CLAUDE MONET FAMOUS PAINTINGS

BAIN À LA GRENOUILLÈRE

La Grenouillère was a popular middle class boating and bathing resort of those
times. Monet wrote on September 25, 1869, “I do have a dream, a painting, the
baths of La Grenouillère, for which I have made some bad sketches, but it is only a
dream.” The painting below and one in the London National Gallery are probably
one of the sketches with the original tableau having been lost. Renoir, who was
very close to Monet at the time, also wanted to do this painting.

WOMAN WITH A PARASOL

One of his earlier works, this painting depicts his first wife Camille Doncieux with
their elder son Jean. Camille is holding a parasol or a light umbrella and it seems
that she is catching a glimpse of someone looking at her. The painting is early
evidence of Monet focusing more on light and color as opposed to line and
shape.

CAMILLE OR THE WOMAN IN THE GREEN DRESS

This is the painting that first brought recognition to Monet. It fetched Monet
800 francs, a great amount for a struggling artist at that time. It features his
first wife Camille Doncieux in a green dress. Camille features in several other
paintings by her husband, including, Women in the Garden, and On the Bank
of the Seine, Bennecourt. The painting is from the early period of Monet’s
career when he painted in realist style as opposed to Impressionist.

SAN GIORGIO MAGGIORE AT DUSK

Monet didn’t intend to paint when he visited Venice in 1908 as it had already
been depicted by numerous artists. However, during his visit he was entranced
by the sights in the city and he called for his painting material. He began a series
of preliminary works which he completed much later when he returned home.
Among these was this painting which is also referred to as Venice at Dusk and
which became one of his most popular paintings. It is noted for thin, light
brushstrokes and masterful depiction of light and the movement of water.

POPLAR SERIES

This famous series consists of 24 paintings of the magnificent trees along the banks of the Epte
River, a few kilometers upstream from Monet’s house. A floating painting studio was moored
in place and he reached there by a small boat. However, before he could finish the town
wanted to auction and sell the trees, so in order to continue, Monet bought the trees and then
sold them after he finished painting. There were three types of groups for these paintings -first
group was three poplars with an ‘S’ curve in the back; second group was a lot of poplars with an
‘S’ curve; third group were poplars with their reflections. A crucial element of the paintings was
the ‘S’ curve that was outlined by the top of the trees; although it made critics term the
paintings too decorative initially, as time passed the ‘S’ curve became a highlight and selling
point for the paintings.
 LEONARDO-DA-VINCI FAMOUS PAINTINGS
Mona Lisa

The world’s most famous artwork, the Mona Lisa draws thousands of visitors to the Louvre
Museum each day, many of whom are compelled by the sitter’s mysterious gaze and enigmatic
smile. The seemingly ordinary portrait of a young woman dressed modestly in a thin veil, somber
colors, and no jewelry might also confound its viewers, who may wonder what all the fuss is about.
The painting’s simplicity belies Leonardo’s talent for realism. The subject’s softly modeled face
shows his skillful handling of sfumato, an artistic technique that uses subtle gradations of light and
shadow, rather than line, to model form. The delicately painted veil, the finely wrought tresses, and
the careful rendering of folded fabric reveal Leonardo’s tireless patience in recreating his studied
observations. Moreover, the sitter’s perplexing expression only adds to her realism. Her smile might
be engaging or it might be mocking—viewers can’t quite figure it out because, like a human, she is a
complex figure, embodying contrary characteristics simultaneously.

Last Supper
One of the most famous paintings in the world, the Last Supper was commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, duke of
Milan and Leonardo’s patron during his first stay in that city, for the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle
Grazie. Depicting a sequential narrative, Leonardo illustrates several closely connected moments in the Gospels,
including Matthew 26:21–28, in which Jesus declares that one of the Apostles will betray him and then institutes
the Eucharist. Leonardo, who was intrigued by the manner in which a man’s character can reveal itself in
posture, expression, and gesture, depicted each disciple’s unique reaction to the declaration. The Apostles’
postures rise, fall, extend, and intertwine as they appear to whisper, yell, grieve, and debate around Jesus, who
sits serenely in the center. Because of Leonardo’s experimental painting technique, in which he used tempera or
oil paint on two layers of preparatory ground, the work began to disintegrate soon after he finished it. Viewers,
however, can still recognize it as a complex study of varied human emotion, revealed in a deceptively simple
composition.
Vitruvian Man
Leonardo’s pen-and-ink drawing Vitruvian Man comes from one of the many notebooks that he kept on
hand during his mature years. It is accompanied by notes, written in mirror script, on the ideal human
proportions that the Roman architect Vitruvius laid out in a book on architecture from the 1st century BCE.
The drawing illustrates Vitruvius’s theory that the ideal human could fit within a circle and a square, two
irreconcilable shapes. Leonardo resolved the concept by drawing a male figure in two superimposed
positions—one with his arms outstretched to fit in a square and another with his legs and arms spread in a
circle. The work shows not only Leonardo’s effort to understand significant texts but also his desire to
expand on them. He was not the first to illustrate Vitruvius’s concepts, but his drawing later became the
most iconic, partly because its combination of mathematics, philosophy, and art seemed a fitting symbol of
the Renaissance. The drawing is now housed in the Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice, where it is not typically
on display but kept in a climate-controlled archive.
Self Portrait
Long regarded as a self-portrait, the red chalk drawing of an old man with long wavy hair
and a beard has been reproduced to such an extent that it defines how most people think
of Leonardo’s appearance. Yet some scholars argue that the figure, with its craggy
features, furrowed brow, and downcast eyes, appears much older than the age Leonardo
ever reached; Leonardo died at age 67. They propose that the drawing may be one of his
grotesque drawings, sketches he habitually made in his notebooks of people with eccentric
features. Whomever the portrait represents, it is a departure from Leonardo’s often
captivating subjects, yet he managed to imbue the figure with the nobility and wisdom of a
mature age.

