Masterpiece Cards

Masterpiece Cards

250 famous paintings are reproduced and reviewed on 4" x 6" Cards (see a sample art history card). Covers Renaissance paintings through Pop, 500 years of art history.

Curious which paintings? Download our Famous Paintings ebook.  

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Famous Paintings by Art Museum

What art paintings are must-see at certain art museums? Here's what art historians recommend most often in these landmark art museums:

Louvre, Paris: Famous-Artwork-The-Louvre

Metropolitan Museum of Art: Art-Paintings-to-See-at-the-Metropolitan-Museum

National Gallery, LondonArt-Paintings-to-See-at-the-National-Gallery

 

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Art History Blogs

Art Blog by Bob : not to be missed

ArtHistory.net: good biographical info about famous artists

Your Daily Art: an art history blog by Martha Lattie (a guest blogger here!)

Christine Miller’s Art History blog

Macvay AP Art History

Early Modern Art Blog :a new blog with an emphasis on 17th century Italy.

Famous Paintings Reviewed

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Famous Paintings at the Metropolitan Museum

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The collection of famous paintings in the Metropolitan Museum is indisputably one of the world's most comprehensive.  Its 2 million square foot facility houses 2 million works of art spanning 5,000 years.  So where do you start in the Met Museum, and how do you avoid missing its most famous artwork?

When I began seriously frequenting art museums, I wanted to learn which famous paintings were most memorable in the history of painting, which art museums housed them, and what political and social forces had shaped each famous painter and painting. I couldn't find a product that met these specs, so I created one (for details, click here); the result is 250 Masterpieces in Western Painting, a set of art history flashcards of the famous paintings discussed most often by today's art historians.

After some 17,000 pages in nearly two dozen art history books, this is the famous artwork leading art historians discuss most often:

  • Bierstadt, Albert. The Rocky Mountains, Lander's Peak. Oil on canvas, 1863
  • Bingham, George Calleb. Fur Traders Descending the Missouri. Oil on canvas, ca. 1845 (see this painting below, and read about it here)
art paintings Bierstadt
  • Bonheur, Marie-Rosalie (Rosa). The Horse Fair. Oil on canvas, 1853 (see this masterpiece below, and read about this trend-setting famous painter here.)
art paintings analysis
  • Campin (The Master of Flemalle), Robert. Merode Altarpiece (Triptych of the Annunciation). Tempera and oil on wood, 1425 - 1430
  • Caravaggio, (Michelangelo Merisi).The Musicians. Oil on canvas, ca. 1595.  See this painting below.  Is it four young men, or two viewed from different angles? This is discussed in Masterpiece Cards!
art paintings Caravaggio
  • Christus, Petrus. A Goldsmith in his Shop, Possibly St. Eligius. Tempera and oil on wood, 1449
  • Cole, Thomas. View from Mount Holyoke, Northampton, MA, after a Thunderstorm (The Oxbow). Oil on canvas, 1836.  See below. Customers of Masterpiece Cards know that the name "Noah" is hidden in this painting. Where? Get your own Cards and discover this and more! 
art paintings Thomas Cole
  • Constable, John. Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Grounds. Oil on canvas, circa 1825
  • Courbet, Gustave. Woman with a Parrot. Oil on canvas, 1866
  • Daumier, Honore. The Third Class Carriage. Oil on canvas, 1863 - 1865.  See this art painting below.  An ardent defender of the poor and those who could, as here, only afford third-class rail tickets, Daumier frequently portrayed those displaced by industrialism.  
art paintings Metropolitan Museum
  • David, Jacques-Louis. Death of Socrates. Oil on canvas, 1787
  • Eakins, Thomas. Max Schmitt in a Single Scull. Oil on canvas, 1871
  • El Greco (Domenikos Theotokopoulos). View of Toledo. Oil on canvas, circa 1604 - 1614. Is this art painting real or imagined? It's some of each, as we explain in Masterpiece  Cards
El Greco View of Toledo
  • Goya, Francisco de. Don Manuel Osorio Manrique de Zuniga. Oil on canvas, circa 1798
  • Goyen, Jan van. Pelkus Gate near Utrecht. Oil on panel, 1646
  • Hartley, Marsden. Portrait of a German Officer. Oil on canvas, 1914. In this painting, Hartley eulogizes a young Prussian lieutenant.  In Masterpiece Cards, we explore who he was, why he mattered to Hartley, and the meaning of the initials (Kv.F) and numbers ("4" and "24"). Without this context and history, the painting remains enigmatic. 
famous paintings Metropolitan Museum
  • Ingres, Jean-Auguste-Dominique. Princess de Broglie. Oil on canvas, 1853
  • Kauffmann, Angelica. Telemachus and the Nymphs of Calypso. Oil on canvas, 1783.  See below. Kauffmann was the dominant female painter of her time, and produced numerous history paintings. Astonishingly, she was forbidden - like other female painters - from working with nude men or women.  
famous artwork Metropolitan museum
  • Labille-Guiard, Adelaide. Self-Portrait with Two Pupils. Oil on canvas, 1785
  • Louis, Morris. Alpha-Pi. Acrylic on canvas, 1961. Morris poured water-soluble acrylic paint on raw canvas, so that the paint seeped into the canvas' weave rather than sitting on the surface. 
Art paintings Morris Louis
  • Matisse, Henri. Promenade Among the Olive Trees. Oil on canvas, 1905
  • Memling, Hans. Maria Baroncelli Portinari and Tommaso di Folco Portinari. Oil on wood, circa 1470
  • Modigliani, Amedeo Reclining Nude.  Oil on canvas, 1917
  • Monet, Claude. Rouen Cathedral: The Portal (In Sun).  Oil on canvas, 1894
  • Murillo, Bartolome Esteban. The Virgin and Child. Oil on canvas, 1675 - 1680
  • O'Keeffe, Georgia. Black Iris III, Oil on canvas, 1926
  • Panini, Giovanni Paolo. Modern Rome. Oil on canvas, 1757.  Inspired by Rome's standing buildings and abundant ruins, Panini painted them and embellished the scenes with imaginary backgrounds.  We'll i.d. for you in Masterpiece Cards some of the famous artwork arrayed in his Modern Rome, below!
art paintings Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Picasso, Pablo. Portrait of Gertrude Stein. Oil on canvas 1906 (read about this painting here).
  • Pollock, Jackson. Autumn Rhythm (Number 30). Oil on canvas, 1950.
  • Rembrandt. Aristotle Contemplating the Bust of Homer.  Oil on canvas, 1653 (See this art painting below, read about it here).
art paintings Metropolitan Museum of Art
  • Rubens, Peter Paul. Venus and Adonis.  Oil on canvas, circa 1635
  • Sargent, John Singer. Madame X. Oil on canvas, 1894 (see Madame X below, and read about this painting here
art paintings John Singer Sargent
  • Stuart, Gilbert. George Washington.  Oil on canvas, 1795
  • van Goyen, Jan. Pelkus Gate near Utrecht.  Oil on panel, 1646
  • Velazquez, Diego. Juan de Pareja.  Oil on canvas, 1650.  Given that most of Velazquez's work is in Spain, don't miss this gem!
Velazquez Metropolitan Museum
  • Vermeer, Jan. Young Woman with a Water Jug.  Oil on canvas, circa 1665
  • Watteau, Jean-Antoine. Mezzetin.  Oil on canvas, circa 1718.
Note: The titles in orange are included in 250 Masterpieces; the others were often cited by art historians, but not as often as those in orange. Think runnerups.  For more information, visit www.TheMasterpieceCards.com.  Know a great thing when you see it? Own your own by clicking here.


