Famous Painters
List of 19th & 20th Century Artists: Oil/Acrylic Painters, Watercolourists.
Encyclopedia of Irish and World Art - HOMEPAGE



The Death of Sardanapalus (1827)
(detail) By Eugene Delacroix.

GREATEST PAINTERS (1300-1800)
For a list of the finest European
painters active up until the 19th
century, see: Old Masters.

WORLD'S GREATEST ART
For a list of the best painters
and sculptors 500 BCE - present,
see: Greatest Visual Artists.
For the finest oils, watercolours,
and acrylics, see:
Greatest Paintings Ever.

HIGHEST ART PRICES
For details of the most highly
priced works of art, and
record auction prices, see:
Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings

Famous Fine Art Painters (1700-present)

Contents

The Renaissance Model
Artist Fashion Dictates Fame
List of Famous Painters
English School
19th Century
- American School
- Romantics
- Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
- Realists
- Impressionists
- Post-Impressionists
- Russian School
- Primitive/Fantasy
- Art Nouveau
20th Century
- Fauvists
- Expressionists
- Cubists
- 20th Century Realists
- Metaphysical
- Surrealists
- Geometric Abstraction
- Abstract Expressionists
- Pop Artists
- Contemporary painters



Cubist Portrait of Ambroise Vollard
(1909) by Pablo Picasso.

WORLDS TOP ARTISTS
For a list of the Top 10 of the
finest painters & sculptors, see:
Best Artists of All Time: Top 10.
For the greatest view painters, see:
Best Landcape Artists.
For the greatest still life art, see:
Best Still Life Painters.
For the greatest portraitists
see: Best Portrait Artists.
For the greatest genre-painting, see:
Best Genre Painters.
For the top allegorical painting,
see: Best History Painters.

The Renaissance Model

The traditional model for fine art painting remains the Renaissance: the amazing rebirth of European culture which emerged in Florence, Rome and Venice, during the fifteenth century. Painting, sculpture and, to a lesser extent printmaking, were the principal art forms revered by critics, historians and collectors, with narrative history painting being placed at the top of the hierarchy of genres. The finest painters were those who demonstrated their mastery of representational art, usually in the form of oil painting, while the best sculptors were judged on their ability to capture emotion, movement and nobility in their bronze or stone sculpture.

Subsequent European periods/movements in the history of art, like Baroque, Neo-Classicism, Romanticism, Realism, the Pre-Raphaelites, as well as modern art movements such as Impressionism, and Expressionism, while emphasizing different subject matter, styles of art, and painting genres, nevertheless maintained the traditional respect for creative excellence, as demonstrated by the finished artwork. This view of aesthetics was duly propagated through the official European art academies, where for centuries fine art painting was modelled on Renaissance traditions.

Even Cubism, the seminal 1900s modern art movement, which promoted a non-representational type of pictorial art and opened the door to a number of modern schools of abstract art, demanded a high quality painting technique.


Cafe Terrace at Night (1888) by
Post Impressionist Van Gogh.

Since the 1960s, however, postmodernism trends have downgraded the notion of artistic technique in favour of the 'creative message'. New types of contemporary art, such as Conceptualism, Assemblage, Installation and Performance art, are redefining the artist as an organizer of messages and images, rather than as a creative craftsman. Famous artists of the future are therefore likely to include a greater number of organizers of video and computer art, with more global appeal.

How will this type of 21st century contemporary art affect the reputations of Old Masters like Jan Van Eyck, Rubens or Velazquez? How will it affect the artistic status of 19th century moderns like JMW Turner, Monet, and Van Gogh, or 20th century artists like Picasso and Rothko? Will postmodernism, with its Turner Prize and avant-garde notions - popularized by British artists like Tracey Emin (b.1963) and Damien Hirst (b.1965) reshape and redefine the meaning of art?


Seated Nude (1916) by the
Expressionist Amedeo Modigliani.

CONTEMPORARY IRISH PAINTERS
For a personal view about the
top 10 or so painters in Ireland
see: Best Irish Artists.

