Mysterious world art may seem confusing to the unsophisticated, but there are masterpieces that everyone should know. Talent, inspiration and painstaking work on every stroke give birth to works that are admired centuries later.
It is impossible to collect all the outstanding creations in one selection, but we tried to select the most famous paintings, drawing giant queues in front of museums around the world.
The most famous paintings by Russian artists
“Morning in a pine forest”, Ivan Shishkin and Konstantin Savitsky
Year of creation: 1889Museum
Shishkin was an excellent landscape painter, but he rarely had to draw animals, so the figures of bear cubs were painted by Savitsky, an excellent animal artist. At the end of the work, Tretyakov ordered Savitsky’s signature to be erased, considering that Shishkin had done much more extensive work.
“Ivan the Terrible and his son Ivan November 16, 1581”, Ilya Repin
Years of creation: 1883–1885Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Repin was inspired to create the masterpiece, better known as “Ivan the Terrible Kills His Son,” by Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Antar” symphony, namely its second movement, “The Sweetness of Revenge.” Under the influence of the sounds of music, the artist depicted a bloody scene of murder and subsequent repentance observed in the eyes of the sovereign.
"The Seated Demon", Mikhail Vrubel
Year of creation: 1890Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The painting was one of thirty illustrations drawn by Vrubel for the anniversary edition of the works of M.Yu. Lermontov. "The Seated Demon" represents the doubts inherent in to the human spirit, subtle, elusive “mood of the soul.” According to experts, the artist was to some extent obsessed with the image of a demon: this painting was followed by “The Flying Demon” and “The Defeated Demon.”
“Boyaryna Morozova”, Vasily Surikov
Years of creation: 1884–1887Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The film is based on the plot of the Old Believer life “The Tale of Boyarina Morozova”. Understanding key image came to the artist when he saw a crow spreading its black wings like a blur on the snowy surface. Later, Surikov searched for a long time for a prototype for the noblewoman’s face, but could not find anything suitable until one day he met an Old Believer woman with a pale, frantic face in a cemetery. The portrait sketch was completed in two hours.
"Bogatyrs", Viktor Vasnetsov
Years of creation: 1881–1898Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The future epic masterpiece was born small pencil sketch in 1881; For further work on the canvas, Vasnetsov spent many years painstakingly collecting information about the heroes from myths, legends and traditions, and also studied authentic ancient Russian ammunition in museums.
Analysis of Vasnetsov’s painting “Three Heroes”
“Bathing the Red Horse”, Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin
Year of creation: 1912Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Initially, the painting was conceived as an everyday sketch from the life of a Russian village, but during the work the artist’s canvas became overgrown with a huge number of symbols. By the red horse, Petrov-Vodkin meant “The Fate of Russia”; after the country joined the First world war he exclaimed: “So that’s why I painted this picture!” However, after the revolution, pro-Soviet art critics interpreted the key figure in the painting as a “harbinger of revolutionary fires.”
"Trinity", Andrei Rublev
Year of creation: 1411Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
The icon that laid the foundation for the tradition of Russian icon painting in the 15th–16th centuries. The canvas depicting the Old Testament trinity of angels who appeared to Abraham is a symbol of the unity of the Holy Trinity.
"The Ninth Wave", Ivan Aivazovsky
Year of creation: 1850Museum
A pearl in the “cartography” of the legendary Russian marine painter, who without hesitation can be considered one of the most famous artists in the world. We can see how the sailors who miraculously survived the storm cling to the mast in anticipation of meeting the “ninth wave,” the mythical apogee of all storms. But the warm shades dominating the canvas give hope for the salvation of the victims.
“The Last Day of Pompeii”, Karl Bryullov
Years of creation: 1830–1833Museum: Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
Completed in 1833, Bryullov’s painting was originally exhibited in largest cities Italy, where it caused a real sensation - the painter was compared to Michelangelo, Titian, Raphael... At home, the masterpiece was greeted with no less enthusiasm, securing the nickname “Charle the Great” for Bryullov. The canvas is truly great: its dimensions are 4.6 by 6.5 meters, which makes it one of the largest paintings among the creations of Russian artists.
The most famous paintings of Leonardo da Vinci
"Mona Lisa"
Years of creation: 1503–1505Museum: Louvre, Paris
A masterpiece of the Florentine genius that needs no introduction. It is noteworthy that the painting received cult status after the incident of theft from the Louvre in 1911. Two years later, the thief, who turned out to be a museum employee, tried to sell the painting to the Uffizi Gallery. The events of the high-profile case were covered in detail in the world press, after which hundreds of thousands of reproductions went on sale, and the mysterious Mona Lisa became an object of worship.
