Famous oil painting - top 100 for reproductions in museum quality

Who doesn't want to call masterpiece of art history and famous oil paintings For us normal consumers, however, the often seven to eighteen prices are not to be lifted. The next best alternative is a high -quality and faithful reproduction of a plant of the old or new masters.

Enjoy the splendor of having high -quality art by opting for oil painting productions in museum quality . Art streoduations are an excellent way to acquire paintings from world -famous top artists at an affordable price.

In professional and experienced providers with a master level, oil-on canvas reproductions of extremely talented artists are hand painted and show the same brilliance, attention to detail and the same artistic handwriting as the originals. Artists with years of or even decades of experience create valuable art streplics on carefully prepared canvases.

Reproductive art comprises prints and hand -painted paintings and the two options sometimes differ greatly from each other in some points. In our detailed comparison in the article "High-quality art and painting reproductions for your home-a short guide" , whether you are more of a hand-painted copy or a Giclée art print ( Fine Art Print

With providers such as handmatepiece , professional artists create the highest quality oil painting productions, no prints. With careful reproductions you can see any brush stroke on the finished work.

Every painting production is created in the own studio or studio of an artist with more than 20 years of experience, and all artists follow a specific and detailed process to achieve fabulous results.

For fine art prints and art prints from master hand, we recommend the provider of master prints . In Austrian handicrafts, more than half a million works of art have already been made faithfully as art copy. The many positive and highly satisfied customer voices (for example on Provenexpert). speak a clear language.

Oil painting - the centuries -old technology of the masters

The technology of oil painting, defined by painting with pigments with dry oil as a binder, originally goes back to the 7th century AD and thus includes a wide range of well -known styles and art movements . Countless famous works of art were created with this technique.

Buddhist artists in Afghanistan painted the earliest known specimens of oil paintings. In Europe, technology was used by artists from the 12th century.

Many of the most famous oil paintings known to the western world today were created by European artists, including old masters, in the following centuries to follow their Buddhist predecessors.

The history of oil painting in Europe

It was artists from the Netherlands who were the first to take over the process of oil painting in Europe. Numerous examples can be found in early Dutch painting.

Oil painting required an elaborate process in these early days, because traditional oils (including flaxseed, poppy seeds, walnut and thistle oil) needed about 1-3 weeks to dry. Oils were sometimes cooked with a resin, which led to a shiny paint.

The technology of oil painting has also been widespread, at the highlight of the Renaissance, many famous artists across Europe replaced this technology with temperamalerei.

valuable oil paintings are still very popular at auctions today, and many of the most famous works in oil on canvas are admired in unbroken zeal by countless museum visitors.

So if you are in the mood for a virtual tour of the most famous and popular oil paintings in recent centuries, you will find the 100 most popular works of art below that have ever been painted with oil paints. Most of these famous oil paintings are original in top museums around the world.

Our top 100

1. Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

Year: approx. 1503-06 | Medium: oil on poplar plate | Location: Louvre Museum, Paris

The visitor magnet par excellence in the Louvre in Paris (around 6,000 paintings are exhibited, but 90 % of the visitors go directly to Mona Lisa). Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece of the Italian Renaissance is perhaps the most famous oil painting portrait at all and also undisputed our Numero Uno.

After all, it was described as "the best known, most visited, most described, most sung, most parodyed work of art in the world" . The Mona Lisa was painted in oil on a white Lombardy poplar panel and is known for the confusing expression of the motif (allegedly Lisa Gherardini, an Italian noble), atmospheric illusionism and its exceptionally unique composition.

Since the painting was acquired by King Franz I of France, it is now property of France and has been hanging in the Louvre since 1797. Perhaps the most valuable oil painting in the world holds a record for the highest known insurance assessment in history: $ 100 million in 1962, which corresponds to $ 660 million in 2019.

2. The star night of Vincent van Gogh

Year: 1889 | Medium: oil on canvas | Location: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City

Vincent van Gogh's star night is considered one of the most famous paintings in western art and is a dazzling work in oil on canvas that is currently hanging in the MoMA.