FAMOUS ARTISTS IN CHINA
For biographies of famous
Chinese artists, see:
Chinese Painters (220-present)

Artistic Fashion Dictates Fame

Let's not forget, whether or not a painter or sculptor achieves fame, depends entirely upon issues of fashion and taste. Mathis Grunewald (1475-1528) was forgotten for 400 years until 20th century expressionists bestowed iconic status on his intense pictures. Works by El Greco (1541-1614) were misunderstood for 300 years until his originality was discovered in the 1900s. Jan Vermeer (1632-75), now regarded as the finest Dutch genre-painter of all time, fell into obscurity for 200 years until the art critic Thore Burger published an essay in 1866 acknowledging him as one of the greatest Old Masters of the Dutch Golden Age. Rembrandt (1606-1669) fell out of fashion in the 1640s, died in poverty, and only recovered his reputation during the highpoint of 19th century Romanticism. The fact is, paintings represent values - aesthetic, optical, moral and social - all which can change rapidly, with a huge effect on the artists concerned. Similarly, the Dutch Post-Impressionist genius Vincent Van Gogh (1853-90) produced 900 paintings during his short 10-year career but sold nothing. Now his paintings (eg. Portrait of Dr Gachet) sell for $75 million each. Indeed, the history of art is littered with great but unrecognized artists who died in poverty. If the Italian Renaissance ever falls out of fashion, artists like Leonardo Da Vinci, Raphael and Michelangelo - now considered the three geniuses of Western Art - will fade into obscurity.

Social norms can also dictate the recognition and prosperity accorded an artist. In late 19th century Philadelphia, Thomas Eakins' masterpiece of figurative realism, The Gross Clinic (1875) - painted for the Centennial Exhibition of 1876 - was rejected on the grounds of its potential adverse effect on viewers with weak nerves. It was finally purchased by Jefferson Medical College for the paltry sum of $200. More recently, in 2006, it was sold for $68 million. No problem with weak nerves now!

And there is nothing like death to increase the value of an artist's works. The surrealist-expressionist canvases of Francis Bacon, for instance, have multiplied in value since his death in 1992.

List of Famous Painters

The category of Old Masters, refers to European painters who were active during the period c.1300-1800. Thereafter, museum curators, art historians and critics typically divide painters into the following categories:

English School (1700-1900)

William Hogarth (1697-1764)
English painter, engraver, founder of English School of figurative painting.
Richard Wilson (1714-82)
Founder of modern English School of landscape painting.
Joshua Reynolds (1723-92)
Eminent portraitist, President of London Royal Academy.
George Stubbs (1724-1806)
Equestrian artist, horse painter, animalier.
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88)
Portrait artist, landscapes.
Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797)
Midlands portrait painter, noted for his chiaroscuro & candlight scenes.
Henry Fuseli (1741-1825)
Romantic expressionist artist, symbolist painter.
Henry Raeburn (1756-1823)
Scottish portrait artist, active in Edinburgh, famous for The Skating Minister.
William Blake (1757-1827)
The outstanding English engraver, etcher, watercolourist and illustrator.
Thomas Lawrence (1769–1830)
Regency society portraitist, painter to King George III; President RA London.
Thomas Girtin (1775-1802)
England's first major watercolourist.
JMW Turner (1775-1851)
The greatest English watercolourist and landscape painter.
John Constable (1776-1837)
England's greatest naturalist landscape artist. Noted for "The Hay Wain."
Alfred Stevens (1817-75)
Outstanding Victorian painter and sculptor.
George Frederick Watts (1817-1904)
The most revered English artist (portraitist, sculptor) of the late 19th century.
William Morris (1834-96)
Painter, designer, decorative artist; leader of Arts & Crafts Movement.
Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912)
Classical subject painter, noted for female nudes such as The Tepidarium.
See also Best English Painters.