Years of creation: 1495–1498Museum: Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan
After five centuries, a fresco with a classical plot on the wall of the refectory of the Dominican monastery in Milan is recognized as one of the most mysterious paintings in history. According to Da Vinci's idea, the painting depicts the moment of the Easter meal, when Christ notifies the disciples of imminent betrayal. The huge number of hidden symbols has given rise to an equally huge number of studies, allusions, borrowings and parodies.
"Madonna Litta"
Year of creation: 1491Museum: Hermitage, St. Petersburg
Also known as the Madonna and Child, the painting was kept in the collection of the Dukes of Litta for a long time, and in 1864 it was purchased by the St. Petersburg Hermitage. Many experts agree that the figure of the baby was painted not by da Vinci personally, but by one of his students - a pose too uncharacteristic for the painter.
The most famous paintings of Salvador Dali
Year of creation: 1931Museum: Museum contemporary art, NY
Paradoxically, but the most famous work genius of surrealism, was born from thoughts about Camembert cheese. One evening, after a friendly dinner, which ended with appetizers with cheese, the artist was lost in thought about “spreading pulp,” and his imagination painted a picture of a melting clock with an olive branch in the foreground.
Year of creation: 1955Museum: National Gallery of Art, Washington
A traditional plot given a surreal twist using arithmetic principles studied by Leonardo da Vinci. The artist put the peculiar magic of the number “12” at the forefront, moving away from the hermeneutic method of interpreting the biblical plot.
The most famous paintings of Pablo Picasso
Year of creation: 1905Museum: Pushkin Museum, Moscow
The painting became the first sign of the so-called “pink” period in Picasso’s work. Rough texture and simplified style are combined with a sensitive play of lines and colors, the contrast between the massive figure of an athlete and a fragile gymnast. The canvas was sold along with 29 other works for 2 thousand francs (in total) to the Parisian collector Vollard, changed several collections, and in 1913 it was acquired by the Russian philanthropist Ivan Morozov, already for 13 thousand francs.
Year of creation: 1937Museum: Reina Sofia Museum, Madrid
Guernica is the name of a city in the Basque country that was subjected to German bombing in April 1937. Picasso had never been to Guernica, but was stunned by the scale of the disaster, as if by a “blow from a bull’s horn.” The artist conveyed the horrors of war in abstract form and showed the real face of fascism, veiling it with bizarre geometric shapes.
The most famous paintings of the Renaissance
"Sistine Madonna", Raphael Santi
Years of creation: 1512–1513Museum: Gallery of Old Masters, Dresden
If you look closely at the background, which at first glance consists of clouds, you will notice that in fact Raphael depicted the heads of angels there. The two angels located at the bottom of the picture are almost more famous than the masterpiece itself, due to its wide circulation in mass art.
"Birth of Venus", Sandro Botticelli
Year of creation: 1486Museum: Uffizi Gallery, Florence
The picture is based on the ancient Greek myth about the birth of Aphrodite from sea foam. Unlike many masterpieces of the Renaissance, the canvas has survived to this day in excellent condition thanks to the protective layer of egg yolk that Botticelli prudently covered the work with.
"The Creation of Adam", Michelangelo Buonarotti
Year of creation: 1511Museum: Sistine Chapel, Vatican
One of the nine frescoes on the ceiling Sistine Chapel, illustrating the chapter from Genesis: “And God created man in His own image.” It was Michelangelo who was the first to depict God as a gray-haired old man, after which this image became archetypal. Modern scientists believe that the contours of the figure of God and angels represent the human brain.
"Night Watch", Rembrandt
Year of creation: 1642Museum: State Museum, Amsterdam
The full title of the painting is “Performance of the rifle company of Captain Frans Banning Kok and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburg.” Modern name The painting received its attention in the 19th century, when it was found by art critics who, due to the layer of dirt covering the work, decided that the action in the painting was taking place under the cover of night darkness.
"The Garden of Earthly Delights", Hieronymus Bosch
Years of creation: 1500–1510Museum: Prado Museum, Madrid
Perhaps the most famous triptych by Bosch, named after the central part of the composition: the figures depicted on it selflessly indulge in the sin of voluptuousness. In contrast to the middle part, which is full of small, “hectic” details, the left wing of the picture, depicting genuine paradise, conveys an atmosphere of peace and tranquility, and the right wing, full of devilish mechanisms, on the contrary, recalls the torments of hell.