It was painted in 1889 and shows the look of the post-impressionist painter from his sanatorium room (with a fictional village below) in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. While van Gogh created several paintings of this special view, The Starry Night is the only night. It is considered an opus magnum of the artist - his masterpiece.

3. The kiss of Gustav Klimt

Year: 1907-1908 | Medium: oil and sheet on canvas | Location: Belvedere, Vienna

Gustav Klimt was an Austrian painter and was attributed to symbolism and Art Nouveau. He created the kiss between 1907 and 1908. Art experts believe that this was the highlight of Klimt's "Golden Period".

This shimmering piece was painted with oil on canvas, but Klimt added gold leaf, silver and platinum to make it shine. The work shows two hugging lovers (hence the original name lovers), decorated with nouveau robes.

Today this famous oil painting hangs in the baroque building complex Belvedere in Vienna, Austria. It is considered a masterpiece of Viennese succession (a Viennese version of the Art Nouveau) and is the climatic most famous work.

4. Girl with the pearl ear hanging of Johannes Vermeer

Year: approx. 1665 | Medium: oil on canvas | Location: Mauritshuis, the Hague

The Dutch painter of the Golden Age , Johannes Vermeer , painted the girl with the pearl ear ring around 1665, a portrait in oil on canvas.

While it has had different names in the past centuries, it took its current title in the 20th century after the earring that the girl wore in the painting (she also wears an exotic dress and an oriental turban).

Today the work in Mauritshuis, an art museum in the Haag, hangs a popular topic in literature (including in Tracy Chevalier's novel "Girl with a Pearl Earring" from 1999, a fictional story about the creation of the work).

5. Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Year: 1937 | Medium: oil on canvas | Location: Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid

The famous Spanish artist Pablo Picasso painted one of his most famous works, Guernica in 1937 during the Spanish Civil War.

This black and white plant in oil on canvas shows suffering people and animals in the middle of chaotic violence. Picasso painted it in his house in Paris, after Nazi Germany and the fascist Italy Guernica, a city in Basque Country in Spain. The bombing was requested by Spanish nationalists of that time.

Guernica's shocking representation of the atrocities of the war made it one of what art critics describe as one of the most influential anti -war paintings in history that has paid the necessary attention to the Spanish civil war.

The huge painting is 3.49 meters high and 7.76 meters wide and clearly shows a pounded horse, a screaming woman, flames, a bull and dismemberment. Today the painting in the art museum of the 20th century, the Museo Reina Sofía, in Madrid, Spain hangs.

6. The night watch of Rembrandt van Rijn

Year: 1642 | Medium: oil on canvas | Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Rembrandt van Rijn's painting "Die Nachtwache" from 1642, also called militia company of the II district under the command of Captain Frans Banninck Cocq, is one of the best -known works in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Another famous oil painting on canvas of the Dutch golden age . The night watch is popular because of its impressive size, the use of tenebrism (the dramatic coordination of light and shadow) by the artist and the representation of movement.

Rembrandt directs the viewer to his most important image motifs by mastery sunlight and shadow: the two men in the middle and the woman with a chicken behind it in the left center.

7. Sunrise from Claude Monet

Year: 1872 | Medium: oil on canvas | Location: Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris

The French Impressionist painter Claude Monets created this dreamy work. The sunrise from 1872 was first shown at the exhibition of the Impressionists in Paris in April 1874. This oil painting on canvas is also said to have been the namesake of the Impressionist movement.

With a beautiful combination of gray, orange and pink tones, Monet portrays the port of Le Havre, his hometown in northwestern France.

"Impression, Sunrise" hangs in the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris, France.

8. American Gothic by Grant Wood

Year: 1930 | Medium: Oil on Biberkarton | Location: Art Institute of Chicago

Grant Woods American Gothic, an iconic work of the American regionalist movement , was painted in 19730 during the Great Depression in America.

The painting, which is currently part of the Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago, shows a farmer who stands next to his daughter (although she is often wrongly considered his wife).