19th Century Painters

American School (c.1700-1900)
Benjamin West (1738-1820)
Innovative history painter, portraitist, "Father of American Painting."
John Singleton Copley (1738-1815)
American portraitist, history painter - Boston and London.
Gilbert Stuart (1755-1828)
Greatest American portrait painter of late-18th/ early-19th century.
Thomas Cole (1801-48)
Founder of Hudson River school of American wilderness landscape painting.
George Caleb Bingham (1811-1879)
Missouri genre-painter, frontier luminist landscape artist, portraitist.
Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)
Pupil of Cole, and America's greatest ever landscape painter.
Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902)
German-born landscape artist of Hudson River School, Luminism style.
Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
American pioneer-style seascapes, Civil War paintings, scenic views.
Thomas Eakins (1844-1916)
Greatest American exponent of figurative realism. Noted for The Gross Clinic.
John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Portrait artist in the grand manner, noted for society portraits.

Romantics
Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)
German symbolist landscape painter.
Theodore Gericault (1791-1824)
Known for his masterpiece "The Raft of the Medusa."
Eugene Delacroix (1798-63)
Leader of French Romantic art movement and 19th century Romantic Artists.

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood
William Holman Hunt (1827-1910)
Co-founder of PRB. Famous paintings include The Lady of Shalott.
Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82)
Co-founder, noted for The Annunciation and other romantic works.
John Everett Millais (1829-96)
Traditional portraitist, best-known for his romantic painting Ophelia.
Edward Burne-Jones (1833-1898)
Painter, stained glass/tapestry designer for William Morris & Co.

Realists
Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875)
Romantic/Realist French landscape painter.
Honore Daumier (1808-79)
Renowned French Caricaturist, graphic artist and realist painter.
Jean-Francois Millet (1814-75)
Realist painter, founder of French Barbizon School of landscape painting.
Gustave Courbet (1819-77)
Founder of French Realism art movement, leader of Realist Artists.

Impressionists
Claude Monet (1840-1926); see also Impressionist Claude Monet.
Founder of Impressionist plein-air painting.
Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
Outstanding cityscape and landscape painter.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Finest exponent of 'dappled light' in Impressionist movement.
Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)
Like Monet, a pure Impressionist specializing in landscapes.
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
The greatest figure painter of French Impressionism.
Edouard Manet (1832-83); see also Impressionist Edouard Manet.
Father of modern painting in France.
Berthe Morisot (1841-95)
Leading female Impressionist; sister-in-law of Manet.
Mary Cassatt (1845-1926)
American Impressionist artist, noted for 'mother and child' paintings.

Post-Impressionists
James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
Member of the Aesthetic Movement: noted for his "Nocturnes" and etchings.
Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)
Arguably the greatest of all Post-Impressionist painters, precursor of Cubism.
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
Outstanding colourist, influenced Synthetism, Cloisonism and Primitivism.
Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890)
Founder of modern Expressionism.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
Founder of Neo-Impressionist art: colour theories of Pointillism & Divisionism.
Paul Signac (1863-1935)
Leader of Neo-Impressionism after Seurat; developed Chromoluminarism.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Genre painter, printmaker, draftsman and illustrator.
Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)
Post-Impressionist painter, famous for his colourism and intimate interiors.
Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940)
Co-founder of Intimism: noted for genre-paintings of intimate interiors.
P.S. Kroyer (1851-1909)
Norwegian-born post-Impressionist landscape painter.
Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916)
Danish Intimist genre-painter of muted interiors in blues and greys.

Russian School of Painting
Ivan Shishkin (1832-98)
Forest/woodland landscape artist. See also: Russian Artists (1300-present).
Vasily Perov (1833-82)
Critical realism-style genre painter.
Ivan Kramskoy (1837-1887)
Foremost portraitist of 19th century Russia. Noted for Leo Tolstoy (1873).
Konstantin Savitsky (1844-1905)
Critical realist genre painter.
Vasily Polenov (1844-1927)
Landscape painter, also noted for biblical paintings.
Ilya Repin (1844-1930)
The finest Russian/Ukrainian realist genre-painter and portraitist.
Vasily Surikov (1848-1916)
Russia's greatest history painter of the 19th century.
Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910)
Symbolist painter, noted for his Demon paintings and mosaic-like brushwork.
Isaac Levitan (1860-1900)
Landscape painter: master of light and colour.
Abram Arkhipov (1862-1930)
Socially aware genre painter, in the critical realist style.
Valentin Serov (1865-1911)
Greatest Russian Impressionist portrait painter.