The most famous paintings of the 20th century
"Black Square", Kazimir Malevich
Year of creation: 1915Museum: Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow
Malevich wrote “Black Square” for several months; Legend has it that a painting is hidden under a layer of black paint - the artist did not have time to finish the work on time and, in a fit of anger, covered up the image. There are at least seven copies of the “Black Square” made by Malevich, as well as a kind of “continuation” of the Suprematist squares – “Red Square” (1915) and “White Square” (1918).
"The Scream", Edvard Munch
Year of creation: 1893Museum: National Gallery, Oslo
Due to its inexplicable mystical effect on the viewer, the painting was stolen in 1994 and 2004. There is an opinion that the picture created at the turn of the 20th century anticipated numerous disasters of the coming century. The deep symbolism of "The Scream" has inspired many artists, including Andy Warhol, directors, musicians and even animators.
"Walk", Marc Chagall
Year of creation: 1918Museum: Russian Museum, St. Petersburg
If you were also tormented by the question: “Why are the people in Marc Chagall’s painting soaring in the air?”, here is the answer from the artist himself - the force that can give a person the opportunity to fly is nothing other than love. It is believed that the man and woman on the canvas are Marc Chagall and his wife.
"No. 5, 1948", Jackson Pollock
Year of creation: 1948Museum: Private collection, New York
This painting still causes a lot of controversy. Some art critics believe that the excitement around the painting, painted using the signature splashing technique, was created artificially. The canvas was not sold until all the artist’s other works were purchased, and accordingly, the price for a non-figurative masterpiece skyrocketed. “Number Five” was sold for $140 million, becoming the most expensive painting in history.
"Marilyn Diptych", Andy Warhol
Year of creation: 1962Museum: Tate Gallery, London
A week after the death of Marilyn Monroe scandalous artist started working on the canvas. 50 stenciled portraits of the actress were applied to the canvas, stylized in the “pop art” genre based on a photograph from 1953.
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Artists have always been highly valued because they could pass on to posterity those whom they would not be able to see. They helped to find eternal life. In modern times, with the invention of the camera, artists have not lost their value. Among any profession there are some outstanding representatives who can be called the best. This top presents a list of the best and most popular artists in the world.
10 Isaac Levitan
Isaac Levitan is an excellent artist, originally from Russian Empire. His life was quite difficult, as was the path he had to overcome in order to become a first-class artist. But it was precisely thanks to his work that Levitan gave the world a large number of landscapes.
9 Auguste Renoir
This French painter, sculptor and graphic artist was born in 1919 in the city of Limonge. This genius artist is one of the first impressionists to gain success among the wealthy citizens inhabiting the city of Paris, and his numerous works are exhibited in many galleries around the world.
8 Claude Monet
Claude Monet was born in France, in the city of Paris in 1926. He is one of the world's most famous painters, as well as one of the founders of impressionism. His work continues to inspire admiration to this day. great amount of people.
7 Salvador Dali
This eccentric artist of the 20th century has haunted our contemporaries for many years. His paintings are striking in their technique, but what is even more striking is what he depicted in his paintings. They frighten and confuse many, and delight many. Despite his controversial works, it can be said that Salvador Dali is one of the most famous artists in the world.
6 Michelangelo Buonarroti
Michelangelo Buonarroti is one of the greatest artists of the Renaissance, known throughout the world. His life was long and eventful, and his works survived centuries and gave him eternal life. His name is still associated with the name of the greatest artist on the planet.
5 Rafael Santi
Rafael Santi is famous artist Renaissance. His works amaze the minds of many, and his technique is simply inimitable. He had a huge number of students, but none of them were able to achieve the same success that their teacher achieved.
4 Jan Wermeer
Jan Vermeer is a brilliant Dutch artist whose portraits amaze with their accuracy and originality. During his lifetime, he earned good money by creating portraits of wealthy clients. And now, his paintings are worth a fortune. Unfortunately, he did not pass on his skills to anyone, because he did not have a single student.
3 Pablo Picasso
This outstanding artist known to many people. And although not everyone understands the value of his paintings, one cannot deny the fact that he made a colossal contribution to the development visual arts, and his paintings brought him a huge fortune.
2 Vincent Van Gogh
This Dutch artist is known not only for his extraordinary works, but also for his mental disorders, which later led to his suicide. Unfortunately, during his life he managed to sell only one painting, but now his works are worth a lot of money.
1 Leonardo da Vinci
This outstanding man is not only an excellent artist, but also a scientist and inventor. He was one of the most outstanding representatives of his time. His paintings are known even to people far from art. His works made a huge contribution to the development of human society.
