sins" by Hieronymus Bosch
Other famous artists who painted in this style include: Russian masters Mikhail Avilov and Vasily Polenov, such a giant of painting as Hieronymus Bosch, French painters Francois Boucher and Jean Leon Gerome , the famous English artist Alma-Tadema Lawrence.
You can purchase these and many other famous story historical paintings in our online store.
Battle plot paintings
Battle thematic paintings include all those works that depict scenes of military campaigns and battles. Plot pictures can be both realistic and mythological in nature. One of the many authors who wrote about battle scenes was F.A. Roubaud, who created three panoramic famous paintings: "Defense of Sevastopol", "Storm of the village of Akhulgo", "Battle of Borodino".
"Cossacks at the mountain river F. Rubo"
No less famous is the work of the famous battle painter Vasily Vereshchagin and the wonderful marina battles by Ivan Aivazovsky.
Everyday genre
The theme of paintings in this direction has always been people living their simple lives. People in plot-thematic works are depicted during any classes. Scenes of the domestic genre are clearly visible in such paintings as “The Merchant for Tea” by B.
Kustodiev, “Ladies in the Garden” by C. Monet, “Again the deuce” by F. Reshetnikov.
"Diana and her companions" Jan. Vermeer
The paintings of the Dutch master Jan Vermeer and the French artist Jean Baptiste Chardin also deserve attention.
In a word, a thematic picture becomes when the artist, having determined the idea, the specific plot that inspires him, chooses the ways of implementation, through which he can convey his idea to the viewer.
The most famous paintings in the world
In this article, we have made a selection of the most famous paintings in the world - masterpieces of world art that are familiar to every inhabitant of the planet Earth. Our civilization has produced hundreds of the greatest artists who have written thousands of beautiful paintings, however, among the best of the best, those that are known to everyone - even people who are infinitely far from art - stand out.
It just so happened that these paintings stepped beyond the limits of painting itself, becoming an integral part of the cultural heritage of mankind in general.
They exist as some kind of objective reality is like the Sun or the Moon, and it is impossible to imagine our life without them.
So, the most famous paintings in the world!
The painting "The Birth of Venus" by Sandro Botticelli (presumably 1485), located in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, is not only one of the most famous, but also one of the most sensual works world art. The painting was painted for Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco Medici, who owned the Villa Castello in 1486. Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici - Lorenzo's cousin The Magnificent, Duke of Florence.
Among the exceptional innovations of Botticelli, perhaps the most important was the use of canvas, not board, for a work of such large size (172.5 x 278.5 cm).
The artist added a minimal amount of fat to the pigments, thanks to which the canvas remained strong and elastic for a long time, and the paint did not crack. In addition, during the research it was found that Botticelli applied a protective layer of egg yolk to the painting, thanks to which the "Birth of Venus" was well preserved.
Yes, we cannot do without Leonardo and at least a couple of his works - who would doubt it! And the most famous of all his works is, of course, Mona Lisa, or Mona Lisa! It is believed that da Vinci started to paint a picture in 1503 or 1504 in Florence (Italy), and the execution of the order took him as much as 4 years, despite the small size of the thing. However, clear information about when exactly was completed painting, not preserved.
Although the Louvre - the world's largest art museum and historical monument displaying the original Mona Lisa - states that the Mona Lisa was painted between 1503 and 1506, some historians and Leonardo experts argue that the painting could not have been painted before 1513. However, this question remains open.
The woman depicted in the painting is believed to be an Italian noblewoman named Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant named Francesco del Giocondo. The picture was ordered for their new home and in honor of the birth of their second son Andrea.
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The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci is one of the most respected, most studied and reproduced paintings ever made. our world. Books, films, paintings, music and conspiracy theories are dedicated to her. During its existence, "The Last Supper" has acquired no less number of conjectures and legends, than its creator, the brilliant "man-orchestra Leonardo da Vinci".
One way or another, it would seem that everything should be known about the "Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci. However, I think there are still interesting facts about this masterpiece that you do not know. About them we let's talk. So, interesting facts about the painting "The Last Supper" by Leonardo da Vinci! .. read the full article
The Sistine Madonna (Italian: Madonna Sistina) is a painting by Raphael, which has been in the Old Masters Gallery in Dresden since 1754. Belongs to the number of generally recognized peaks of the High Renaissance and rightly considered one of the most famous paintings in the world.
Huge in size (265 × 196 cm, as indicated by the size of the painting in the catalog of the Dresden Gallery) the canvas was created by Raphael for the altar of the church of the monastery of St. Sixtus II in Piacenza, commissioned by Pope Julius II.