After the building style of the house in the background, called American Gothic, it is one of the best -known paintings in American art of the 20th century . It soon gained great fame all over the world and is often parodied in American popular culture.

The work was first exhibited in 2016 and 2017 outside the United States in the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris and the Royal Academy of Arts in London.

9. The resistance of the memory of Salvador Dalí

Year: 1931 | Medium: oil on canvas | Location: Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City

The Spanish painter Salvador Dalí created his world famous oeuvre "The Persistence of Memory" . The surrealistic work of art quickly became one of the most important works of the surrealistic movement.

Since its creation, it has been mentioned numerous times in pop culture, especially because of its most striking characteristics - the "melting" pocket watch.

These soft, melting objects support the theory of the artist of "softness" and "hardness", which he intensively researched and which at that time was of central importance for his works.

While some believed that The Persistence of Memory Dalí's view of Albert Einstein's special relativity was, according to the artist, it was "the surrealistic perception of a camember that melts in the sun".

10. Christ in the storm at the lake of Galilee by Rembrandt van Rijn

Year: 1633 | Medium: oil on canvas | Dimensions: 160 cm × 128 cm | Stilpoche: Baroque | Location: unknown

Another work by the famous oil painter and Dutch master Rembrandt . The Storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee was created in 1633.

This work shows the disciples of Christ in a fishing boat on the high seas how they fight in a storm and lost control of their ship.

A disciple vomits overboard, another stares at the viewer directly while he sticks to his hat. This is a self -portrait of Rembrandt itself.

Only Christ is shown how he preserves his sense of calm. The scene comes from a biblical story of Christ, who calms down the storm, from the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Mark.

The storm on the lake Galilee, known as Rembrandt's only sea landscape , was most recently in the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, but was one of 13 works that were stolen from the museum in 1990. His whereabouts are still unknown.

11. The old guitarist of Pablo Picasso

Year: 1903-04 | Medium: oil on wood | Location: Art Institute of Chicago

One of the earlier and most famous works by Pablo Picasso is The Old Guitanist , an oil-on-board painting that was created between 1903 and 1904. The work shows an old, blind, emaciated musician who bends over his guitar in the streets of Barcelona.

At that time, Picasso was influenced by the movements of modernity , impressionism , post -impressionism and symbolism . At this time he lived in poor conditions. In the meantime, his dear friend committed suicide, which marked Picasso's blue period .

An interesting fact in this famous painting is that, as X -rays have shown, 3 different figures are hidden behind the old guitarist. Today, spectators can marvel at this masterpiece in the Art Institute of Chicago.

12. Vincent van Gogh swords

Year: 1889 | Medium: oil on canvas | Dimensions: 71 cm x 93 cm | Stilpoche: Post Impressionism | Location: J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Another famous oil painting by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh , painted in May 1889. This is one of several works in a series that was also created in the Saint Paul-de-Mausole institution in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence.

The beautiful work was created just a year before Van Gogh's death in 1890. The swords he painted were in the hospital garden, and it was assumed that the style of this series was influenced by Japanese Ukiyo-E-woodcut cuts, as can be seen in many by van Goghs.

The painting is loved because of its softness and lightness and is "full of air and life", as Van Gogh's brother Theo described.

Today the work can be seen in the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, California.

13. Las Meninas from Diego Velázquez

Year: 1656 | Medium: oil on canvas | Dimensions: 3.18 MX 2.76 m | Stilpoche: Baroque | Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid

The Spanish painter and leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age , Diego Velázquez, painted his iconic work in Las Meninas .

It is best known for its complexity, since this oil painting, created on canvas, questions the relationship between reality and illusion as well as that between the viewer and the motives shown. Las Menina's one of the most analyzed works of western painting.

Although its importance is largely controversial, Las Menina shows the main chamber of the Royal Alcazar of Madrid, according to the Spanish art historian FJ Sánchez Cantón, during the reign of Spanish King Philipp IV.