“Every portrait painted with feeling is, in essence, a portrait of the artist, and not of the one who posed for him” Oscar Wilde
What does it take to be an artist? A simple imitation of a work cannot be considered art. Art is something that comes from within. The author's idea, passion, search, desires and sorrows, which are embodied on the artist's canvas. Throughout the history of mankind, hundreds of thousands, and perhaps millions of paintings have been painted. Some of them are truly masterpieces, known all over the world, even people who have nothing to do with art know them. Is it possible to identify the 25 most outstanding among such paintings? The task is very difficult, but we tried...
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25"The Persistence of Memory", Salvador Dali
Thanks to this painting, Dali became famous at a fairly young age, he was 28 years old. The painting has several other titles - “Soft Hours”, “Hardness of Memory”. This masterpiece has attracted the attention of many art critics. Basically, they were interested in the interpretation of the painting. It is said that the idea behind Dali's painting is related to Einstein's theory of relativity.
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24"Dance", Henri Matisse
Henri Matisse was not always an artist. He discovered his love for painting after receiving a law degree in Paris. He studied art so zealously that he became one of the greatest artists in the world. This painting has very little negative criticism from art critics. It reflects a combination of pagan rituals, dance and music. People dance in a trance. Three colors - green, blue and red, symbolize Earth, Sky and Humanity.
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23"The Kiss", Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was often criticized for the nudity in his paintings. "The Kiss" was noticed by critics as it merged all forms of art. The painting could be a depiction of the artist himself and his lover, Emilia. Klimt wrote this painting under the influence Byzantine mosaic. The Byzantines used gold in their paintings. Likewise, Gustav Klimt mixed gold in his paints to create his own style of painting.
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22"Sleeping Gypsy", Henri Rousseau
No one except Rousseau himself could describe this picture better. Here is his description - “a nomadic gypsy who sings her songs to the accompaniment of a mandolin, sleeps on the ground from fatigue, her jug of drinking water lies nearby. A lion passing by came up to sniff her, but did not touch her. Everything is flooded moonlight, very poetic atmosphere." It is noteworthy that Henri Rousseau is self-taught.
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21"The Last Judgment", Hieronymus Bosch
Without unnecessary words- the picture is simply magnificent. This triptych is the largest surviving painting by Bosch. The left wing shows the story of Adam and Eve. The central part is " doomsday"from Jesus' side - who should go to heaven and who should go to hell. The earth we see here is burning. The right wing depicts a disgusting image of hell.
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20
Everyone knows Narcissus from Greek mythology- a man who was obsessed with his appearance. Dali wrote his own interpretation of Narcissus.
This is the story. The beautiful young man Narcissus easily broke the hearts of many girls. The gods intervened and, to punish him, showed him his reflection in the water. The narcissist fell in love with himself and eventually died because he was never able to embrace himself. Then the Gods regretted doing this to him and decided to immortalize him in the form of a narcissus flower.
On the left side of the picture is Narcissus looking at his reflection. After which he fell in love with himself. The right panel shows the events that unfolded after, including the resulting flower, the daffodil.
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19
The plot of the film is based on the biblical massacre of the infants in Bethlehem. After the birth of Christ became known from the wise men, King Herod ordered the killing of all small male children and infants in Bethlehem. In the picture, the massacre is at its peak, the last few children, who were taken from their mothers, await their merciless death. Also visible are the corpses of children, for whom everything is already behind them.
Thanks to his use of rich colors, Rubens's painting has become a world-famous masterpiece.
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18
Pollock's work is very different from other artists. He placed his canvas on the ground and moved around and around the canvas, dripping paint from above onto the canvas using sticks, brushes and syringes. Thanks to this unique technology in artistic circles he was nicknamed "Jack the Sprinkler". For some time, this painting held the title of the most expensive painting in the world.
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17
Also known as "Dancing at Le Moulin de la Galette". This painting is considered one of Renoir's most joyful paintings. The idea of the film is to show viewers the fun side of Parisian life. At detailed study painting, you can see that Renoir placed several of his friends on the canvas. Because the painting appears slightly blurred, it was initially criticized by Renoir's contemporaries.
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16
The plot is taken from the Bible. In the picture " last supper"depicts Christ's last supper before his arrest. He had just spoken to his apostles and told them that one of them would betray him. All the apostles are saddened and tell him that it is, of course, not them. It was this moment that Da Vinci beautifully depicted through his vivid depiction. The great Leonardo took four years to complete this painting.