What is very unusual for the beginning of the 16th century, the material was not a board, but a canvas. This may indicate that the canvas was planned to be used as a banner (if only the choice of material not explained by the large dimensions of the work).
In the 18th century, a legend (not confirmed by historical documents) spread that Julius II ordered a painting from Raphael for his tomb, and that his beloved served as a model for the Madonna Raphael Fornarinus, for Saint Sixtus, Pope Julius himself (nephew of Sixtus IV), and for Saint Barbara, his niece Giulia Orsini. Supporters of the theory that the canvas was created for the papal tombs, emphasize that the acorns on the robe of Sixtus II clearly refer to these two popes from the genus della Rovere (rovere - “oak”).
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Our YouTube channel where you will find a lot of interesting videos about painting and not only
The Creation of Adam (Italian: La creazione di Adamo) is Michelangelo's famous fresco, painted around 1511 while the master was painting the walls and vaults of the Sistine Chapel.
It should be noted that the image of God on the frescoes of Michelangelo was one of the first of its kind. Michelangelo really pioneered such a visualization of the Supreme Being.
God the Father was depicted by the artist as a majestic old man with long white hair and a beard - an image that became very common over time. It's hard to believe today, but Michelangelo no one portrayed God in this way... read in full
There are few paintings in the history of painting, in honor of which the whole direction would be named. Painting by Claude Monet "Impression.
Rising Sun" (1872) - just such a case. Anyone, even the most distant person from art, probably, out of the corner of his right or left ear, heard about such a trend in painting as impressionism - because it is impossible not to hear about it.
This is the most avant-garde breakthrough in the visual arts of the 19th century, a real revolution, which, as it happens, was named after this very small (48 x 63 cm) and, at first look, a completely nondescript painting by Monet, the title of which in the original is as follows: Impression, soleil levant (fr.) ... read in full
The Garden of Earthly Delights is the most famous and most monumental triptych of Hieronymus Bosch, painted by the artist between 1500 and 1510. and currently located in the wonderful Museum Prado in Madrid.
The huge space of the triptych (389 x 220 cm) is literally overflowing with transparent figures, fantastic constructions, monsters, hallucinations in the flesh, demonic caricatures of reality - this is one of those works, the detailed consideration of which will take at least a month, and it may even take a whole life to comprehend!
The phantasmagoric world created by Bosch is absolutely incompatible with the framework of any of the existing religions.
It terrifies and attracts at the same time everyone who is lucky enough to see the triptych in the original, and the scenes and characters depicted by Bosch have long been "taken apart for quotes", which only contributes to the popularity of this masterpiece.
In total, El Greco made at least seven copies of the painting "Christ Carrying the Cross", which indicates both the importance of this work for the artist himself and its incredible popularity even during life of El Greco. In our opinion, this is one of the best works of El Greco - if not the best.
The reason, perhaps, is that here El Greco focused primarily not on the divine, but on the human hypostasis of Christ, which is why the picture turned out really touching.
The tearful eyes of Jesus, turned to the heavenly Father, express both a plea for mercy and a request to accept his sacrifice for the salvation of sinful mankind. It is this weakness of Christ that makes him so close to us, people, paradoxically makes us fully realize the divine essence of Jesus.
"Menins" (Spanish: Las Meninas - "maids of honor"), or "Family of Philip IV" - a painting by Diego Velasquez, written in 1656. The painting, now kept in the Prado Museum (Madrid), is rightfully considered one of the most famous works of art in the world.
The canvas depicts the scene of Velasquez painting a joint portrait of the Spanish King Philip IV with his wife and niece Marianne of Austria in the presence of their daughter, Infanta Margarita Teresa. with retinue. The complex and mysterious composition of the painting raises questions about illusion and reality, as well as the uncertainty of the connection between the viewer and the characters.
Today, Las Meninas is considered one of the most significant and most fully studied paintings in the history of Western art. According to Luca Giordano, this painting represents "theology painting", and the president of the Royal Academy of Arts, Sir Thomas Lawrence, called it "a true philosophy of art.
" In addition, this monumental painting (318 x 276 cm) is considered the highest achievement of Velasquez himself and is seen as "a self-conscious and carefully verified demonstration of the limits of painting; perhaps the most profound statement about its possibilities from ever made."... read in full
The picture of the Dutch artist Jan Vermeer "Girl with a Pearl Earring" (1665), located in the Mauritshuis Museum (The Hague, Netherlands) is often compared with the "Mona Lisa" - which, from the point of view the notoriety of this work is entirely justified.