The Virgin of the Rocks

Based on stylistic evidence, many scholars consider the painting The Virgin of the Rocks in
the Louvre the first of two paintings that Leonardo made of an apocryphal legend in which
the Holy Family meets Saint John the Baptist as they flee to Egypt from Herod’s Massacre
of the Innocents. Leonardo was involved in years of litigation with the Confraternity of the
Immaculate Conception, which commissioned the work, and the dispute eventually led
Leonardo to paint another version of the subject about 1508, which is now housed in the
National Gallery of London.
 SALVADOR DALI FAMOUS PAINTING
THE BURNING GIRAFFE
The Burning Giraffe is seen as an expression of the personal struggle of Salvador Dali with
the civil war going on in his home country. The painting depicts two feminine figures with
undefined phallic shapes protruding from their backs. The hands, forearms and face of the
nearest figure are stripped down to the muscular tissue beneath the skin. Prominently,
there are opened drawers protruding from the left leg and chest of the figurine. Salvador
Dali was a great admirer of famous neurologist Sigmund Freud and several paintings of Dali
were influenced by Freudian theories. These open drawers can be traced to Freud’s
psychoanalytical method and refer to the inner, subconscious within man. The burning
giraffe image in the background was described by Dali as, “the masculine cosmic
apocalyptic monster.” He believed it to be a premonition of war.

TUNA FISHING (HOMAGE TO MEISSONIER)

This painting was created by Salvador Dali at the end of his illustrious career and is considered to be his last great
masterpiece. He spent two summers to create the artwork in which, apart from surrealism, he has used styles
such as Action painting, Pop Art, Pointillism, geometrical abstraction and psychedelic art. Including images from
ancient Greek sculpture to modern cinema, Tuna Fishing depicts violent struggle between men and large fishes as
a personification of the limited universe. The painting is dedicated to Jean Louis Ernest Meissonier, a 19th century
French painter known for his depictions of battle scenes. Dali considered Tuna Fishing to be his most ambitious
work and it is considered by his fans a testament to the mastery he had acquired in his profession during his
career.

DREAM CAUSED BY THE FLIGHT OF A BEE AROUND A

POMEGRANATE A SECOND BEFORE AWAKENING

Salvador Dali said that this painting was intended “to express for the first time in images Freud’s
discovery of the typical dream with a lengthy narrative, the consequence of the instantaneousness of a
chance event which causes the sleeper to wake up.” It shows the sleeping figure of the artist’s
wife Gala Dali floating above a rock. Beside her naked body, two drops of water, a pomegranate and a
bee are also airborne. Gala’s dream is prompted by the buzzing of the bee and is portrayed in the upper
half of the canvas. In a succession of images, a pomegranate bursts open to release a giant red fish from
whose mouth two ferocious tigers emerge together with a bayonet which will soon wake Gala from her
restful sleep. The elephant, later a recurring image in Dali’s works, is a distorted version of Elephant and
Obelisk, a sculpture by famous Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini.

GALATEA OF THE SPHERES

After the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Salvador Dali became captivated with
nuclear physics and the theories of disintegration of the atom. It was also a time when he had
renewed interest in Catholicism. The led to his Nuclear Mysticism period, in which his works often
used ideas from modern science as means of rationalizing the Christian religion. Realizing that
matter was made up of atoms, Dali made his works appear to disintegrate into multiple atoms.
This painting is a portrait of Gala Dali, his wife and muse. Her face is composed of densely
populated spheres, representing atomic particles, which give a marvelous three dimensional effect
to the canvas. Galatea in the title refers to a sea-nymph in Classical Mythology named Galatea,
who was renowned for her virtue. Galatea of the Spheres is one of the most renowned paintings
from Dali’s Nuclear Mysticism period.