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15
Monet's "Water Lilies" can be found everywhere. You've probably seen them on wallpaper, posters and art magazine covers. The fact is that Monet was obsessed with lilies. Before he started painting them, he grew countless numbers of these flowers. Monet built a Japanese-style bridge in his garden over a lily pond. He was so pleased with what he had achieved that he drew this plot seventeen times in one year.
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14
There is something sinister and mysterious in this picture; there is an aura of fear around it. Only such a master as Munch was able to depict fear on paper. Munch made four versions of The Scream in oil and pastel. According to the entries in Munch's diary, it is quite clear that he himself believed in death and spirits. In the painting “The Scream,” he depicted himself at the moment when one day, while walking with friends, he felt fear and excitement, which he wanted to paint.
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13
The painting, which is usually mentioned as a symbol of motherhood, was not supposed to become one. It is said that Whistler's model, who was supposed to sit for the painting, did not show up, and he decided to paint his mother instead. We can say that the sad life of the artist’s mother is depicted here. This mood is due to the dark colors that are used in this painting.
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12
Picasso met Dora Maar in Paris. They say that she was intellectually closer to Picasso than all his previous mistresses. Using Cubism, Picasso was able to convey movement in his work. It seems that Maar's face turns to the right, towards Picasso's face. The artist made the woman's presence almost real. Maybe he wanted to feel like she was there, always.
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11
Van Gogh wrote Starry Night while undergoing treatment, where he was only allowed to paint while his condition improved. Earlier in the same year, he cut off his left earlobe. Many considered the artist crazy. From the entire collection of Van Gogh's works " Starlight Night" gained its greatest fame, perhaps due to the unusual spherical light around the stars.
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10
In this painting, Manet recreated Titian's Venus of Urbino. The artist had a bad reputation for depicting prostitutes. Although gentlemen at that time visited courtesans quite often, they did not think that anyone would take it into their head to paint them. Then it was preferable for artists to paint pictures of historical, mythical or biblical themes. However, Manet, going against the criticism, showed the audience their contemporary.
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9
This painting - historical painting, which depicts Napoleon's conquest of Spain.
Having received an order for paintings depicting the struggle of the people of Spain against Napoleon, the artist did not paint heroic and pathetic canvases. He chose the moment when the Spanish rebels were shot by French soldiers. Each of the Spaniards experiences this moment in their own way, some have already resigned themselves, but for others the main battle has just arrived. War, blood and death, that's what Goya actually depicted.
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8
It is believed that the girl depicted is eldest daughter Vermeer, Maria. Its features are present in many of his works, but they are difficult to compare. A book with the same title was written by Tracy Chevalier. But Tracy has a completely different version of who is depicted in this picture. She claims that she took this topic because there is very little information about Vermeer and his paintings, and this particular painting exudes a mysterious atmosphere. Later, a film was made based on her novel.
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7
The exact title of the painting is “Performance of the Rifle Company of Captain Frans Banning Cock and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenburg.” The Rifle Society was a civilian militia that was called upon to defend the city. In addition to the militias, Rembrandt added several extra people. Considering that he bought an expensive house while painting this picture, it may well be true that he received a huge fee for The Night's Watch.
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6
Although the painting contains an image of Velázquez himself, it is not a self-portrait. main character paintings - Infanta Margaret, daughter of King Philip IV. This depicts the moment when Velázquez, working on a portrait of the king and queen, is forced to stop and look at the Infanta Margarita, who has just entered the room with her retinue. The painting looks almost alive, arousing curiosity in the audience.
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5
This is the only painting by Bruegel that was painted in oil rather than tempera. There are still doubts about the authenticity of the painting, mainly for two reasons. Firstly, he did not paint in oils, and secondly, recent research has shown that under the layer of painting there is a schematic drawing of poor quality that does not belong to Bruegel.
The painting depicts the story of Icarus and the moment of his fall. According to myth, Icarus' feathers were attached with wax, and because Icarus rose very close to the sun, the wax melted and he fell into the water. This landscape inspired W. Hugh Auden to write his most famous poem on the same topic.
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4
The School of Athens is perhaps the most famous fresco by the Italian Renaissance artist, Raphael.
In this fresco at the School of Athens, all the great mathematicians, philosophers and scientists have gathered under one roof, sharing their theories and learning from each other. All the heroes lived in different time, but Raphael placed them all in one room. Some of the figures are Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras and Ptolemy. A closer look reveals that this painting also contains a self-portrait of Raphael himself. Every artist would like to leave their mark, the only difference is the form. Although maybe he considered himself one of these great figures?