Aside from the stylistic differences, technically "Girl with a Pearl Earring" is not even a portrait, but "trony" is a Dutch word for the image of a human head, but not a full-fledged one. portrait. Interestingly, in 1881, at an auction in The Hague, the painting was purchased for only two guilders and thirty cents!
And between 2012 and 2014, while Mauritshuis was under restoration, "Girl with a Pearl Earring" went on tour in the US, Italy and Japan - and everywhere drew huge crowds, which finally secured her status as one of the most famous paintings in the world.
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The most famous painting by Ivan Aivazovsky, painted by him in 1850, is now kept in the State Russian Museum (St. Petersburg).
One can argue until hoarseness that the scallops of foam on the tops of the waves do not appear on open water spaces - this will not change the obvious fact: of all the paintings of marine painters, written over the past 300 years, none can be compared either in skill, or in impact on the viewer, or in fame with Aivazovsky's The Ninth Wave.
It is interesting that in 1857 the artist painted a copy of his monumental canvas (221 x 332 cm), the dimensions of which were only 28 x 42.2 cm. At the moment, this miniature author's replica stored in the State Museum of the Altai Territory.
"Starry Night" (1889) is not just one of the paintings of post-impressionism, and not just one of the paintings of the most prominent representative of this directions - Vincent van Gogh.
"Starry Night" - perhaps the most famous painting by the Dutch artist, whose fame has stepped far beyond the limited club of lovers painting and became common to all mankind - as happened, for example, with "The Card Players" by Paul Cezanne or "The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali.
Van Gogh wrote "Starry Night" in 1889, healing "mental wounds" after a famous conflict with Paul Gauguin in the clinic for the insane of Saint-Paul de Mausole (Saint Remy de Provence).
Despite being in the "yellow house" - the saddest place on Earth - Van Gogh felt a surge of creative energy and wrote a lot, creating, among other things, the well-known painting "Irises", included today among the most expensive paintings in the world...read the full article
Yes, dear friends: "The Black Suprematist Square", painted by Kazimir Malevich in 1915, is somewhat out of the ordinary: with all desire, it is difficult to call it "beautiful", but the fact remains a fact: "Black Square" - one of the most famous paintings in the history of painting.
You can be indignant as much as you like about the squalor of this work and "the greatest swindle in the history of world art", which is the "Black Square", but tell me, please, at least one person who would not have heard of the "Black Square" - and then let me not believe you. The Suprematist square of Malevich is beautiful, or, on the contrary, terrible - a matter of taste, however, it was and remains one of the most discussed works of all time... read in full
"The Kiss is a painting by Gustav Klimt, painted by an Austrian artist in 1908 and currently in the Belvedere Gallery in Vienna. Paradoxically, the most famous work Klimt and one of the most famous paintings in the world in general, has become an absolutely "harmless" thing in the context of the rest of the artist's work, which seems to literally breathe chastity - or does it just "appear"?
However, Klimt deliberately makes the viewer perceive the plot in this way.
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"The Scream" is the title of not one, but a whole series of works by the Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch, created by the artist in the period from 1895 to 1910.
One of the versions of "The Scream", made in 1895 (cardboard, pastel) became especially famous after it was sold at Sotheby's in 2012 for $ 120,000,000, which was at that time an absolute record of auction sales.
The main character of "Scream", resembling at the same time an embryo, a skull, and a spermatozoon, clasping his head in his hands in horror and agony, became, as they say now, "cult" and received many interpretations in popular culture, becoming a kind of symbol of absolute horror, agony and anxiety in which the human being resides ... read more
Guernica is one of the most famous paintings by Pablo Picasso, painted by the artist between May and June 1937 years old and now owned collections of the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid.
The title of the painting is a direct reference to the bombardment of the Basque city of Guernica by the forces of the German Legion "Condor" on April 26, 1937 during the civil wars in Spain.
The painting was commissioned by the government of the Second Spanish Republic to Picasso for display in the Spanish pavilion during the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris in order to attract attention public to the plight of the Republicans.
In the 1940s, when the military dictatorship of General Franco was established in Spain, Pablo Picasso chose to leave the painting in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, while expressing the intention to return "Guernica" to Spain only after the democratic system is restored in the country...read the full article
And, of course, the list of the most famous paintings in the world is completely unthinkable without the works of of our beloved Salvador Dali . If it were our will, we would put at least a dozen of his works in this top - but we will limit ourselves to two, one of which is The Persistence of Memory (1931).