Comments

Funny enough, I just saw Thomas Cole's The Ox-bow at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. It's on tour with other Hudson River School masterpieces in the Met's collection. So, if you're a Hudson-head and in the Philly area, you can see the Cole and others from NYC with the great PAFA collection.
Posted @ Monday, August 10, 2009 7:18 PM by Bob
Stunning paintings. 
 
I love the Singer Sargent. 
 
 
 
Perhaps one day I will be able to visit!
Posted @ Tuesday, September 22, 2009 3:47 PM by Liam
Am searching for a famous painting I saw in the Louve of a young man sitting with head down and arms wrapped around his knees in a contemplative pose.
Posted @ Friday, November 06, 2009 7:51 AM by jeff siemens
.  
 
It great!!!!! cool! 
 
Have you heard of the largest art theft in history, perverse… see it at http://www.publicjustice.tv part of the paintings shown at http://www.MASTERPIECES.TV you will see and art beyond believe, observe them and click the logos of Dapacu, they are super cooool! You will enjoy them as an artist! and the events are beyond belief. 
 
Posted @ Sunday, November 08, 2009 5:13 AM by Juany
I found a veryold oil painting that I thought was unsigned. I began to research and found Pannini pened very faintly on the unpainted boarder of the canvas. The painting depicks ruins with a sheperd sitting, holding a staff and a maid standing at the base of a colum pointing at it. There are also sheep and a dog in the painting. I searched the museums for the original and can not find the name of this work. Does anyone know of it?
Posted @ Thursday, January 28, 2010 7:04 AM by John Lane
Wiki.answers.com has a cateogry called "Unidentified Artworks"; readers write descriptions of famous paintings for which they are seeking names, and the community often can identify them. Definitely worth a shot! 
 
Susan Benford
Posted @ Tuesday, February 02, 2010 9:56 AM by Susan Benford
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