Oil on canvas
136 artworks made in oil on canvas, with artist, date and current location.
The Starry Night
Painted from memory while van Gogh was in an asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence. He painted it just 13...
Guernica
Created in response to the bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War. Painted in just 35 days...
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Called the Mona Lisa of the North. Not a portrait but a tronie, a study of expression. The pearl is ...
The Persistence of Memory
Features melting watches that challenge our understanding of time. The landscape is Port Lligat, Dal...
The Night Watch
Actually titled Militia Company of District II. The dramatic lighting was revolutionary for a group ...
Water Lilies
A series of approximately 250 paintings. Monet created them while suffering from cataracts. The larg...
A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
Created using pointillism, millions of tiny dots of color. The painting contains 48 people, 8 boats,...
American Gothic
The models were Woods dentist and his sister, not a farming couple. The house in Eldon, Iowa still s...
Nighthawks
Depicts an all-night diner with no visible entrance. Painted shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbo...
Whistlers Mother
Officially titled Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1. The model was Anna McNeill Whistler, his actu...
Las Meninas
Considered one of the most analyzed paintings in Western art. Velazquez includes himself painting at...
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
The definitive painting of the Romantic era. The figure stands on a rocky precipice gazing at the mi...
Starry Night Over the Rhone
Painted on the banks of the Rhone in Arles. Shows the Big Dipper reflected in the water. Van Gogh pa...
Liberty Leading the People
Commemorates the July Revolution of 1830 that toppled Charles X. Liberty is personified as Marianne,...
The Death of Marat
A propaganda painting of the murdered revolutionary leader. Marat was assassinated in his bath by Ch...
Olympia
Shocked Paris when first exhibited. A nude woman staring directly at the viewer was scandalous. Name...
Impression, Sunrise
The painting that gave Impressionism its name, originally used as an insult. Shows the harbor of Le ...
Nafea Faa Ipoipo (When Will You Marry)
Sold for nearly 300 million dollars in 2015, one of the most expensive paintings ever. Painted durin...
The Card Players
A series of five paintings. One version sold for over 250 million dollars to Qatar. Cezanne painted ...
Number 17A
A drip painting created by pouring and splashing paint. Sold for 200 million dollars in 2015. Polloc...
Les Femmes dAlger (Version O)
Sold for 179.4 million dollars in 2015. A reinterpretation of Delacroixs Women of Algiers. Created a...
Three Studies of Lucian Freud
Sold for 142.4 million dollars in 2013. A triptych portrait of painter Lucian Freud. Painted at the ...
The Son of Man
Features a man in a bowler hat with his face hidden by a green apple. Magritte said everything we se...
The Treachery of Images
Shows a pipe with the text This is not a pipe written in French. The point is that the painting is n...
A Bar at the Folies-Bergere
Manets last major work. The mirror reflection does not match the frontal view. The barmaid seems det...
The Potato Eaters
Van Goghs first major work, before he discovered color. Depicts a peasant family sharing a meager me...
Wheatfield with Crows
Often said to be his last painting, though this is uncertain. The three paths may symbolize choices ...
The Bedroom
Depicts van Goghs bedroom in the Yellow House in Arles. He painted three versions. The tilted perspe...
Water Lilies (Agapanthus)
Part of the massive Water Lilies series painted at Giverny. Monet worked on these despite failing ey...
Les Demoiselles dAvignon
The painting that launched Cubism and modern art. Depicts five nude prostitutes from a Barcelona str...
Weeping Woman
A companion piece to Guernica, exploring the grief of the Spanish Civil War. The model was Dora Maar...
The Old Guitarist
Created during Picassos Blue Period when he was destitute in Paris. X-rays reveal a ghostly portrait...
Dance (I)
Five figures dancing in a circle with arms joined. The intense colors and simplified forms shocked a...
The Red Studio
Matisses entire studio rendered in Venetian red. His own paintings appear as objects within the pain...
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte detail
See A Sunday on La Grande Jatte main entry....
Composition VIII
A landmark of abstract art with geometric forms and bold colors. Kandinsky believed colors and shape...
The Two Fridas
A double self-portrait painted during her divorce from Diego Rivera. One Frida wears European dress,...
The Broken Column
Depicts Kahlos physical suffering from a broken spine. Nails pierce her face and body. Her torso is ...
Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird
A monkey and black cat flank her shoulders. The thorn necklace draws blood, referencing Christian ma...
The Tower of Babel
Depicts the biblical tower under construction. The architecture was inspired by the Colosseum in Rom...
Nighthawks detail
See Nighthawks main entry....
American Gothic detail
See American Gothic main entry....
Freedom from Want
One of Four Freedoms paintings inspired by Roosevelts speech. Shows an idealized American Thanksgivi...
The Problem We All Live With
Depicts Ruby Bridges walking to school escorted by US Marshals. Six-year-old Ruby integrated an all-...
Mountains and Sea
Frankenthaler poured thinned paint directly onto unprimed canvas. The soak-stain technique created h...
