101 Most Famous Painters Flashcards
Pablo Picasso
1881-1973
Spanish painter famous for his Cubist and Surrealist work, including “Les Demoiselles D’Avignon” “Guernica”, and “The Weeping Woman.” Known for his Blue Period, Rose Period, and Crystal Period.
Giotto di Bondone
1266-1337
The first great Early Renaissance artist. Known for his frescoes of Christ in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, as well as his design of the campanile of the Florence Cathedral.
Leonardo da Vinci
1452 - 1519
Italian polymath known for his High Renaissance paintings, including “Mona Lisa” (aka “Gioconda”), “The Last Supper”, “The Vitruvian Man”, and “Lady with an Ermine”.
Paul Cezanne
1839-1906
French Post-Impressionist regarded as key to the transition between 19th century Impressionism and 20th century Cubism. Famous works include “The Card Players” and “The Bathers”. Stylistically employed small, repetitive brushstrokes, and often painted still life featuring fruit.
Rembrandt van Rijn
1609-1669
Baroque Dutch Old Master known for his interplay between light and shadow, as well as his self-portraits. Famous works include “The Night Watch”, “Bathsheba at Her Bath”, and “Syndics of the Drapers’ Guild”.
Diego Velazquez
1599-1660
Spanish Baroque painter known for his portraits, including “Las Meninas”. Critical influence on later painters such as Manet, Picasso, Dali, and Bacon.
Wassily Kandinsky
1866-1944
Russian Abstract Expressionist and art theorist known as the “Father of Abstraction”. Famous works include “On White II” and “Der Blaue Reiter”. Later work became intensely abstract and geometric.
Claude Monet
1840-1926
French Impressionist whose work “Impression, Sunrise” gave birth to a movement. Other famous works include “Water Lillies”, “Haystacks”, “Poplars”, and “Camille Monet on her deathbed”.
Caravaggio
1571 - 1610
Baroque Italian artist known for his use of tenebrism (abrupt shift from light to dark). Famous works include “Martyrdom of Saint Matthew”, “Calling of Saint Matthew”, “Salome with the Head of John the Baptist”, “Supper at Emmaus”, and “The Resurrection of Lazarus”. Also known for his violent life and early death.
J.M.W. Turner
1775-1851
English Romanticist regarded as the greatest Western landscape painter.
Jan Van Eyck
1390 - 1441
Northern Renaissance artist from the Netherlands. Known for virtuosity in early use of oil paint and unusual pigments. Famous works include “Portrait of a Man in a Turban” and “The Arnolfini Portrait”.
Albrecht Durer
1471 - 1528
German Renaissance painter known for woodcuts and engravings. Famous works include the “Apocalypse” woodcuts, “Knight, Death, and the Devil”, “Saint Jerome in his Study”, and “Melencolia I”.
Jackson Pollock
1912 - 1956
American Abstract Expressionist known for his unique style of drip painting. Died in an alcohol-related single-car accident at 44.
Michelangelo
1475 - 1564
Italian High Renaissance sculptor and painter known for “David,” “Pieta”, “The Last Judgment”, and the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. Imitation of his style led directly to Mannerism.
Paul Gauguin
1848 - 1903
French Post-Impressionist and Symbolist known for experimental use of color and brief, unsuccessful working relationship with Van Gogh. Famous works include “Where Do We Come From? What Are We? Where Are We Going?” Many well-known paintings included depictions of Tahitian women.
Francisco de Goya
1748 - 1828
Spanish Romantic painter regarded as the last Old Master. Served as court painter to the Spanish Crown, and strongly influenced Manet, Picasso, and Bacon. Famous works include “The Third of May 1808”, “The Nude Maja,” “Yard With Lunatics,” and “The Black Paintings,” such as “Saturn Devouring His Sons”.
Vincent Van Gogh
1853 - 1890
Influential Dutch Post-Impressionist who developed his style in Arles and eventually died at 37 by self-inflicted gunshot to the chest. Famous works include “The Potato Eaters”, “The Starry Night”, “Bedroom in Arles”, and “Sunflowers”. Largest collection is in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
Edouard Manet
1832 - 1883
French Realist and Impressionist recognized as pivotal in the transition to Impressionism. Known for his frank depiction of sexuality in works such as “The Luncheon on the Grass” and “Olympia”. His last significant work was “A Bar at the Folies-Bergere”.
