Greatest Modern Paintings
List of 300 Best Pictures By World's Most Famous Painters: 1850-Present.

Greatest Paintings Part Two: The Modern Era c.1850-now

Our list features over 300 of the greatest examples of fine art painting, including works in oils, watercolours and acrylics, by the world's most famous painters. Chosen by our Editor, Neil Collins LLB MA, it illustrates all the major movements of modern art. For Part One (c.1300-1850), see: Greatest Paintings Ever. For the top collections, see: Best Art Museums.

See also our educational articles for students: Art Evaluation and How to Appreciate Paintings.

Paintings Listed Chronologically under Artist's Name
A - B - C - D - E-F - G - H - I-J - K - L - M - N-O - P - Q-R - S - T - U-V - W-Z

NOTE: Unless otherwise stated, all paintings are oils on canvas.

Josef Albers (1888-1976)
Ex-Bauhaus Dutch-born Abstract Expressionist painter.
Homage to the Square (1964) oil on wood, Tate Collection.

Lawrence Alma-Tadema (1836-1912)
Virtuoso Victorian subject painter noted for erotic fantasy paintings of Antiquity.
The Tepidarium (1881) oil on panel, Lady Lever Art Gallery, UK.

Abram Arkhipov (1862-1930)
Critical realist genre painter, noted also for colourist works.
Visiting (1915) Russian Museum, St Petersburg.

Frank Auerbach (b.1931)
German-born Expressionist noted for use of extreme impasto painting technique.
Head of J.Y.M. No.1 (1981) oil on board, Southampton Art Gallery, UK.

Francis Bacon (1909-92)
Greatest ever Irish painter, noted for his disturbing Expressionist works of contemporary art.
The Screaming Pope (1953) William Burden Collection, New York
Figures in a Landscape (1956-7) Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery.
Portrait of George Dyer Talking (1966) private collection.
Triptych (1976) Roman Abramovich Collection.

Giacomo Balla (1871-1958)
Italian Futurist painter, colleague of Umberto Boccioni (1882-1916), Gino Severini (1883-1966).
Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (1912) Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo.

Max Beckmann (1884-1950)
German Expressionist artist linked to Neue Sachlichkeit movement, Otto Dix and George Grosz.
Self-Portrait in a Tuxedo (1927) Harvard Museum.
Departure (1932-3) MOMA, New York.
Self-Portrait in Olive and Brown (1945) Detroit Institute of Arts.

George Caleb Bingham (1811-79)
American frontier painter, worked mainly in Missouri.
Fur Traders Descending the Missouri (1845) Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Arnold Bocklin (1827-1901)
Leading Swiss symbolist painter of 19th century, along with Ferdinand Hodler.
Island of the Dead (1880) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
Centaurs' Combat (1873) Kunstmuseum, Basel.

Pierre Bonnard (1867-1947)
Impressionist painter, decorative and poster artist, founding member of Les Nabis.
Dining Room on the Garden (1935) Guggenheim Museum, New York.

Fernando Botero (b.1932)
Columbian contemporary painter & sculptor noted for his signature obese figures.
The Collector (1974) R. Learner Collection, Madrid.

Eugene Boudin (1824-98)
Impressionist painter who opened Claude Monet's eyes to nature and plein-air painting.
On the Beach, Trouville (1863) Musee d'Orsay.

Georges Braque (1882-1963)
Greatest 20th century French artist, joint-inventor of Cubism, noted for collages, still lifes.
Nude (1907-8), Cuttoli Collection, Paris.

Claudio Bravo (b.1936)
Chilean portraitist and figurative painter with conceptual bent.
The Chrysanthemum (1974) private collection.

Cecily Brown (b.1969)
British-born painter, notorious for her shocking gestural figuration painting.
1000 Thread Count (2004) private collection.

Ford Madox Brown (1821-93)
English Romantic painter, part of Pre-Raphaelite circle.
The Last of England (1852-5) City Art Gallery, Birmingham.
Work (1852-65) Manchester Art Gallery.

Gustave Caillebotte (1848-94)
French Impressionist painter and art collector.
Paris: A Rainy Day (1877) The Art Institute of Chicago.