Primitive/Fantasy Art
Paul Klee (1879–1940)
Expressionist, surrealist painter/graphic artist noted for his dreamlike imagery.
Henri Rousseau (1844-1910) (Le Douanier)
Naive painter, noted for The Sleeping Gypsy and exotic landscapes.
Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Prolific, versatile Jewish-Russian painter, lithographer, stained glass artist.

Art Nouveau/Poster Designers
Jules Cheret (1836-1932)
Inventor of "3-stone chromolithographs"; pioneer of advertising poster art.
Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939)
Epitomizes Art Nouveau graphic art - posters, illustrations; painted Slav Epic.
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)
Leader of Viennese Secessionist movement, noted for his art nouveau style, and paintings using mosaic & gold, like The Kiss, Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer.
Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98)
Art Nouveau illustrator, known for illustrations of Salome and Morte d'Arthur.
Leonetto Cappiello (1875-1942)
Caricaturist, lithographer, poster designer noted for his functionalism.

20th Century Painters
See also: Twentieth Century Painters.

Fauvists
Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Founder of Fauvism and leading colourist in modern art. He remained obsessed with colour in painting all his life.
Andre Derain (1880-1954)
Member of Ecole de Paris, friend of Fauvist painters like Matisse, De Vlaminck.

Expressionists
Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901)
Symbolist painter from Switzerland, best known for Island of the Dead.
Lovis Corinth (1858-1925)
German modern artist, famous both for his Impressionism and Expressionism.
Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
Norwegian Expressionist painter, famous for The Scream.
Alexei von Jawlensky (1864-1941)
Russian colourist of Der Blaue Reiter group, noted for his portraits (Heads)
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
Russian painter and art theorist, founder of Der Blaue Reiter art movement.
Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Powerful expressionist artist, flower painter, printmaker (woodcuts).
Georges Rouault (1871-1958)
French expressionist painter, known for his oils, gouache, and watercolours.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)
Member of the Die Brucke art group, a precursor of German Expressionism.
Franz Marc (1880-1916)
Leading member of The Blue Rider group of expressionist painters.
Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)
Most powerful exponent of 20th century Expressionism in Paris.
Max Beckmann (1884-1950)
Member of New Objectivity group (Neue Sachlichkeit). Powerful self-portraits.
Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980)
Portraitist, landscape artist; one of the longest-lived expressionist painters.
Kurt Schwitters (1887-1948)
German Dada artist noted for his "Merz" collage art, multi-media "Merzbau".
Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
Short-lived but outrageously talented figure-painter.
Otto Dix (1891-1969)
Powerful anti-war painter, portraitist. Member of New Objectivity group.
Chaim Soutine (1893–1943)
Expressionist painter from Russia; active in Paris; noted for figurative painting.
George Grosz (1893–1959)
Berlin Dadaist, expressionist painter, member of Neue Sachlichkeit.

Cubists
Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Co-founder of Analytical and Synthetic Cubism.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Co-founder of Cubism, leading expressionist-style artist of 20th century.
Juan Gris (1887-1927)
One of the great Cubist painters and the movement's leading theorist.
Fernand Leger (1881-1955)
Fourth Cubist, socialist painter, muralist, stained glass and textile artist.
Robert Delaunay (1885-1941)
Abstract painter, founder of Orphism (Orphic Cubism) or Simultanism.
Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)
Also a pioneer of Dada and Object Art, from which Conceptual Art emerged.

20th Century Realism
Edward Hopper (1882-1967)
American realist painter, noted for his narrative urban genre-paintings.
Grant Wood (1892-1942)
Realist painter from Iowa, noted for his mid-West landscapes and portraits.
Andrew Wyeth (1917-2009)
Realist tempera painter and watercolourist from Pennsylvania.
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
American Saturday Evening Post illustrator, subject-painter and portraitist.
Lucian Freud (b.1922)
British realist noted for his understated masterpieces of figurative art.

Metaphysical Painting
Giorgio De Chirico (1888-1978)
Italian artist, co-inventor with Carlo Carra of Pittura Metafisica.
Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964)
Minimalist still life painter.

