The famous paintings of the world are celebrated for their genius, creativity, and powerful storytelling. Each masterpiece offers a glimpse into different eras, cultures, and emotions, captivating art lovers across generations. From Vincent van Gogh’s The Starry Night, with its swirling skies and emotional depth, to Rembrandt’s The Night Watch, revolutionizing group portraiture with its dramatic light and movement, these works have shaped the history of art. Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez, Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Les Demoiselles d’Avignon by Pablo Picasso further highlight the innovation and cultural significance of these timeless creations. Discover the fascinating stories behind these world-famous paintings and their lasting impact on the art world.
The World’s Famous Paintings
11. The Starry Night; by Vincent van Gogh
The Starry Night is Vincent van Gogh’s most famous painting and was done in 1889 when he was staying at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole psychiatric hospital near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. At that time, van Gogh was struggling with depression and paranoia. A year following this masterpiece, he tragically took his own life. In The Starry Night, van Gogh shows an idealized village before dawn, from the window of his hospital room, in a dreamlike vision. It is one of the clearest testaments to his genius, particularly in the innovative use of thick, swirling brushstrokes.
The swirling sky, teeming with bright stars, a crescent moon, and dramatic, cloud-like forms in vivid yellows and blues, dominates the scene. While the exaggerated elements might appear surreal, they evoke a deep sense of connection and emotion. A small, tranquil village is nestled below the hills under the horizon line. Dark-colored cottages with lighted windows join around a high church steeple, while on the left a huge shadowy cypress tree reaches toward the heavens, making the whole scene enigmatic and a bit eerie.
To Émile Bernard, he wrote in a letter: “Night is more colorful than the day. In the middle of the night, the stars are not merely white dots against a black sky; they appear yellow, pink, or even green.”
The Starry Night was painted in the workshop on the ground floor of the asylum. Incredibly, during his 12-month stay, van Gogh created 32 versions of the view from his window at different times of day and in various weather conditions: sunrise, moonrise, sunny days, rainy scenes, and storms. This iconic painting is one of the most celebrated results of that prolific period.
The Starry Night
12. Night Watch; by Rembrandt
The first thing that can be noted about The Night Watch is its unusual use of light and darkness. The Night Watch, or Night Patrol, was painted by Rembrandt, the Dutch artist famously known as “The Master of Light,” in 1642. It shows a group of city guards, under the command of Captain Frans Banning Cocq, ready to march out. The original title of the work was Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburch. This was a well-paid work for Rembrandt as a rich man; he got a fee of 1,600 guilders, which was legendary in the annals of Dutch history.
There are three reasons why the Night Watch can be regarded as one of the most famous paintings in the world: Military paintings or group portraits are usually stationary without any trace of movement, but in this painting, the guards, led by their captain, are posed in action, ready to march.
It is an enormous painting in size. Dramatic use of sunlight and shadow is another impressive feature of the work.
Based on the 17th-century version of The Night Watch, the Lundens version, it is known that parts of this painting were cut in 1715 to fit into a room at the Royal Palace in central Amsterdam. According to the Rijksmuseum, this incident in the history of the painting is highly regrettable; in June 2021, the cut pieces were restored.
Throughout its history, The Night Watch has undergone substantial damage. In 1911, an unemployed naval cook sliced the painting with a knife, producing a zigzag tear in the canvas. The tear was partially repaired then and the painting has been closely watched since that time. A different assailant used a knife again in 1975. In 1990, an individual suffering from mental problems sprayed the painting with sulfuric acid. This is an estimated work of one million dollars’ value.
Night Watch
13. Las Meninas; by Diego Velázquez
Las Meninas, the Spanish term for The Maids of Honour, is considered the most extensive painting in the annals of Spain and one of the most enigmatic works of the world. This was a creation of Velázquez in 1656 because of the commission from King Philip IV of Spain. King Philip IV of Spain ruled from 1621 to 1665 and resided in the Royal Palace until 1819 before he moved to the Prado.
We find a group portrait of a Spanish royal family in Las Meninas: five-year-old Infanta Margaret Theresa is at the center, surrounded by her attendants. This painting has been considered for centuries as one of the most complex works of art in the world and a piece that has puzzled art historians. Las Meninas is an odd, fragmented break from the traditional works it had been, including Velázquez himself, a nun, a dwarf, and the princess. In similar commissioned works of the time, only the royal family would be depicted with a clear and formal hierarchy; in Las Meninas, none of these rules are followed.
Another mysterious aspect of the painting is its composition. It seems that as the viewer looks into this peculiar painting, people inside the painting are looking back at us through some kind of window frame. This effect of mirroring also occurs in another part of the painting, where Velázquez paints a self-portrait of himself.
14. Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette; by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette is the best known and most famous work by Pierre-Auguste Renoir that he created in 1876 in Paris and took as a basis for this picture a garden atop the Montmartre hills. This painting is the scene of a gay Sunday afternoon in late 19th-century Paris at the Moulin de la Galette. Actually, most figures of this picture are not ordinary customers or locals but the artist’s friends, depicted in casual and sometimes professional postures.
Renoir said about this piece: “I do my best to only paint for the amusement and pleasure of mankind, and not to fatigue and bore them by pointing out things that should be seen, and they do not see for themselves.
A smaller, almost similar version of Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, measuring 78 × 114 cm, is also believed to be painted by Renoir and is said to be in a private collection in Switzerland. This smaller version is almost similar to the bigger one, except that in this one, lighter shades have been used.
15. Les Demoiselles d’Avignon; by Pablo Picasso
When Les Demoiselles d’Avignon was first exhibited in 1916, even some of Picasso’s closest friends compared the work to a joke – the French painter Henri Matisse included. Done in France in the summer of 1907, this was considered by many a pornographic painting that generated heated controversy in artistic circles at the time. Picasso reportedly took approximately nine months to complete the painting and is, according to some, a rejoinder to Matisse’s Le Bonheur de vivre and his “Blue Nude” rendering.
In Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, Picasso broke through the conventions of Western painting and any known forms, using as inspiration some African masks he had seen in the Palais du Trocadéro ethnographic museum. The main subject of the painting is five women in Barcelona. Picasso used sharp angles, exaggeration of facial features,
“To be continued…