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3
Michelangelo never considered himself an artist, he always thought of himself more as a sculptor. But, he managed to create an amazing, exquisite fresco that the whole world is in awe of. This masterpiece is on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. Michelangelo was commissioned to paint several Bible stories, one of which is the creation of Adam. In this picture the sculptor in Michelangelo is clearly visible. Adam's human body is rendered with incredible precision using vibrant colors and precise muscle forms. So, we can agree with the author, after all, he is more of a sculptor.
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2"Mona Lisa", Leonardo da Vinci
Although it is the most studied painting, the Mona Lisa still remains the most mysterious. Leonardo said that he never stopped working on it. Only his death, as they say, completed work on the canvas. "Mona Lisa" is the first Italian portrait in which the model is depicted from the waist up. Mona Lisa's skin appears to glow due to the use of several layers of transparent oils. Being scientists Leonardo da Vinci used all his knowledge to make the image of Mona Lisa realistic. As for who exactly is depicted in the painting, it still remains a mystery.
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1
The painting shows Venus, the goddess of love, floating on a shell in the wind, which is blown by Zephyr, the god of the west wind. On the shore she is met by Ora, the goddess of the seasons, who is ready to dress the newborn deity. The model for Venus is considered to be Simonetta Cattaneo de Vespucci. Simonetta Cattaneo died at 22, and Botticelli wished to be buried next to her. Unrequited love bound him to her. This painting is the most exquisite work of art ever created.
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Conclusion
This was an article TOP 25 most famous paintings in the world. Thank you for your attention!
Among all the most famous artists, I would like to especially note the work of the artist Miftyakhov Marat Khaidarovich.
The landscapes of Marat are amazing and unique.
Pictures can be different: realistic and unrealistic, understandable and incomprehensible.
If you see that a glass is drawn in the picture, then this is completely obvious, so what is there to think about? You looked at the picture and realized that it was a glass, tomorrow you looked again and again and realized that it was a glass... Most likely, having looked at such a picture once, you will not want to look at it again, since it is obvious and does not need in the explanation. Marat's paintings are the complete opposite of such paintings. They attract and fascinate because they depict completely unfamiliar and incomprehensible objects and landscapes, creating fantastic views in combination with each other.
The paintings contain many different small details.
It is very difficult to examine the entire picture in detail at once; such pictures require multiple viewings. And every time, approaching the picture, the viewer can discover something new, something that he had not noticed before. This quality is inherent in all Marat’s paintings and it makes viewing them even more attractive. The paintings are information-rich and carry a deep philosophical meaning.
“I consider Renato Guttuso the most significant artist of modern Western Europe"- wrote J. Berger.
And here are the words of Carlo Levi: “Guttuso is a great artist: and not only of Sicily and Italy. Now he is one of the largest artists in the world. “I am deeply convinced of this and am happy that I can declare this without restrictions or reservations, with full responsibility.”
Renato Guttuso was born in Sicily in Bagheria near Palermo on December 26, 1911 (according to other sources - January 2, 1912), in the family of a land surveyor. He received his first professional skills from folk artist Emilio Murdolo, who painted carriages. While studying at the Lyceum, Guttuso was simultaneously engaged in painting: he became acquainted with books on art and visited artists’ workshops. At the end of the twenties, his first paintings appeared.
At the first Cuadriennale (four-year exhibition Italian artists) little success comes to him - critics paid attention to two of his paintings.
Already during his lifetime, Dali’s name was surrounded by a halo of world fame. No one except Pablo Picasso could compare with him in fame.
The famous film director Alfred Hitchcock wrote: “I appreciated Dali for the cutting contours of his paintings - of course, in many ways similar to the paintings of de Chirico - for his long shadows, endless defamiliarization, an elusive line that goes into infinity, for faces without form. Naturally, he invented many more very strange things that could not be realized.”
Dali said about his painting: “How do you want to understand my paintings when I myself, who created them, don’t understand them either. The fact that at the moment when I paint I do not understand my paintings does not mean that these paintings do not have any meaning, on the contrary, their meaning is so deep, complex, connected, involuntary that it eludes simple logical analysis.”
Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dali y Domenech was born on May 11, 1904 in the small town of Figueres (Girona province), in the family of a lawyer. He was christened with the same name as his brother, who died at age seven from meningitis. In his autobiography, the artist writes: “Having been born, I took the place of the adored dead man, who continued to be loved through me... All my subsequent eccentric actions, all my inconsistent antics were the tragic constant of my life: I had to prove to myself that I was not mine dead brother, but himself - alive. This is how I encountered the myth of Castor and Pollux: by killing my own brother within me, I won my own immortality.”