Dogs Playing Poker
A series of 18 paintings of anthropomorphic dogs playing poker. Commissioned by a cigar company for ...
The Tower of Blue Horses
A masterpiece of German Expressionism. Four blue horses dominate the composition. Confiscated by the...
The Kunsthalle
See relevant Manet entries....
Ophelia
Depicts the drowning Ophelia from Hamlet. Model Elizabeth Siddal lay in a bathtub for hours, catchin...
The Lady of Shalott
Based on the Tennyson poem. The lady is cursed to view the world only through a mirror. When she loo...
Charging Chasseur
A dynamic Napoleonic cavalryman on a rearing horse. Painted when Gericault was only 21. Influenced b...
The Raft of the Medusa
Based on a real shipwreck where only 15 of 147 survived on a raft. Gericault interviewed survivors a...
Liberty Leading the People detail
See Liberty Leading the People main entry....
The Third of May 1808
Depicts the execution of Spanish civilians by Napoleons troops. The central figure in white mirrors ...
Guernica detail
See Guernica main entry....
Annunciation (van Eyck)
Every element is symbolic: the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the signs of the zodiac. The church i...
The Conversion of Saint Paul
Bruegel paints a biblical scene as a contemporary Alpine landscape. Paul falls from his horse in a t...
The Haywain
A bucolic scene of rural England with a hay cart crossing a stream. Constable painted six-foot canva...
The Fighting Temeraire
Shows the warship Temeraire being towed to the breakers yard by a steam tug. The sunset symbolizes t...
Rain, Steam and Speed
A locomotive crosses Maidenhead Bridge through rain and mist. Turner captured the new Industrial Age...
Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour Mouth
Turner claimed he had himself tied to a mast during a storm for four hours to observe it. A steam bo...
The Slave Ship
Depicts the Zong massacre where 132 enslaved people were thrown overboard for insurance money. The b...
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog detail
See Wanderer above the Sea of Fog main entry....
The Monk by the Sea
A tiny figure stands on a vast empty shore before an immense sky. The proportions are deliberately o...
Chalk Cliffs on Rugen
Shows Friedrich and his wife on the island of Rugen. The vast chalk cliffs dwarf the figures. One fi...
The Third of May 1808 detail
See The Third of May 1808 main entry....
The Naked Maja
One of the first totally nude paintings of a real woman, not a goddess. The Spanish Inquisition summ...
The Parasol
A tapestry design showing a young woman with a parasol. One of Goyas cheerful early works before his...
Large Reclining Nude
Part of Matisses Pink Nude series, painted over many months. He photographed each stage, documenting...
The Green Stripe
A portrait of Matisses wife with a green stripe down the center of her face. The color is not descri...
Bonheur de Vivre
The Joy of Life, a pastoral idyll of nude figures in a landscape. Picasso was reportedly jealous and...
Bathers by a River
Matisse worked on this painting for eight years, repeatedly revising it. X-rays show at least 18 dif...
Danae
Depicts the mythological princess Danae visited by Zeus as golden rain. One of Klimts most sensual p...
Death and Life
Klimt reworked it multiple times, changing the death figure from a grinning skeleton to a solemn pre...
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II
Adele Bloch-Bauer is the only person Klimt painted twice. This second portrait uses brighter colors ...
The Village Bride
A sentimental scene of a village bride leaving her family. Greuze specialized in moralizing domestic...
The Swing
The quintessential Rococo painting of aristocratic pleasure. A young woman on a swing kicks her shoe...
The Milkmaid
Vermeer used expensive ultramarine pigment for the apron, made from lapis lazuli. The bread and milk...
The Music Lesson
One of Vermeers most carefully constructed interiors. The mirror above the virginal reflects the you...
View of Delft
Proust was so moved by this painting he wrote a scene about it. The city is seen across a harbor on ...
Woman Holding a Balance
A woman weighs jewelry before a painting of the Last Judgment. The balance suggests weighing worldly...
The Art of Painting
Vermeer kept this painting in his studio and probably never sold it. The model represents Clio, the ...
Allegory of the Catholic Faith
One of Vermeers last paintings and his only explicit religious work. The woman represents Faith, cru...
The Astronomer
Shows a scholar studying a celestial globe. The book on the table is by Adriaen Metius on astronomy ...
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary
Vermeers earliest known painting, unusual for its biblical subject. Mary sits at Jesus feet while Ma...
The Letter (Vermeer)
A maid hands her mistress a sealed letter. The woman was playing a lute, symbol of romantic longing....
The Embarrassed Proposition
A genre scene of a woman rejecting a mans proposition. Leyster was a master of capturing expression ...
Self-Portrait
Leyster depicts herself painting a musician, confidently meeting the viewers gaze. She was a member ...
Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting
Gentileschi portrays herself as Painting personified, following Cesare Ripas iconography. The dishev...
Judith Slaying Holofernes
A visceral depiction of Judith beheading the Assyrian general. Gentileschi painted this after her ow...
Susanna and the Elders
Painted when Gentileschi was only 17. Shows Susanna resisting the blackmail of two elders. Unlike ma...