METAMORPHOSIS OF NARCISSUS
The paranoiac-critical method is a technique in Surrealism which was developed by Salvador Dali in
the early 1930s. It is used by the artist to tap into his subconscious through systematic irrational
thought and a self-induced paranoid state. Considered one of the main achievements of surrealism,
Dali used it in several of his paintings, especially those involving optical illusions and other multiple
images. According to Greek mythology, Narcissus, who was renowned for his beauty, fell in love with
his own reflection in water. Dali’s interpretation of the Greek myth, this painting shows Narcissus
sitting in a pool, gazing down. Metamorphosis of Narcissus was created by Dali during his paranoiac-
critical period and is among his most renowned works using the technique.
 REMBRANDT FAMOUS PAINTING

The Night Watch

Without a doubt the most famous of all Rembrandt’s paintings, The Night Watch is a group portrait
of the militia company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburgh (in
the center). Painted in 1642, The Night Watch isn’t a night scene as long believed. Cleaning in the
mid-1940s revealed that it is set in daylight. During relocation in the 18th century, the most famous
Rembrandt’s painting was trimmed, most notably on the left side which resulted in the loss of some
characters but it also changed the composition of the painting by making the lightly clothed girl and
Lieutenant the dominant figures of the scene. The Night Watch is housed in the Rijksmuseum in
Amsterdam.

The Storm on the Sea of Galilee

Painted in 1633, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee depicts the miracle of Jesus calming the
storm. The only Rembrandt’s painting in a seascape setting has unfortunately been lost for
more two decades. In 1990, it was stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in
Boston by two thieves disguised in police officers. Besides The Storm on the Sea of Galilee,
the thieves have also stolen Rembrandt’s Portrait of a Lady and Gentleman in Black and 11
other major artworks with a total value of $300 million. In 2013, the FBI announced that
they know who stands behind one of the largest art heists in history but the frames that
used to hold the masterpieces still hang empty.

Self-Portrait with Two Circles

One of many Rembrandt’s self-portraits shows the artist at work. He is depicted holding
his palette, brushes and maulstick with two enigmatic circles in the background. There
are several theories about the meaning of the two circles, ranging from the map of the
word to various symbolic meanings. However, we will probably never know why
Rembrandt painted the two circles and what he is trying to communicate. Painted
between 1665 and 1659, the Self-Portrait with Two Circles is considered as one of the
greatest masterpieces of Rembrandt’s later years and one of the best self-portraits he
ever created. The painting is today on public display in the Kenwood House in London.
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp

Painted in 1632, The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp depicts the Dutch surgeon and the
later mayor of Amsterdam Dr. Nicolaes Tulp holding an anatomy lesson on the corpse of the
executed criminal Aris Kindt. In the 17th century Holland, there was one public anatomy per
year that was performed on the body of an executed criminal. The painting which was
commissioned by the Amsterdam Guild of Surgeons for their board room is today housed in
the Mauritshuis art museum in The Hague.

Bathsheba at Her Bath

The Bathsheba at Her Bath (finished in 1654) depicts Bathsheba, wife of Uriah the Hittite
at the moment she was seen by King David from the roof of his palace. According to the
Biblical story, David had her then brought to him to sleep with her. Since she became
pregnant, David recalled her husband from the army, hoping that he would sleep with his
wife and think that he is the father of the child. But because Uriah didn’t consume his
marriage, the King sent him to sure death by ordering his general to place him in the front
lines. After Uriah’s death, David married the widowed Bathsheba. The painting is today
displayed in the Louvre Museum in Paris.
 MICHELANGELO FAMOUS PAINTING

DONI TONDO

During the early 1500s, Michelangelo was commissioned by Angelo Doni to paint a
“Holy Family” as a present for his wife, Maddalena Strozzi. Michelangelo used the
form of a tondo, or round frame, for the painting. Doni Tondo features the Christian
Holy family (the child Jesus, Mary, and Saint Joseph) along with John the Baptist in the
foreground and contains five ambiguous nude male figures in the background. It is
the only finished panel painting by the mature Michelangelo to survive.

BACCHUS

Completed by Michelangelo by the age of 22, this famous work depicts the Roman
god of wine Bacchus holding a goblet of wine in his right hand and in his left the skin
of a tiger, an animal associated with the god. Sitting behind him is a faun, who eats
the bunch of grapes slipping out of Bacchus’s left hand. Along with Pietà, Bacchus is
one of only two surviving sculptures from the Michelangelo’s first period in Rome.

MADONNA OF BRUGES

The Madonna of Bruges, which depicts Mary with the infant Jesus, was unlike other
depictions of the same subject by other artists which tended to feature a pious Virgin
smiling down on Jesus. Also known as Madonna and Child, and Bruges Madonna; the
sculpture shows a somewhat detached Mary which looks away as if she knows her son’s
future while the infant Jesus is mostly unsupported and appears to be stepping away
from his mother and into the world.

LAURENTIAN LIBRARY

In 1524, Michelangelo was commissioned by the Medici pope to design the library for
the San Lorenzo’s Church in Florence, Italy. Michelangelo designed both the interior of
the library itself and its vestibule. He pioneered the Mannerist style in his design of the
library which became renowned for its architecture. The Laurentian Library is one of
Michelangelo’s most important architectural achievements and his innovations and
use of space in the library were revolutionary.

MOSES

In 1505, Pope Julius II commissioned Michelangelo to build his tomb. Located in the
Church of S. Pietro in Vincoli in Rome, it is most famous for the marble statue of Moses. It
depicts the Biblical figure Moses with horns on his head. Michelangelo felt that the
statue was his most lifelike creation and legend has it that when it was completed,
Michelangelo struck the right knee of the sculpture with a hammer commanding it to
speak.