most famous painting and best painter

DeathByTheSword · January 3, 2004, 08:32

well most of the people will say mona lisa but lets say that one doesnt count...what is in your world the most famous painting and which painter is the best painter?

i ask this because the 'nachtwacht' from rembrandt was recently moved and it was on national news and stuff... who know the 'nachtwacht' ?

DaShi · January 3, 2004, 08:33

Vincent

DeathByTheSword · January 3, 2004, 08:39

i my self am in favor of all the dutch painter...(call me patriotic :s)...but vermeer and rembrandt are good!

Provost Harrison · January 3, 2004, 08:55

Most famous one is probably Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci...personally from what I have seen of it it seems a little drab and boring. Give me some Salvador Dali any day...

Alex · January 3, 2004, 09:01

mona lisa is out? then let me see... that one on the Sistine Chapel where God creates man, by Michelangelo, perhaps.

now, best painter? there is not a "best" painter.

atawa · January 3, 2004, 09:02

Vincent van Gogh - self portrait

Urban Ranger · January 3, 2004, 09:15

There's no one single best painter, but the most famous one is probably Picasso.

Buck Birdseed · January 3, 2004, 09:15

Most famous painting? Well, the Night Watch is up there but not iconic enough. If Mona Lisa is out the most "popular culture" painting has to be either Alex's or atawa's choices, or possibly "The Scream" by Edward Munch.

SpencerH · January 3, 2004, 09:32

Alex already mentioned the only other 'famous' painting. The sad truth is that most people couldnt even name another painting, wouldnt know the names of more than a handfull of the most famous painters, and wouldnt recognize or appreciate their work if they saw it.

IMO even many people who claim a knowledge of art merely regurgitate the pap they've been force fed without thought.

DeathByTheSword · January 3, 2004, 09:49

yes that is true...sadly...i am not a big museum fan...but each time i go and watch all those painting my week is ok again... they are true works of arts...it shows besides creativity of the painter also the mastery of the painting arts...what i cant say of throwing some paint on the canvas...

Urban Ranger · January 3, 2004, 10:14

Starry Night?

dannubis · January 3, 2004, 11:15

i really like "het lam Gods" (the lamb of God) painted by the Van Eyck brothers. It took them 40 years but the result is one of the wonders of the world ...

I Eat Pizza · January 3, 2004, 13:32

Nobody mentioned the very famous "Dogs Playing Poker" painting.

Whoha · January 3, 2004, 15:32

the one where the photoshopped godzilla into a rembrant painting and it didnt look out of place.

Agathon · January 3, 2004, 15:40

Got to be Guernica

Sandman · January 3, 2004, 15:50

I've always liked Vermeer's 'Girl with a pearl earring'.

It's not the most famous one, I'll grant you that.

Alex · January 3, 2004, 17:12

Well, there are others which are more or less know, and some of them have been cited here before:

- Starry Night - Van Gogh
- Les Demoiselles D'Avignon - Picasso
- Guernica - Picasso
- Arrangement in Gray and Black: Portrait of the Painter's Mother - Whistler
- Le Moulin de la Galette - Renoir
- The Persistence of Memory - Dali
- Der Küss - Klimt
- The Scream - Munch
- Nighthawks - Hopper (I love his paintings, btw)
- Liberty Guiding the People - Delacroix
- The Nude Maja - Goya
- Oath of the Horatii - David
- The Milkmaid - Vermeer
- The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp - Rembrandt
- The Night Watch - Rembrandt
- Las Meninas - Velázquez
- Supper at Emmaus - Caravaggio
- The Burial of Count Orgasz - El Greco
- The Sistine Madonna - Raphael
- The Garden of Earthly Delights - Bosch
- The Birth of Venus - Botticelli
- The Triumph of Death - Brueghel (the Elder)
- Adam and Eve - Dürer

Of course this just scratches the surface, but some of those paintings are among the best known in the world.

Buck Birdseed · January 3, 2004, 18:00

Good list, ones I'd add:

- La Grande Guerre by René Magritte
- Marilyn Monroe (Pink) by Andy Warhol
- Campbell's Soup I (Tomato) by Andy Warhol
- Waterlilies (Clouds) by Claude Monet
- American Gothic by Grant Wood
- Bacchus and Ariadne by Titian
- The Cheat With The Ace of Diamonds by Georges De La Tour
- The Last Supper by Leonardo Da Vinci
- Whaam! by Roy Liechtenstein

Not all of these are great paintings but they're ones many people recognice.

I bet I'll think of more too.

Buck Birdseed · January 3, 2004, 18:17

- Episode from the Spanish War of Independence - Goya
- The Arnolfini Marriage by Jan van Eyck
- Olympia by Edouard Manet
- Death of Marat by Jaques-Louis David

Plus an absolute shitload of famous portraits! Not least the ones on american money, Gilbert Stuart's one of George Washington for instance.

Asher · January 3, 2004, 18:42

I'm partial to Brandon Bird paintings myself.

"Elysium"

"Two Warriors Come Out of the Sky"

"Waiting for Adventure"

Buck Birdseed · January 3, 2004, 18:58

Oh yeah, favourite painter? Italian futurist Luigi Russolo. Some deride his paintings as simplistic but I love the action they extrude.

laurentius · January 3, 2004, 19:16

Asher, is that Mr. T looking at the sun in elysium?

ontopic; guernica!

DeathByTheSword · January 3, 2004, 19:55

Quote:

I've always liked Vermeer's 'Girl with a pearl earring'.

there is a film coming up about that painting...watched the trailer not so long ago

Boris Godunov · January 3, 2004, 20:43

Come on, I would think Da Vinci's "The Last Supper" would be the obvious runner-up to Mona.

Alex · January 3, 2004, 23:30

sure, "the last supper" has to be one of the most famous...

snapcase has a good list too.

another ones that I like: Piero Della Francesca, Constable, Turner, L.S. Lowry, Ingres, Degas, Cézanne, Klee...