The Raft of the Medusa detail
See The Raft of the Medusa main entry....
Las Meninas detail
See Las Meninas main entry....
Las Hilanderas
Also called The Spinners. A complex composition with a mythological scene in the background. Depicts...
Portrait of Innocent X
The Pope reportedly said it was too real. Francis Bacon was obsessed with it and made dozens of dist...
Surrender of Breda
Shows the Spanish receiving the Dutch surrender with magnanimity. The key gesture of handing over th...
The Maids of Honour detail
See Las Meninas main entry....
The Night Watch detail
See The Night Watch main entry....
The Jewish Bride
Not actually a Jewish bride, the title was given later. The couple may be Isaac and Rebekah. The pai...
The Return of the Prodigal Son
One of Rembrandts last paintings, completed the year he died. The fathers hands are different: one m...
The Anatomy Lesson of Dr Tulp
Made Rembrandt famous at age 26. Dr Tulp demonstrates the muscles of the forearm on a executed crimi...
Bathsheba at Her Bath
The model was Rembrandts partner Hendrickje Stoffels. The letter in her hand is from King David summ...
The Syndics of the Drapers Guild
Five officials and a servant at work. They appear to look up as if interrupted. Rembrandt gives each...
Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph
Jacob crosses his hands, blessing the younger son over the elder. The light falls on the children an...
Self-Portrait with Beret
Rembrandt painted over 80 self-portraits, more than any other major artist. This one shows him at 53...
Supper at Emmaus
The moment two disciples recognize the resurrected Christ. Christ is beardless, appearing as a stran...
The Calling of Saint Matthew
Christ points at Matthew in a gesture borrowed from Michelangelos Creation of Adam. The light divide...
Bacchus
The god of wine portrayed as a sickly young man. X-rays reveal a small self-portrait of Caravaggio i...
Judith Beheading Holofernes
A brutal, visceral depiction of the biblical story. Judith grimaces with distaste as she saws throug...
The Conversion of Saint Paul
Paul lies on his back, arms outstretched, blinded by divine light. The horse occupies most of the ca...
Narcissus
Narcissus gazes at his reflection in water. The composition forms a circle, the boy and his reflecti...
The Entombment of Christ
Christ is carried to the tomb in a diagonal composition of extraordinary power. The stone slab is th...
David with the Head of Goliath
Caravaggio painted his own face on Goliaths severed head. He was a wanted man, fleeing a murder char...
Boy with a Basket of Fruit
An early work showing Caravaggios friend and model Mario Minniti. The fruit is painted with botanica...
The Cardsharps
A naive young man is cheated at cards by a young sharpster and an older accomplice. The older man si...
The Lute Player
A young musician plays with sheet music spread before him. The sheet music is identifiable as actual...
Dinner at Emmaus
Rembrandts interpretation of the same subject as Caravaggio. Much calmer and more introspective. Chr...
The Milkmaid detail
See The Milkmaid main entry....
Study after Velazquez Portrait of Pope Innocent X
Bacon screamed at Velazquezs original in Rome. He painted about 45 versions of the screaming pope. T...
Figure with Meat
A pope flanked by two halves of a cow carcass. Inspired by Rembrandts Slaughtered Ox. The meat echoe...
The Elephant Celebes
A boiler-like elephant stands in a Surrealist landscape. Inspired by a photograph of a Sudanese corn...
The Barbarians
Strange bird-like creatures advance across a landscape. Ernst identified with birds, inventing an al...
The Lovers
Two figures kiss while their heads are wrapped in cloth. The cloth prevents intimacy, a recurring Ma...
Golconda
Dozens of identical men in bowler hats fall like rain. They hover between falling and floating. Name...
Time Transfixed
A steam locomotive emerges from a fireplace. Magritte wanted it hung at the bottom of the stairs so ...
Empire of Light
A nighttime street beneath a daytime sky. The paradox of simultaneous day and night. Magritte painte...
The False Mirror
A giant eye fills the canvas, with clouds reflected in the iris. The pupil is a black void. The pain...
Not to Be Reproduced
A man looks at a mirror but sees the back of his own head. A book on the mantelpiece is reflected co...
Personal Values
Oversized everyday objects fill a bedroom: a giant comb, shaving brush, glass, cake of soap. The wal...
The Key of the Fields
A window with shattered glass, but the glass fragments on the floor still show the landscape. The br...
This is Not a Pipe detail
See The Treachery of Images main entry....
The Menaced Assassin
A murder scene with a naked woman on a chaise longue. Two bowler-hatted men hide behind the door. Th...
The Human Condition
A painting on an easel perfectly matches the landscape behind it. The painted image merges with real...
The Month of the Grape Harvest
A woman levitates above a stone wall in a landscape. The grape harvest season is suggested by the ti...
Clear of the Arena
A rose fills an entire room, dwarfing a doorway. The beautiful becomes threatening through sheer sca...
The Six Elements
Six panels each showing a different juxtaposition of objects. Each panel is a self-contained Surreal...