Surrealists
Max Ernst (1891-1976)
Ex-Dada artist, painter, sculptor, inventor of frottage and decalcomania.
Joan Miro (1893-1983)
Spanish surrealist painter: ceramicist, printmaker and stained glass artist.
Rene Magritte (1898-1967)
Belgian classical painter, member of Magic Realism and Surrealism movements.
Salvador Dali (1904-89)
Spanish painter, one of the most famous surrealist artists.

Geometric Abstraction
Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935)
Cubist, founder of Suprematism. One of the pioneer abstract painters.
Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)
Member of De Stijl movement, noted for geometric abstract paintings.
Josef Albers (1888-1976)
Bauhaus teacher, painter noted for Homage to the Square paintings.
Bridget Riley (b.1931)
Leader of British Op-Art movement, a form of geometric abstract art.
Sean Scully (b.1945)
Renowned for large-scale elemental shapes.

Abstract Expressionists
Mark Rothko (1903-70)
Latvian-American abstract painter, co-founder of Colour Field painting.
Clyfford Still (1904-1980)
American artist, co-founder with Rothko/Newman of Colour Field painting.
Willem De Kooning (1904-97)
One of the most influential figures in American Abstract Expressionism.
Jackson Pollock (1912-56)
Founder of 'action-painting', variant of Abstract Expressionism in USA.
Robert Motherwell (1915-91)
Painter, collagist, lithographer, famous for Elegy to the Spanish Republic.

Pop Artists
Roy Lichtenstein (1923-97)
Creator of comic-strip style, benday dot paintings, like "Wham!"
Andy Warhol (1928-87)
Founder of Pop-Art movement, noted for screenprints & popular imagery.
Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008)
Noted for his "Combines", collages, assemblages and conceptualism.
Jasper Johns (b.1930)
Painter, sculptor, lithographer, collage & multi-media artist; Neo-Dada.
David Hockney (b.1937)
English Pop artist, noted for portraits, etchings and photo-collages.

Contemporary Artists
Diego Rivera (1886-1957)
Greatest Mexican fresco mural painter, with David Siqueiros and Jose Orozco.
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986)
American artist, flower-painter; urban landscapes; wife of Alfred Stieglitz.
L.S. Lowry (1887-1976)
English genre-painter and urban cityscape artist noted for "matchstick men".
Jean Dubuffet (1901-1985)
French experimental painter, portraitist, Art Brut collector.
Ansel Adams (1902-84)
America's greatest landscape-photographer.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
Mexican surrealist self portraitist, wife of Diego Rivera.
Balthus (Balthazar Klossowski de Rola) (1908-2001)
Surrealist-style figurative painter, best known for pictures of young girls.
Francis Bacon (1909-92)
Noted for his grotesque imagery and surrealistic-style compositions.
Karel Appel (1921-2006)
Dutch abstract painter, gesturalist; member of Art Informel & Tachisme.
Frank Auerbach (b.1931)
British semi-abstract portrait painter, noted for heavily impastoed paintings.
Fernando Botero (b.1932)
Columbian artist, leading South American painter noted for obese figures.
Chuck Close (b.1940)
Leader of American photorealism style, noted for gigantic self-portraits.
Richard Estes (b.1932)
US superrealist painter of urban architecture.
Jack Vettriano (b.1951)
Populist British genre-painter, noted for The Singing Butler.
Damien Hirst (b.1965)
Leader of Young British Artists, noted for sculpture and installations, like: A Thousand Years (1989), The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living (1991), and For The Love of God (2007).
Tracey Emin (b.1963)
British multimedia postmodernist artist, noted for My Bed (1998).

For details of other top 21st century painters and sculptors, see Contemporary Artists: Top 20 and Turner Prize Winners.

Paintings by the artists listed above hang in most of the best art museums and galleries of the world, such as the Hermitage Museum (St Petersburg), the Louvre (Paris), Musee d'Orsay, Tate Collection London, Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Guggenheim, the Museum of Modern Art (all New York), the Pinakothek in Munich, the Prado in Madrid and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

• For biographies of painters and sculptors in Ireland, see: Famous Irish Artists.
• For information about classical and contemporary art in Ireland, see: Irish Art Encyclopedia.


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