We Love Art has asked many of the thousands of Art Lover’s who have attended our events or experienced the We Love Artbox with Streamed Class in their homes: “Who is your favourite artist?”. The beautiful thing about art is that it is subjective, so one may love the Mona Lisa whilst be confused at Magritte’s pipe. Or alternatively one may be bored of the Mona Lisa’s wry smile whilst the questions raised by Magritte may be compelling. Who do you think is the most famous artist ever? Do you agree with our list?
Leonardo da Vinci, probably the most important Renaissance artist, is widely recognized as the most famous artist of all time. He’s the genius behind the iconic Mona Lisa painting masterpiece, after all. It was painted sometime between 1503 and 1519 when Leonardo was living in Florence, and it now hangs in the Louvre Museum, in Paris, where it remained an object of pilgrimage in the 21st century. The sitter’s mysterious smile and her unproven identity have made the painting a source of ongoing investigation and fascination. Da Vinci also created a background with aerial views and a beautiful landscape but muted from the vibrant lightness of the subject’s face and hands. The technique Da Vinci used in executing the painting left behind no visible brush marks, something that was said to make any master painter lose heart. It is truly a masterpiece.
The Mona Lisa is an oil painting, with a cottonwood panel as the surface. It is unusual in that most paintings are commissioned as oil on canvas, but the cottonwood panel is part of what has attributed to the fame of the painting. Because of the medium used for the image, the Mona Lisa has survived for six centuries without ever having been restored–a trait very unusual when considering the time period of the piece.
Among his famous masterpieces, there are also the Last Supper and The Lady with an Ermine. The Last Supper is the most reproduced religious painting of all time and his Vitruvian Man drawing is regarded as a cultural icon as well.
Even nowadays, his works are not fully understood and he still serves as inspiration for many, many aspiring artists.
Beyond painting, although he had no formal academic training, da Vinci was also a scientist and inventor and he created plenty of drawings of the human body and many modern technologies found in the world today. Leonardo’s paintings and preparatory drawings together with his notebooks, which contain sketches, scientific diagrams, and his thoughts on the nature of painting compose a contribution to later generations of artists.
Vincent Willem van Gogh was a Dutch post-impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings, most of which date from the last two years of his life. They include landscapes, still lifes, portraits and self-portraits, and are characterised by bold colours and dramatic, impulsive and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. His paintings include: Starry Night, Cafe Terrace at Night, Sunflowers, Self Portrait and many more.
He painted Starry Night in 1889 during his stay at the asylum of Saint-Paul-de-Mausole near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Blue dominates the painting, blending hills into the sky. The little village lays at the base in the painting in browns, greys, and blues. Even though each building is clearly outlined in black, the yellow and white of the stars and the moon stand out against the sky, drawing the eyes to the sky. They are the big attention grabber of the painting.
Starry Night is one of the most recognised pieces of art in the world. It is absolutely everywhere, too. It can be seen on coffee, mugs, t-shirts, towels, magnets, etc. Honestly, it sometimes feels as if the painting’s fame has exceeded that of its creator. It is a magnificent piece of art. That Starry Night resonates with so many people is a testament to how its beauty is timeless and universal.
He was not commercially successful, and his suicide at 37 came after years of mental illness, depression and poverty. The name of van Gogh was virtually unknown when he killed himself: only one article about him had appeared during his lifetime. However, within the span of a century, van Gogh has become perhaps the most recognised painter of all time. The unprecedented prices his works have attained through auction and the attention paid to forgery scandals have only increased van Gogh’s stature in the public imagination.
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