The figures shown are members of the Spanish court - infantin Margaret Theresa, as well as her honorary ladies, decency ladies, bodyguards, two dwarfs and a dog. The focus is on Velázquez himself, who looks at the viewer directly and paints on a large screen. The figures of the king and the queen should stand in the background.

To this time, Las Menina's remains one of the most important paintings in western art and was described as a representation of theology in painting, first by the baroque painter Luca Giordano and many others after him.

The work is currently hanging in all its splendor in its own room in the Museo del Prado in Madrid, Spain.

14. "The birth of Venus" (La Nascita di Venere) by Sandro Botticelli

Year: approx. 1485 | Medium: Tempera | Original size: 180 x 280 cm | Stilpoche: Italian Renaissance | Location: Galleria Degli Uffizi Florence Italy

The painting of Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) shows the birth of the goddess Venus , which arrives on the mainland of the island of Cyprus, in a sea mussel that is pushed by the hot: Zephyr and perhaps aura .

The goddess is welcomed by a young lady who is recognized in some cases as one of the graces or as Hora of spring, and she has a cloth ready to cover Venus.

The Romans set their goddess of love, Venus, with the Greek Aphrodite, which was born in the saga from sea foam after Kronos was entertained his father Uranos and threw the phallus into the sea.

For the Italians, Venus as the mother of Aeneas, the progenitor of the Romans, alongside Mars, the father of Romulus and Remus, whose mother Aeneas' line came from, had a special meaning as evidence of the divine origin of their people.

15. "The Cafe Terrace on the Place du Forum, Arles" by Vincent van Gogh

Year: 1888 | Medium: oil on canvas | Size: 81 x 65.5 cm | Stilpoche: Post-impressionism | Location: Kroller-Mueller Museum Otterlo, Netherlands

Café Terrace is an oil painting from 1888 by the famous Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh . The Cafe Terrace is often mentioned at the Place du Forum.

When it was originally issued in 1891, it was entitled Coffeehouse at Night.

16. "Bal du Moulin de la Galette" by Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Year: 1876 | Medium: oil color | Size: 31 × 175 cm | Stilpoche: Impressionism | Location: Musée d'Orsay

Bal du Moulin de la Galette is a painting by the French artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir from 1876. It is located in the Musée d'Orsay in Paris and is one of the best-known works of Impressionism .

The work of art shows a Sunday evening in the first Moulin de la Galette from Montmartre in Paris.

17. "The Creation of Adam" (Creation of Adam) by Michelangelo Buonarroti

Year: 1510 | Ceiling fresco of the Sistine Chapel

The creation of Adam is undoubtedly one of those works that leaves the viewers deeply impressed. Not a big surprise, because here we are shown an overwhelming vision of God .

Although the original is not an oil painting, but a ceiling fresco , the motif is very often replicated as an oil painting .

It shows how God created Adam from the remains of the earth. In the picture you can see Adam on the left, which is almost relaxed on the floor. Michelangelo is said to have painted Adam in this attitude to show that God has not yet breathed life into him.

According to examinations of a neuromedician, the representation of God, with his helpers and the red cloth, should correspond to the cross -section of the human brain. This should probably reflect the unity of mind and body.

Typical for Michelangelo's work is the use of bodies that are muscular, as well as painting figures that act like sculptures . The fact that Michelangelo was first of all contributed to this.

18. "Napoleon crosses the Alps / Napoleon Crossing the Alps" by Jacques Louis David

Year: 1803 | Medium: oil on canvas | Size: 2.6 MX 2.21 m | Stilpoche: classicism, neoclassicism | Location: Castle of Versailles

Between 1801 and 1805, the French artist Jacques-Louis David a series of five oil-on-screen horse portraits by the great army guide Napoleon Bonaparte .

The painting commissioned by King of Spain shows a strongly romantized version of Napoleon's actual alpine crossing over the Great St. Bernhard in May 1800, shortly before his victory against the Austrians in the second coalition war (1799-1802).

The representation of a ruler on horseback is based on a long tradition that goes back to the antiquity, imperial Rome. The lack of military aspects in this picture is intended to serve the purpose of portraying Napoleon as a sovereign thinker and strategists who win his victories with the spirit and not the weapon.

