Thomas Hart Benton
1889-1975, American painter best known for his murals of the 30s and 40s
Mary Cassatt
1845-1926, Living maily in France, her Impressionist paintings often featured motherhood
Thomas Eakins
1836-1916, American realist painter and major portraitist
Winslow Homer
1836-1910, American painter best known for his watercolor, landscape, and seascape works of New England and Florida. Originally an illustrator, he recorded the Civil War for Harper's Weekly.
Works: Gulf Stream, Breaking Storm, The Hurricane
Edward Hopper
1882-1967, American painter and engraver. Best known for his paintings of large, quiet urban scenes.
Works: Nighthawks, Early Sunday Morning
Jasper Johns
1930-, American artist and exponent
Works: Flag, a copy of the US Flag, Painted Bronze, a painting of two beer cans
Roy Lichtenstein
1923-1997, American artist of the Pop Art movement famous for his paintings that resemble comic strips.
Anna Mary "Grandma" Moses
1860-1961, American painter. An untrained farm wife, she began painting her primitive scenes of rural life while in her 70s
Works: Sugaring-Off
Georgia O'Keeffe
1887-1986, American painter. Known for her paintings with Southwestern motifs such as Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue. She married Alfred Stieglitz in 1924.
Jackson Pollock
1912-56, American painter. A pioneer of abstract expressionism, Pollock was influenced by Surrealism and the works of Picasso. His style is known as drip painting and action painting
Norman Rockwell
1894-1978, American illustrator famous for his scenes of everyday American life depicted on the overs of Saturday Evening Post
Andy Warhol
1930-87, American artist and leading figure in Pop Art movement. Known for his paintings of commonplace objects including Campbell's Soup and Marilyn Monroe.
Benjamin West
1738-1820, American artist. settled in London in 1763, becoming the history painter to King George lll and helped found the Royal Academy of Arts.
Works: The Death of General Wolfe, Death on a Pale Horse, Penn's Treaty with the Indians
James Whistler
1834-1903, American painter best known for The Artist's Mother: Arrangement in Gray and Black (the famed portrait of his mother, 1872)
Grant Wood
1891-1942, American painter of scenes of the rural Midwest, including American Gothic (1930)
Andrew Wyeth
1917-2009, American painter best known for his Christina's World
Francis Bacon
1909-1992, English painter. Not to be confuse with the English philosopher of the same name, this Francis Bacon is a renowned 20th century artist. His works include Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion
Randolph Caldecott
1846-86, English artist. His illustrations inspired the creation of the Caldecott Medal, an annual award given for children's book illustration excellence
John Constable
1779-1837, English artist. Most famous for his landscape paintings, including The Hay Wain, The White Horse, Salisbury Cathedral, and Cloud Studies
Thomas Gainsborough
1727-88, English painter. Best-known work is the Blue Boy
Works: The Blue Boy, Perdita, Market Cart, Lady Innes, Portrait of King George lll and Queen Charlotte
William Hogarth
1697-1764, English painter and engraver. Famous for his The Rake's Progress. The Harlot's Progress, and the Marriage a la Mode series
Sir Joshua Reynolds
1723-1792, English artist. Reynolds was the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1768. He painted many works of his contemporaries including Samuel Jackson.
Joseph Mallord William Turner
1775-1851, English landscape painter famous for works such as Rain, Steam, and Speed and Slave Ship
Hieronymus Bosch
1450-1516, Dutch painter. Hailed in the 20th century as a forerunner of Surrealism, he had a passion for the macabre. He was a favorite of Philip ll of Spain, and was a great influence on Pieter Brueghel, the Elder
Works: Garden of Delights, Crowning of Thorns, Temptation of St. Anthony, Adoration of the Magi
Frans Hals
1580-1666, Dutch portrait and genre painter
Works: The Laughing Cavalier, Gypsy Girl
Rembrandt van Rijn
1606-69, Dutch artist. His works included over 600 paintings, 100 self-portraits, 300 etchings, and 2000 drawings. He is best known for his group of portraits, Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Tulp and The Shooting Company of Capt Frans Banning Cocq (formally known as The Night Watch before a 1946 cleaning revealed it to be a daytime scene). His other works include Supper at Emmaus and The Blinding of Samson.
Vincent Van Gogh
1853-90, Dutch painter. One of the greatest artists of all time. After a fir of insanity, he cut off his right ear in 1889, and committed suicide in 1890.
Works: The Starry Night, The Night Cafe, The Potato Eaters, Sunflowers, The Cornfield
Bruegel
Family of Flemish painters. Pieter Bruegel, the Elder (1525-69) is best known for his peasant works including The Harvesters, and the Peasant Wedding. Pieter Bruegel, the Younger (1564-1637), and his brother Jan "Velvet" Bruegel (1564-1625) were also other famous painters of the time.