“Realism is not a formula established once and for all, not a dogma, not an unchangeable law. Realism, as a form of reflection of reality, must be in constant motion,” says Siqueiros. And one more of his statements: “The viewer is not a statue that is included in the linear perspective of the painting... he is the one who moves across its entire surface... a person, observing the painting, complements the artist’s creativity with his movement.”
On December 29, 1896, in the Mexican town of Chihuahua, a son, José David Alfaro Siqueiros, was born to Don Cipriano Alfaro and Teresa Siqueiros. By the age of eleven, he showed a gift for painting, so in 1907 the boy was sent to study at the National preparatory school in Mexico City. Soon after this, Alfaro begins to study in the classes of the Art Academy of San Carlos.
Here Siqueiros becomes one of the student leaders and rouses the academy to protest and strike. The artist recalls: “What were the goals of our strike? What did we demand? Our demands concerned both educational and political issues. We wanted to put an end to the stale academic routine that reigned supreme in our school. At the same time, we also made some demands of an economic nature... We demanded nationalization railways. The whole of Mexico laughed at us... Frankly speaking, I am deeply convinced that it was on that day that an artist-citizen, an artist living in public interests, was born in the soul of each of us...”
Plastov's canvases are full of life-affirming power. Through color and thanks to color, he fills his paintings with a living, vibrant feeling. The artist says: “I love this life. And when you see it year after year... you think that you need to tell people about it... Our life is full and rich, there are so many amazingly interesting things in it that even the ordinary everyday affairs of our people attract attention and shake the soul. You have to be able to see it, notice it.”
Arkady Aleksandrovich Plastov was born on January 31, 1893 in the village of Prislonikha, Simbirsk province, into the family of a village icon painter. His parents dreamed of their son becoming a priest. After completing three classes at a rural school, in 1903 Arkady was sent to the Simbirsk Theological School. Five years later he entered the Simbirsk Theological Seminary.
In the spring of the same 1908, he came into close contact with the work of a team of icon painters who were renovating the church in Prislonikha. “When they started setting up the scaffolding,” the artist writes in his autobiography, “grinding paints, boiling drying oil on the steep bank of the river, I myself was not myself and walked, enchanted, around the visiting miracle workers.” Watching how a new, unprecedented world of images was born on the walls of the old, grimy church, the boy firmly decided: “To be only a painter and nothing else.”
You can understand Chagall by “feeling” and not by “understanding.” “The sky and flight are the main state of Chagall’s brush,” noted Andrei Voznesensky.
“I walked on the Moon,” said the artist, “when astronauts did not yet exist. In my paintings the characters were in the sky and in the air...”
Mark Zakharovich Chagall was born on July 7, 1887 in the city of Vitebsk. He was the eldest of ten children of a small merchant. His father served as a worker for a herring merchant, and his mother, Feiga, ran a small shop. In 1905, Mark graduated from a four-year city vocational school.
Mark’s first teacher was Yu.M. in 1906. Peng. In his autobiography entitled “My Life,” Chagall dedicated the following lines to Yuri Moiseevich: “Pen is dear to me. So his trembling figure stands before my eyes. In my memory, he lives next to his father. Often, mentally walking through the deserted streets of my city, I keep bumping into him. How many times was I ready to beg him, standing on the threshold of the school: I don’t need fame, just to become like you, a humble master, or to hang, instead of your paintings, on your street, in your house, next to you. Let me!”
Famous critic Paul Husson wrote in 1922 about Modigliani:
“After Gauguin, he undoubtedly knew best how to express the feeling of the tragic in his work, but with him this feeling was more intimate and usually devoid of any exclusivity.
...This artist carries within himself all the unspoken aspirations for new expressiveness, characteristic of an era that thirsts for the absolute and does not know the path to it.”
Amedeo Clemente Modigliani was born on July 12, 1884 into a family of Italian Jews. His father, Flaminio Modigliani, after the bankruptcy of his Firewood and Coal office, headed the intermediary's office. Mother, Evgenia Garsen, came from a merchant family.
Picasso said: “Art is a lie that helps us understand the truth.”
Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born on October 25, 1881 in Malaga, Spain, into the family of the artist Don José Ruiz and Maria Picasso y Lopez. Over time, the artist took his mother's surname. My father was a modest art teacher who sometimes carried out orders for interior painting. The boy started drawing very early. The very first sketches amaze with artistry and professional skill. The young artist’s first painting was called “Picador”.