It is controversial whether the client was Napoleon himself.

Nevertheless, it has become one of the most reprinted illustrations in Napoleon.

19. "Les demoiselles d'Avignon" by Pablo Picasso

Year: 1907 | Medium: oil on canvas | Size: 243.9 × 233.7 cm | Stilpoche: Cubism | Location: Museum of Modern Art, NY

A famous oil painting by the Spanish artist Pablo Picasso , which was completed in 1907. The painting, which is part of the constant collection of the Museum of Modern Art, shows five naked female prostitutes in a brothel in Barcelonas Carrer D'Avinyó (Calle de Avión [ES]).

None of the figures is conventional female, and each is shown in a trouble -twisted and mask -like manner.

The oil painting of the Spanish artist is seen as a turning point in the history of Western painting and at the same time initiated the announcing cubism.

20. "The hiker over the fog sea" (The Wanderer Above The Sea of ​​Fog) by Caspar David Friedrich

Year: 1818 | Medium: oil color | Size: 95 cm x 75 cm | Style epoch: German romance | Location: Hamburger Kunsthalle

Hiker over the fog sea is a painting by Caspar David Friedrich , a German romantic that was painted in 1818. It is considered one of the greatest works in romance and one of its most emblematic works. The work of art can be seen in the Hamburger Kunsthalle in Hamburg.

The hiker in back view as a central image motif stands on a rock summit with a view of a fog -covered mountain landscape. His dark blonde hair blow in the wind. Despite the dangerous location, the entire posture seems balanced, confident and quiet.

In the medium and background of the painting, we see a staggered mountain landscape that is crossed by several fog banks.

In the background we see a tall mountain mountain on the left side of the painting behind fog banks. A smaller table mountain can be seen on the right side. It is probably the circle, a rock formation of Saxon Switzerland .

With its multi -layered staggering of the various mountains and fog strips, Caspar David Friedrich manages to create the impression of an almost infinite width. We see the limitless expanse of nature, as it is seen by the hiker, as if we are behind him.

21. The two sisters, on the terrace (The Two Sisters, on the Terrace, 1881) by Pierre Auguste Renoir

Year: 1881 | Medium: oil on canvas | Dimensions: 100.5 x 81 cm | Stilpoche: Post Impressionism | Location: Art Institute of Chicago, USA

The title "Two Sisters" (French: Les Deux Sœurs) was given to the Renoir oil painting itself. The picture was then nickname "on the terrace" (French: Sur La Terrasse) from his first owner Paul Durand-Ruel .

Renoir worked on the painting on the terrace of Maison Fournaise, a restaurant on a Seine Island in Chatou, a suburb of Paris.

The painting shows a young woman and her younger sister, who sit outside with a small basket with a small basket. You can see bushes and leaves over the railings of the terrace.

Jeanne Darlot (1863-1914), a future actress, at that time only to be 18 years old, posed as "the older sister". It is not known who made himself available as a "younger sister". However, it is stated that the two models were not really related.

Renoir started working on the painting in April 1881 and in July of the same year it was bought by art dealer Paul Durand-Ruel for CHF 1,500.

The painting was first made accessible to the public at the 7th Impressionist exhibition in spring 1882. In 1883 it became known that it had passed into Charles Ephrussi's collection. In 1892 the painting returned to the collection of the Durand Ruel family.

22. Arrangement in gray and black No. 1 (portrait of the artist's mother) by James Abbott McNeill Whistler

Year: 1871 | Medium: oil on canvas | Dimensions: 144.3 × 162.4 cm | Stilpoche: American realism | Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris

The colloquial name of the "Whistler's Mother" work was missed this oil-on canvas work for simplification. The original title "Arrangement in Gray and Black No. 1 (Portrait of the Artists Mother)" by James Abbott McNeil Whistler was a bit too bulky for most viewers.

In fact, the motif is Anna McNeil Whistler, Whistler's mother, who posed for this masterpiece when she lived with her son in London in 1871.