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)
Highly influential Post-Impressionist artist, precursor of Cubism.
The Card Players (1885-90) Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA.
Still Life with Plastic Cupid (1895) Courtauld Institute, London.
Les Grandes Baigneuses (1906) National Gallery, London.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Russian-born, Paris-based avant-garde painter, illustrator, stained glass artist.
Sabbath (1909) Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne.
The Fiddler (1911) Kunstsammulung Nordrhein-West Falen.
View from the Window, Vitebsk (1914) Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
War (1964-6) Kunsthaus, Zurich.

Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978)
Noted for haunting, shadowy, semi-Surrealist Italianate townscapes.
Place d'Italie (1912) private collection.

Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900)
American landscape painter, pupil of Thomas Cole, and member of Hudson River School.
Cotopaxi (1862) Detroit Institute of Arts.

Thomas Cole (1801-48)
American founder of Hudson River School, top landscape painter of early 19th century.
American Lake Scene (1844) Detroit Institute of Arts.

Lovis Corinth (1958-1925)
German Impressionist/Expressionist painter, printmaker (drypoints and lithographs).
Ecce Homo (1925), Basel, Kunstmuseum.

Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875)
Romantic French landscape painter, one of the world's most popular artists.
Bridge at Narni (1826) Louvre.
Ville d'Avray (c.1867) Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York.
Woman with a Pearl (c.1870) Louvre, Paris.

Gustave Courbet (1819-77)
Top 19th century artist, leader of French Realism movement.
Studio of the Painter: A Real Allegory (1855) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
Woman with Parrot (1866) Metropolitan Museum of Art New York.

Salvador Dali (1904-89)
Spanish artist, most famous member of Surrealism movement and avant-garde sculptor.
The Persistence of Memory (1931) Museum of Modern Art.
Soft Construction with Boiled Beans (1936), Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Temptation of St Anthony (1946) Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels.
The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1952-4) Salvador Dali Museum, Florida.

Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Leading Impressionist painter & sculptor, noted for his ballet scenes and genre paintings of Paris.
Dance School (1873) Fogg Art Museum, Harvard.
The Dance Class (1873-5) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
L'Absinthe (1876) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
Prima Ballerina (1877) pastel on paper, Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

Eugene Delacroix (1798-63)
Painter, draughtsman, lithographer, leader of French Romanticism art movement.
Death of Sardanapalus (1827) Louvre, Paris.
Liberty Leading the People (1830) Louvre, Paris.

Paul Delvaux (1897-1994)
Surrealist painter known for his haunting paintings of dreams/nightmares & female nudes.
Venus Asleep (1944) Tate Gallery.

Andre Derain (1880-1954)
French fauvist painter, printmaker, sculptor; adherent of Primitive art, later more classical.
Portrait of Matisse (1905) Tate Modern London.
Self-Portrait in a Floppy Hat (1905) private collection.
Lady in a Chemise (1906) State Art Museum, Copenhagen.
Charing Cross Bridge (1906) National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Otto Dix (1891-1969)
With George Grosz, the leader of the Neue Sachlichkeit Expressionist movement.
The Match Seller (1920) Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart.
Pimp with Prostitutes (1922) private collection.
Portrait of the Journalist Silvia von Harden (1926) Musee Moderne Paris.

Kees van Dongen (1877-1968)
Dutch Expressionist, Fauvist, active in Paris, noted for bold use of colour.
Woman in Black Hat (1908) Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
Le Coquelicot (The Corn Poppy) (1919) Toulouse-Lautrec Museum, Albi.

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968)
French avant-garde Dada artist, noted for his "ready-mades" & conceptual art.
Nude Descending a Staircase No.2 (1912) Philadelphia Museum of Art.

E-F

Thomas Eakins (1844-1916)
The greatest 19th century American painter, mainly of portraits.
Max Schmitt in a Single Scull (1871) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
The Gross Clinic (1875) University of Pennsylvania.

Rainer Fetting (b.1949)
Member of 1980s Neuen Widen group of German Expressionists & figurative painters.
Large Shower (1980) acrylic on canvas, private collection.

Mariano Fortuny y Carbo (1838-74)
The greatest Catalan painter of the 19th century, active mainly in Italy.
La Vicaria (The Spanish Wedding) (1870) Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona.