Works: Haunted in the Snow, Landscape with the Fall of Icarus, and Triumph of Death
Rene Margritte
1898-1967, Belgian painter. A leading member of the Belgian surrealist group in the 1920s, he became known as an early innovator of Pop Art in the 1960s.
Works: The Key of Dreams and The Human Condition
Peter Paul Rubens
1577-1640, Foremost 17th century Flemish painter.
Works: Raising of the Cross, Henry lV Receiving the Portrait of Maria de Medici, Fall of the Damned, and Garden of Love
Sir Anthony Van Dyck
1599-1641, Flemish painter. He went to London in 1632, and was knighted by Charles l. His works influenced future British portrait painters. His best known works are of the Stuart family.
Works: Charles l in Hunting Dress and Madonna of Rosary
Frederic Auguste Bartholdi
1834-1904, French sculptor famous for his enormous sculptures, most notably the Statue of Liberty
Georges Braque
1882-1963, French painter. One of the developers of Fauvism, he later met Picasso and developed Cubism with him.
Paul Cezanne
1839-1906, French painter. His early works such as House of the Hanged Man were Impressionist in style, but his later painters were more abstract anticipating the cubist and expressionist movements.
Works: Mont Sainte-Victoire, Card Players, House of the Painter, and The Kitchen Table
Gustave Courbet
1819-1877, French founder of Realism. In 1844, he began exhibiting works in which everyday scenes were portrayed with sincerity and absence of idealism.
Works: The Stone Breakers, Studio of the Painter, and Allegory of Realism
Jacques-Louis David
1748-1825, French painter. His works include, The Death of Socrates, The Oath of the Horatii, and Death of Marat. Also served as court painter to Napoleon l and painter Coronation of Napoleon and Josephine.
Edgar Degas
1834-1927, French painter. Influential Impressionist whose most famous subjects were ballet dancers and the horse races.
Works: Dancer Lacing her Shoe, Jockeys in the Rain, The Rehearsal, and Glass of Absinthe
Eugene Delacroix
1798-1863, French painter. The foremost French romantic.
Works: Liberty Leading the People, Bark of Dante, Massacre at Chios, Women of Algiers, Tiger Hunt, and Chopin and George Sand (portrait)
Marcel Duchamp
1887-1968, French painter. Famous for his cubist work Nude Descending a Staircase. A co-founder of the Dada group, he also invented ready-mades, commonplace objects exhibited as works of art
Works: Nude Descending a Staircase and Fountain ("ready-made")
Paul Gauguin
1848-1903. French painter Originally allied with the impressionists, Gauguin moved to Tahiti in 1891, where he painted some of his best works. While in Tahiti, he also wrote the autobiographical novel Noa Noa
Works: The Yellow Christ, The Day of the God, La Orana Maria
Theodore Gericault
1791-1824, French Romantic painter. Most famous for his Raft of the Medusa, a painting of shipwrecked men at sea, and Officer of the Imperial Gaurd
Edouard Manet
1832-83, French painter. Often called an Impressionist
Works: A Bar at the Folies- Bergere, Luncheon on the Grass, Execution of the Emperor Masemillian of Mexico, Olympia, The Fife Player, The Balcony
Henri Matisse
1869-1954, French painter. One of the greatest artists of the 20th century, he explored Impressionism and was a leader of Fauvism.
Works: The Green Stripe and Blue Nude
Jean Francois Millet
1814-75, French painter. Associated with the Barbizon School, his best-known work is The Gleaners
Claude Monet
1840-1926, French landscape painter. His painting, Impression: Sunrise, gave rise to the Impressionist movement.
Camille Pissaro
1830-1903, Impressionist painter. Born in the West Indies, he moved to Paris in 1855. He was a founder (with Monet, Renoir, and Cezanne) of Impressionism. His most notable works are landscapes and street scenes.
Works: Boulevard des Italiens
Nicholas Poussin
1593-1665, French Baroque painter. Perhaps the greatest 17th century French Baroque painter, he was known for his works featuring classical and religious subjects. His influence can be seen in works by Jacques Louis David and Paul Cezanne
Works: Rape of the Sabine Women, Inspiration of the Poet, Shepherds of Arcadia, and The Seven Sacraments
Pierre Auguste Renoir
1841-1919, French impressionist artist. Best known for works of Parisian life
Works: Les Grande Boulevards, The Swing, La Grenouillere, The Bathers, and Luncheon of the Boating Party
Auguste Rodin
1840-1917, French sculptor.
Works: The Thinker, The Age of Bronze, The Kiss, Gates of Hell, Balzac, The Burghers of Calais
Georges Seurat
1859-1891, French post impressionist and inventor of Pointillism
Works: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte and Le Cirque
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
1864-1901, French painter and lithographer credited with pioneering the modern poster, particularly of the Moulin Rouge.