The American painter not only painted his mother, but at the same time an abstract picture. Gray and black tones master the painting as well as rectangles in different forms: a curtain on the left, a picture with a black frame and bright passportout on the left, and a cut picture can be seen on the right edge of the picture, also with a black frame.

While it is an iconic copy of American art (it is also called Victorian Mona Lisa ), Whistler's mother today adorns the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. The oil painting was first acquired by the French -loving French in 1891.

It remains one of the most famous paintings by an American artist outside the United States.

23. Seerose (Water Lilies, 1906) by Claude Monet

Year: 1906 | Medium: oil on canvas | Dimensions: 89.9 × 94.1 cm | Stilpoche: Impressionism | Location: Art Institute of Chicago, IL, USA

"Seerose" was created in 1906 by Claude Monet in the style of impressionism . This famous work of art by Claude Monet follows the typical naturalistic topic of the Impressionist.

Monet paints the same picture several times, but every day the water lilies looked different, the details and the lighting and the brush strokes are very different, which in turn makes every water lily painting unique.

Claude Monet once said his garden was his passion. He had a pond in his back yard with a Japanese bridge that led over the water, which created a perfect place for him to create his famous creations.

In his first water lily series (1897–99), Monet painted the pond environment with its plants, bridges and trees that were cleanly separated by a firm horizon. Over time, the artist was less and less concerned with the conventional image space. Up to the painting of water lilies, which comes from his third group of work, he had completely dispensed with the horizon line.

On this spatially ambiguous canvas, the artist looked down and concentrated exclusively on the surface of the pond with its vegetation group, which hovered in the middle of the reflection of heaven and trees.

Incidentally, the painter did not use many earthy colors such as brown and earth tones. He mainly focused on cool tones such as blue and green in order to convey a calming and relaxing mood. Just as he felt when he stayed in his garden.

24. The dance class (The Dance Class) by Edgar Degas

Year: 1874 | Medium: oil on canvas | Dimensions: 85 x 75 cm | Stilpoche: Impressionism | Location: Musée d'Orsay, Paris

When this work and its variations were created in the middle of the 1870s, they were, apart from historical paintings, Degas' most ambitious figurative compositions .

Around twenty -two women, ballerinas and their mothers remain in waiting position, while a dancer performs an attitude for her exam. Jules Perrot, one of the best -known dancers and balletmaster in Europe, gives the dance lesson in a rehearsal room in the old Paris Opera, which was burned down shortly before.

The painting was commissioned in 1872 by the opera singer and art collector Jean-Baptiste Faure. It was just one of very rare orders that Degas ever accepted. He worked for two years with interruptions before finally completing it.

25. A Sunday in La Grande Jatte (a Sunday on la Grande Jatte) by Georges Seurat

Year: 1884 | Medium: oil on canvas | Dimensions: 207.6 × 308 cm | Style epoch: Pointilism, Neo -Impressionism | Location: Art Institute of Chicago, USA

A Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande Jatte is the most famous work by the French painter Georges Seurat. It shows Paris citizens who rest in a park along the his and entertain theirs.

The work became famous for the pointillistic technique used, a way of painting, in the development of which was significantly involved. Pointillism includes the use of small color points that are applied in patterns to create an image.

Surat was only 26 years old when he showed this work for the first time at the eighth annual and last impressionist exhibition in 1886.

In scope, technology and composition, it appeared as a conscious provocation to its first representatives, such as Renoir and Monet. It immediately changed the course of the avant-garde painting and initiated a new art movement that was baptized "neo-impressionism"

Surat died at the age of 31. He created other ambitious canvases, but La Grande Jatte has remained his opus magnum. Although the picture was rarely seen in the three decades after his death in 1891, its visibility was dramatically increased in 1924 when Frederic Clay Bartlett bought the picture and handed it over to the Art Institute of Chicago as a loan.

Since then it has been hanging there and became an icon and one of the most famous paintings in the art world.

Get to know our places 26 to 50 in the next part of this series of contributions ...