Sam Francis (1923-1994)
Leading second generation American Abstract Expressionist painter.
For Rudd (1963) Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) NYC.

Lucian Freud (b.1922)
Painter, draughtsman, Berlin-born grandson of Sigmund Freud.
Girl with a White Dog (1952) Tate Gallery, London.

Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840)
The greatest German Romantic landscape artist of the 19th century.
Winter Landscape (1811) National Gallery, London.
Man and Woman Gazing at the Moon (1830-5) Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

Othon Friesz (1879-1949)
Underrated restrained colourist, Impressionist, Fauvist, Expressionist, influenced by Matisse.
The Seine at Paris, Pont de Grenelle (1901) Glasgow Museums.

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
French Post-Impressionist, noted for primitivism and colourist scenes of Tahiti.
Brooding Woman (1891) Worcester Art Museum, MA.
Annah The Javanese (1893) private collection.
Te Arii Vahine (The Noble Woman) (1896) Pushkin Museum, Moscow.
Where Do We Come From? Who Are We? Where Are We Going? (1897) Boston MFA.
Girl with a Fan (1902) Folkwang Museum, Hessen.

Theodore Gericault (1791-1824)
French painter, lithographer, early leader of French Romanticism.
Raft of the Medusa (1819) Louvre, Paris.
Portrait of a Kleptomaniac (1823) Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Dutch genius, creator of some of the greatest ever Expressionist paintings.
Sunflowers (1888) National Gallery, London.
Cafe Terrace at Night, Arles (1888) Yale University Art Gallery.
Starry Night (1889) Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Wheat Field with Crows (1890) Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

Natalia Goncharova (1881-1962)
Russian avant-garde artist, noted for her primitivist paintings.
Moscow Street (1909) Private Collection.

Juan Gris (1887-1927)
Spanish painter, sculptor, illustrator; leading Cubist after Picasso and Braque.
Portrait of Pablo Picasso (1912) Art Institute of Chicago.
Landscape at Ceret (1913) Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

Marcel Gromaire (1892-1971)
French-Belgian Fauvist painter noted for sombre expressionist painting of nudes and peasants.
The Lines of the Hand (1935) Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris.

George Grosz (1893-1959)
With Otto Dix, leader of Neue Sachlichkeit German Expressionism movement.
Suicide (1916) Tate Collection, London.
Pillars of Society (1926) Nationalgallerie, Berlin.

Vilhelm Hammershoi (1864-1916)
Danish post-Impressionist painter noted for his quiet interiors in muted colours.
Interior with a Girl at the Clavier (1901) private collection.

Heinrich Hansen (1821-90)
Romantic painter of the Danish Golden Age.
Interior of the Rosenborg Palace (1870-80) private collection.

Erich Heckel (1883-1970)
German painter and graphic artist.
Nude on a Sofa (1909) Private Collection.
Landscape Near Dresden (1910) Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

David Hockney (b.1937)
Greatest English daughtsman, noted for bright acrylic scenes/portraits of California.
A Bigger Splash (1967), acrylic on canvas, private collection.
California Seascape (1968) watercolour on paper, Arts Council Collection, London.
Mr and Mrs Clarke and Percy (1971) acrylic on canvas, Tate Collection, London.

Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
American artist, famous for his realist genre works and sea-paintings.
Snap the Whip (1872) Butler Institute of American Art, Ohio.
The Gulf Stream (1899) Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

Edward Hopper (1882-1967)
Famous American oil painter, watercolourist, noted for lonely urban scenes.
House by the Railroad (1925) Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) NY .
Gas (1940) Museum of Modern Art.
Nighthawks (1942) Art Institute of Chicago. See also: Art Museums in America.

I-J

Peter Vilhelm Ilsted (1861-1933)
Danish artist noted for his tranquil interiors; influenced by Dutch Realists.
Interior (1896) Musee d'Orsay.

Alexei von Jawlensky (1864-1941)
Russian Expressionist painter, noted for highly coloured Fauvist-style portraits.
Portrait of the Dancer Alexander Sakharov (1909) Lenbachhaus, Munich.
Head (c.1910) Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Head of a Woman (1911) oil on cardboard, National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh.
Head of a Woman 'Medusa' (1923) Museum of Fine Arts, Lyon.