Mark Rothko
1903-1970
American Abstract Expressionist of Russian Jewish descent known for “multiforms” consisting of large color blocks. Focused on the spiritual component of his art, culminating in the creation of the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas. Rejected the significance of Pop Art. Died by suicide at 66. Later the subject of “Red”, a Tony-winning play featuring Alfred Molina.
Henri Matisse
1869 - 1954
French painter initially regarded as a Fauvist, but later moving on to modernism and Impressionism. Notable works include “Woman with a Hat”, “Nu Bleu”, and “La Danse”. Noted for expressive use of color in paintings of women and still life. Introduced to Picasso, a lifelong friend, in Paris by Getrude Stein and Alice Toklas.
Raphael
1483 - 1520
High Renaissance Italian painter and architect adhering to Neoplatonic ideals. Died at 37. Best known work is “The School of Athens.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat
1960 - 1988
African-American graffitti artist whos works on the Lower East Side during the late 1970s were classified as “neo-expressionist” and “primitivist.” Died of a heroin overdose at 27.
Edvard Munch
1863 - 1944
Norweigian Expressionist and Symbolist whose works incorporated intensely psychological themes. Famous works include “The Scream”, “Madonna”, and “The Sick Child”.
Titian
1476 - 1576
Influential Italian Renaissance painter who headed the Venetian school. Most famous works include “Assumption of the Virgin”, “Bacchus and Ariadne”, and “Venus of Urbino”.
Piet Mondrian
1872 - 1944
Dutch expressionist known for contributions to the De Stijl art movement. Most famous work is “Broadway Boogie Woogie”.
Piero Della Francesca
1416 - 1492
Early Renaissance Italian painter known for his use of geometry in his paintings. Most famous work is “The Legend of the True Cross,” in Tuscany. Others include “The Baptism of Christ” and “Flagellation of Christ”.
Peter Paul Rubens
1577 - 1640
Flemish Baroque painter based in Antwerp and known for emphasis on movement, color, and full-figured feminine sensuality. Famous works include “The Elevation of the Cross”, “The Descent from the Cross,” “Samson and Delilah”, “Prometheus Bound”, and “The Fall of Man”.
Andy Warhol
1928 - 1987
Leading American figure in Pop Art. Famous for his studio, known as the Factory, as well as for his management of the Velvet Underground. The Andy Warhol Museum in his hometown of Pittsburgh is the largest U.S. museum dedicated to a single artist. Famous works include the film “Chelsea Girls”, and “Campbell’s Soup Cans” in 1962.
Joan Miró
1893 - 1983
Spanish painter and sculptor from Barcelona. Dabbled in Fauvism and Magical Realism before settling in as a Surrealist who used a pictorial sign language in many of his works. Famous works include “The Farm”, “Harlequin’s Carnival”, and the Constellations series from the 1940s.
Tommaso Masaccio
1401 - 1428
First great Italian painter of the Qauattrocento. Name translates to “Messy Tom”. Early employer of linear perspective and the vanishing point. Notable work includes “Explusion from the Garden of Eden”, “Pisa Alterpiece”, and “Holy Trinity”.
Marc Chagall
1887 - 1985
Russian-French Expressionist and Cubist known for his work as a Jewish artist and participation in the School of Paris. Notable works include “The Fiddler” and the ceiling of the Paris Opera.
Gustave Courbet
1819 - 1877
Leading French Realist committed to painting things he could see. Known for bold social statements in his work by depicing unglamourous laborers and peasants. Imprisoned for association with the Paris Commune, and spent several years in exile in Switzerland. Famous works include “A Burial At Ornans” and the graphic “L’Origine du monde”.
Nicolas Poussin
1594 - 1665
Well-known French Baroque painter, serving as inspiration to David and Cezanne. Most works are history paintings of religious or mythological subjects with a large landscape element. Most famous work is “Et in Arcadia ego”, depicting shepherds examining a tomb.
Willem de Kooning
1904 - 1997
Dutch American abstract expressionist who participated in the New York School with Pollock, Rothko, and many others. Notable works include “Woman I”, “Easter Monday”, “Attic”, and “Excavation”.
Paul Klee
1879 - 1940
Prolific Swiss-German painter and Bauhaus colleague of Kandinsky whose often morbid works touched on Expressionism and Surrealism. Wrote extensively about color theory. Known for his humor, musicality, and skill as a draftsman. Died of scleroderma, a painful wasting disease.
Francis Bacon
1909-1992
Maximum exponent, along with Lucian Freud, of the so-called “School of London”. Known for his bleak triptychs often featuring caged figures, including “Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion”.