When Pablo turns ten years old, he and his family move to La Coruña. In 1892 he entered the local Art school, where his father teaches a drawing and ornament class.
G.S. Oganov writes: “...The artist sought to reveal the life of the image through the expressiveness of form, hence the search for dynamic tension, rhythm and color. Of course, the viewer is amazed not by these searches themselves, but, above all, by the result. And this result in Petrov-Vodkin always goes beyond purely compositional, decorative, pictorial quests - the life of the spirit is always present here in a concrete psychological and at the same time philosophically generalized expression. This gives scale to his works and makes them, with all external, formal parallels with ancient Russian or modern Western European art works that are original, unique, and deeply independent.”
Kuzma Sergeevich Petrov-Vodkin was born on the Volga in the small town of Khvalynsk on November 5, 1878. He was the first-born in the family of shoemaker Sergei Fedorovich Vodkin and his wife Anna Panteleevna, née Petrova. When the boy was in his third year, his father was recruited as a soldier and sent to serve in St. Petersburg, on Okhta. Soon Anna Panteleevna moved there along with her little son. After two and a half years, she returned to Khvalynsk, where her mother entered service in the house of local rich people. Kuzma lived with her in the outbuilding.
I.E. Repin called Kustodiev “a hero of Russian painting.” “A great Russian artist - and with a Russian soul,” another said about him famous painter- M.V. Nesterov. And here is what N.A. writes: Sautin: “Kustodiev is an artist of versatile talent. An excellent painter, he entered Russian art as the author of significant works everyday genre, original landscapes and portraits with deep content. An excellent draftsman and graphic artist, Kustodiev worked in linocut and woodcut printing, performed book illustrations and theatrical sketches. He developed his own original artistic system, managed to feel and embody the original features of Russian life.”
Boris Mikhailovich Kustodiev was born on March 7, 1878 in Astrakhan. His father, Mikhail Lukich Kustodiev, who taught Russian language, literature, and logic at the Astrakhan girls' gymnasium and seminary, died when the boy was not even two years old. All worries about raising four children fell on the shoulders of the mother, Ekaterina Prokhorovna. Mother rented a small outbuilding in the house of a wealthy merchant. As Boris Mikhailovich recalls: “The whole way of rich and abundant merchant life was in full view... These were Ostrovsky’s living types...” Decades later, these impressions materialize in Kustodiev’s paintings.
The founder of his own abstract style - Suprematism - Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was born on February 23, 1878 (according to other sources - 1879) in Kyiv. Parents Severin Antonovich and Ludviga Alexandrovna were Poles by origin. The artist later recalled: “The circumstances in which my childhood life took place were as follows: my father worked at beet and sugar factories, which are usually built in the deep wilderness, far from large and small cities.”
Around 1890, my father was transferred to the plant, which was located in the village of Parkhomovka, near Belopolye. Here Kazimir graduates from a five-year agricultural school: “The village... was engaged in art (I didn’t know such a word then)... I watched with great excitement how the peasants made paintings, and helped them smear the floors of the huts with clay and make patterns on the stove... The whole life of the peasants fascinated me strongly... It was against this background that feelings for art, for art, developed in me.” Four years later, the family moved to the plant in Volchok, and then moved to Konotop.
Russian painting is rightfully distinguished from the world artistic arts. The fact is that until the seventeenth century, domestic painting was associated exclusively with a religious theme. The situation changed with the coming to power of the reforming tsar, Peter the Great. Thanks to his reforms, Russian masters began to engage in secular painting, there was a separation of icon painting as a separate direction. The seventeenth century is the time of such artists as Simon Ushakov and Joseph Vladimirov. Then, in Russian art world portrait was born and quickly became popular. In the eighteenth century, the first artists appeared, moving from portrait painting to landscape. The artists’ pronounced sympathy for winter panoramas is noticeable. The eighteenth century was also remembered for the emergence of everyday painting. In the nineteenth century, three movements gained popularity in Russia: romanticism, realism and classicism. As before, Russian artists continued to turn to the portrait genre. It was then that the world-famous portraits and self-portraits of O. Kiprensky and V. Tropinin appeared. In the second half of the nineteenth century, artists increasingly depicted the common Russian people in their oppressed state. Realism becomes the central movement of painting of this period. It was then that the Itinerant artists appeared, depicting only real, real life. Well, the twentieth century is, of course, the avant-garde. The artists of that time significantly influenced both their followers in Russia and throughout the world. Their paintings became the forerunners of abstract art. Russian painting is a huge amazing world talented artists who glorified Russia with their creations