Painting is an ancient medium and even with the introduction of photography, film and digital technology, it still has remained a persistent mode of expression. So many paintings have been limned over dozens of millennia that only a relatively small percentage of them could be construed as “timeless classics” that have become familiar to the public—and not coincidentally produced by some of the most famous artists of all time.
It leaves open the question of what mix of talent, genius and circumstance leads to the creation of a masterpiece. Perhaps the simplest answer is that you know one when you see one, whatever part of the world it’s being held in. We, of course, have our opinion of what makes the grade, and we present them here, in our list of the best paintings of all time. Argue amongst yourselves.
Top famous paintings
Top famous paintings
1. Leonardo Da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503–19
Photograph: Courtesy CC/FlickrDystopos
Painted between 1503 and 1517, Da Vinci’s alluring portrait has been dogged by two questions since the day it was made: Who’s the subject and why is she smiling? A number of theories for the former have been proffered over the years: That she’s the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo (ergo, the work’s alternative title, La Gioconda); that she’s Leonardo’s mother, Caterina, conjured from Leonardo’s boyhood memories of her; and finally, that it’s a self-portrait in drag. As for that famous smile, its enigmatic quality has driven people crazy for centuries. Whatever the reason, Mona Lisa’s look of preternatural calm comports with the idealized landscape behind her, which dissolves into the distance through Leonardo’s use of atmospheric perspective.
Where to see the painting: The Louvre in Paris
How much is the painting worth?: It is priceless, according to Encyclopedia Brittanica.
1. Leonardo Da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503–19
Leonardo Da Vinci, Mona Lisa, 1503–19
Photograph: Courtesy CC/FlickrDystopos
Painted between 1503 and 1517, Da Vinci’s alluring portrait has been dogged by two questions since the day it was made: Who’s the subject and why is she smiling? A number of theories for the former have been proffered over the years: That she’s the wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco di Bartolomeo del Giocondo (ergo, the work’s alternative title, La Gioconda); that she’s Leonardo’s mother, Caterina, conjured from Leonardo’s boyhood memories of her; and finally, that it’s a self-portrait in drag. As for that famous smile, its enigmatic quality has driven people crazy for centuries. Whatever the reason, Mona Lisa’s look of preternatural calm comports with the idealized landscape behind her, which dissolves into the distance through Leonardo’s use of atmospheric perspective.
Where to see the painting: The Louvre in Paris
How much is the painting worth?: It is priceless, according to Encyclopedia Brittanica.
2. Johannes Vermeer, Girl with a Pearl Earring, 1665
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Flickr/Nat507
Johannes Vermeer’s 1665 study of a young woman is startlingly real and startlingly modern, almost as if it were a photograph. This gets into the debate over whether or not Vermeer employed a pre-photographic device called a camera obscura to create the image. Leaving that aside, the sitter is unknown, though it’s been speculated that she might have been Vermeer’s maid. He portrays her looking over her shoulder, locking her eyes with the viewer as if attempting to establish an intimate connection across the centuries. Technically speaking, Girl isn’t a portrait, but rather an example of the Dutch genre called a tronie—a headshot meant more as still life of facial features than as an attempt to capture a likeness.
Where to see the painting: It’s in the Mauritshuis Collection in The Hague, The Netherlands.
How much is the painting worth?: It is priceless, according to Mauritshuis.
3. Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night, 1889
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Flickr/Wally Gobetz
Vincent Van Gogh’s most popular painting, The Starry Night was created by Van Gogh at the asylum in Saint-Rémy, where he’d committed himself in 1889. Indeed, The Starry Night seems to reflect his turbulent state of mind at the time, as the night sky comes alive with swirls and orbs of frenetically applied brush marks springing from the yin and yang of his personal demons and awe of nature.
Where to see the painting: NYC’s Museum of Modern Art
How much is the painting worth?: It sold for $117 million at Christie’s in 2022, according to artsy.net.
4. Gustav Klimt, The Kiss, 1907–1908
Photograph: Courtesy CC/Flickr/Jessica Epstein
Opulently gilded and extravagantly patterned, The Kiss, Gustav Klimt’s fin-de-siècle portrayal of intimacy, is a mix of Symbolism and Vienna Jugendstil, the Austrian variant of Art Nouveau. Klimt depicts his subjects as mythical figures made modern by luxuriant surfaces of up-to-the moment graphic motifs. The work is a highpoint of the artist’s Golden Phase between 1899 and 1910 when he often used gold leaf—a technique inspired by a 1903 trip to the Basilica di San Vitale in Ravenna, Italy, where he saw the church’s famed Byzantine mosaics.
Where to see the painting: Belvedere Palace in Vienna
How much is the painting worth?: It auctioned for £85.3 million at Sotheby’s in 2023, according to artsy.net.
