The Most Famous Painters

A LOOK AT

DISCOVER THE 24 MOST FAMOUS PAINTERS IN THE WORLD

Giotto is regarded as one of the most famous painters in art history and is celebrated for his deviation from the then-traditional Byzantine style in religious painting. 

GIOTTO DI BONDONE

Da Vinci operated during the Italian High Renaissance and had since established himself as an icon in painting. Many of his drawings can also be found at Windsor Castle in England under the Royal Collection.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

An architect, poet, and painter, this old master is most famous for his frescoes at the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo was one of the most prolific painters of the Italian High Renaissance.

MICHELANGELO BUONARROTI

Lavinia Fontana was one of the first and most successful female artists in Western Europe who operated in Rome and Bologna during the 16th century.

LAVINIA FONTANA

Caravaggio was one of the most famous artists in art history whose approach to painting and technical excellence over the use of the chiaroscuro painting technique went on to influence many artists well into the next century.

CARAVAGGIO

Rubens operated during the 16th century and specialized in a variety of subject matter with his portraits and commissioned works being among the best of his paintings.

PETER PAUL RUBENS

Artemisia Gentileschi was a prominent Italian painter who operated during the 17th century and was an expert in the Caravaggio-styled aesthetic. 

ARTEMISIA LOMI

One of the best master painters in art history, Rembrandt, was a famous portrait artist from the Dutch Golden Age period of the 17th century.

REMBRANDT

Judith Jans Leyster was one of the first Dutch female artists to register with the Haarlem Guild of St. Luke during the 17th century and was a master still-life painter and portraitist of her day.

JUDITH JANS LEYSTER

Vermeer displayed some of the finest photorealistic images in his artworks. Vermeer chose to paint with expensive pigments, and only utilized approximately 20 known pigments.

JOHANNES VERMEER

Joseph Mallord William Turner, better known as J. M. W. Turner, was one of the best Romantic painters of the 19th century who specialized in maritime scenes and seascapes.

J.M.W. TURNER

Oscar-Claude Monet was one of the pioneering artists of the French Impressionist movement, who remains one of the most referenced French painters to date.

CLAUDE MONET

Cassatt was also known to be a famous portrait artist who often painted subjects related to the relationship between mother and child as well as the subtle relationships between the observer and the observed.

MARY CASSATT

Van Gogh was a leader of the post-Impressionist movement who invented his own unique style and as such became one of the most loved artists in art history.

VINCENT VAN GOGH

Hilma Af Klint was a famous artist whose paintings were inspired by science, Symbolism, religious practices, and geometry. Klint is an artist who incorporated her spiritual practice with her abstract approach to art.

HILMA AF KLINT

Klimt’s paintings revolved around an exploration of the female body, eroticism, figurative artwork, allegory, and landscape scenes.

GUSTAV KLIMT

Edvard Munch was one of the first Expressionist artists to develop a unique approach to painting through the human experience of grief, melancholy, and deep psychological fears.

EDVARD MUNCH

Picasso was one of the best Cubist painters in the world who not only explored his artistic ideas through Cubism and politics but also printmaking, sculpture, and theater design.

PABLO PICASSO

Delaunay is often recognized alongside her partner Robert Delaunay and often in light of her contribution to the art movement known as Orphism. 

SONIA DELAUNAY

O’ Keefe believed in expressing the simplicity of life through selection, elimination, and emphasis across subjects to expose the true meaning of things.

GEORGIA O'KEEFE

Łempicka approached painting with a fresh eye rather than an agenda to painting, which is refreshing and is mirrored brilliantly in her quick and clean-cut brushwork.

TAMARA DE LEMPICKA

Dalí is admired for his precision in technical approaches to painting as well as his unusual distortion of the ordinary and representation of reality.

SALVADOR DALI

Kahlo’s paintings are informed by the symbolism and heritage of Mexican culture as well as the personal experiences in her life involving love, betrayal, pain, and identity.

FRIDA KAHLO

Her paintings portray scenes from everyday life and include an exploration of her femininity as well as the livelihoods of women around her.

AMRITA SHER-GIL