Works: At The Moulin Rouge
Jean-Antoine Watteau
1684-1721, French painter. Major exponent of the Rococo movement.
Works: A Pilgrimage to Cythera
Albrecht Durer
1471-1528, German painter and engraver. Durer introduced the flavor of the Italian Renaissance to Germany. He served as the court painter to emperors Maximilian and Charles V. Durer is most famous for his engravings and woodcuts.
Works: Knight, Death, and the Devil, St. Jerome, Adam and Eve, and Melencolia l
Matthias Grunewald
1475-1528, German Renaissance painter. With Durer, Grunewald is considered one of the two great masters of the German Renaissance.
Works: The Crucifixion, Resurrection, and Temptation of Saint Anthony
Hans Holbein the Younger
1497-1543, German portraitist. The son of German Gothic painter Hans Holbein the Elder . The Younger is best known for his many portraits of Henry Vll.
Works: Sir Thomas More and his Family, Portrait of Henry Vll, The Death of Christ
Giovanni Bernini
1598-1680, Italian architect and sculptor. The dominant Italian Baroque figure, his sculptures include David, Rape of Proserpine, and Apollo and Daphne
Sandro Botticelli
1444-1540, Florentine Renaissance painter. Famous for his enchanting mythological scenes
Works: Birth of Venus, Mars and Venus, and La Primavera
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
1573-1610, Italian Baroque painter. Famous for his works featuring chiaroscuro
Works: The Calling of St. Matthew, Death of a Virgin, Supper at Ammaus, Conversion of St. Paul, and David with the Head of Goliath
Donatello
1386-1466, Florentine sculptor and major figure in the Italian Renaissance.
Works: David, Saint George Slaying the Dragon, Gattemelata Monument, Feast of Herod, Habakkuk, and Saint Mark
Leonardo da Vinci
1452-1519, Italian Renaissance man. Known as a painter, sculptor, musician, architect, engineer, and scientist.
Works: Mona Lisa, Last Supper
Michelangelo Buanarroi
1475-1564, Italian sculptor and painter. A leading figure of the Renaissance. Chief architect of St. Peter's Church
Works: David, Moses, Pieta, Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
Raphael
1483-1520, Italian Renaissance painter and architect.From 1514 he worked rebuilding St. Peter's Basilica
Works: School of Athens (fresco), Madonna and the Holy Family, Marriage of the Virgin, Transfiguration, and Pope Leo X with Cardinas Guilo de Medici and Luigi de Rossi
Tintoretto
1518-1591, Best known Venetian Mannerist painter
Works: The Finding, Removal of the Body of St. Mark
Titian
1490-1576, Venetian Renaissance painter. Titian became Venice's official painter in 1516.
Works: Charles V, Man with the Glove, Venus of Urbino, Rape of Europa, Pope Paul lll, and Assumption of the Virgin
Salvador Dali
1904-89, Spanish painter. A leader of the Surrealist movement
Works: Persistence of Memory
Francisco Jose de Goya
1746-1828, Spanish painter. Served as the court painter to Charles lll and IV
Works: Third of May, Family of Charles IV, Maja Nude, The Disasters of War, May 2nd 1808, and May 3rd, 1808.
El Greco
1541-1614, Greek painter. Born in Crete as Domenicos Theotocopuolos. He studied under Titian. His name means "the Greek."
Works: Burial of the Count of Orgaz, Toledo
Pablo Picasso
1881-1973, Spanish artist. His art is usually described in a series of overlapping periods. His melancholy blue period included works such as The Old Guitarist (1903). His Demoiselles D'Avignon is the most significant of his Cubist works. In the 1920s, he introduced the collage. In the 1930s, he adopted Surrealism. His second landmakr work, Guernica, was a graphic condemnation of the 1937 bombing of the Guernica in the Spanish Civil War. Other works include Absinthe Drinker and Saltimbanques.
Diego Velazquez
1599-1660, Spanish painter. In 1623, he became the court painter for Philip IV of Spain.
Works: Triumph of Bacchus (aka The Drunkards), Maids Honor, Christ on the Cross, The Surrender of Breda
Marc Chagall
1889-1985, Russian painter. He was a forerunner of Surrealism, and he drew most of his subject matter from the Jewish culture and produced windows for cathedrals. He lived most of his life in France.
Works: Self Portrait with 7 Fingers, The Rabbi of Vitebsk, and I and the Village
Kandinsky Wassily
1886-1944, Russian painter. A father of abstract art, Kandinsky founded the Blaue Reiter group in 1911. He went on to teach at the Bauhaus school (1922-33).
Edvard Munch
1863-1944, His violent, shocking works portray themes of fear and anxiety.
Works: The Scream
Diego Rivera
1886-1957, Mexican artist best known for his large murals depicting Mexican life.