Wassily Kandinsky (1844-1944)
Russian-born painter, printmaker, founder of Der Blaue Reiter Expressionist group.
The Blue Rider (1903) private collection.
Munich-Schwabing with Church of St. Ursula (1908) Lenbachhaus Gallery, Munich.
Autumn in Murnau (1908) Private Collection.
Autumn in Bavaria (1908) Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris.
Winter Landscape (1909) Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.
Bedroom in Aintmillerstrasse (1909) Lenbachhaus Gallery, Munich.
Arabs I (Cemetery) (1909) Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
Church in Murnau (1910) Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich.

Anselm Kiefer (b.1945)
German Neo-Expressionist painter, noted for holocaust paintings.
Innenraum (1981) Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam.
Lot's Wife (1989) The Cleveland Museum of Art.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938)
Figurative painter, key member of Die Brucke German Expressionist style.
Marzella (1909-10) Moderna Museet, Stockholm.
Semi-Nude Woman with Hat (1911) Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne.
Berlin Street Scene (1913) Brucke Museum, Berlin.
Portrait of Gerda (1914) Van der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal.
Self-Portrait as a Soldier (1915) Allen Memorial Art Museum, Ohio.

Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Expressionist/surrealist fantasy painter and graphic artist.
The Golden Fish (1926) oil/watercolour on paper/board, Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
Ad Parnassum, (1932) Kunstmuseum, Bern.

Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)
Viennese painter, portraitist, noted for ornate, mosaic-style Byzantine-style works.
The Kiss (1907-8) oil & gold on canvas, Osterreichischegallerie, Vienna.

Franz Kline (1910-62)
American Abstract Expressionist, influenced by De Kooning.
Chief (1950) enamel paint on canvas, Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980)
Austrian artist, long-term Expressionist painter, printmaker.
Portrait of Herwarth Walden (1910) State Art Gallery, Stuttgart.
London, View of the Thames in the Evening (1926) private collection.

Willem De Kooning (1904-97)
American Abstract Expressionist, but also figurative painter, noted for Woman series.
Woman 1 (1950-2) Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Marilyn Monroe (1954) private collection.

Ivan Kramskoy (1837-1887)
Russian painter and art critic, theorist of the Russian democratic art movement.
Portrait of a Young Woman (1882) Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Lee Krasner (1908-84)
Wife of Jackson Pollock, joint pioneer of "action painting" style of abstraction.
Composition, 1943 (1943) Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC.

P.S. Kroyer (1851-1900)
Norwegian painter, fascinated by effects of light; leader of Skagen artist group.
Summer Evening on the Southern Beach (1893) Skagens Museum, Skagen.

Fernand Leger (1881-1955)
French Cubist painter, also worked with stained glass, sculpture, ceramics, design.
The Two Sisters (1935), Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

Emanuel Gottlieb Leutze (1816-68)
German-born American artist, noted for his portraits and landscapes.
Washington Crossing the Delaware (1851) Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Isaac Levitan (1860-1900)
Russian landscape painter, noted for his mastery of light and colour.
Secluded Monastery (1890) Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
Road to Vladimirka (1892) Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Roy Lichtenstein (1923-97)
Famous cartoon-style American Pop-artist.
Wham! (1963) magna on canvas, Tate Collection, London.

L.S. Lowry (1887-1973)
Manchester painter, noted for his industrial townscapes and stick-like people.
Coming from the Mill (1930) Salford Museum & Art Gallery, Salford.

August Macke (1887-1914)
Shortlived German Expressionist painter, member of Der Blaue Reiter; close friend of Franz Marc.
Park Restaurant (1912) Kunstmuseum, Basel.
Zoological Garden I (1912) Lenbachhaus Gallery, Munich.
Turkish Cafe I (1914) Stadtisches Kunstmuseum, Bonn.

Rene Magritte (1898-1967)
Belgian Surrealist painter, had strong influence on Pop-art movement.
La Condition Humaine (1933) National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
Empire of Light, II (1950) Museum of Modern Art, New York.
The Listening Room (1952) Menil Collection, Houston.

Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935)
Founder of Russian Suprematism movement of geometric abstract art.
Black Square on White Ground (1913) State Russian Museum, St Petersburg.
Black Circle (1913) State Russian Museum, St Petersburg.
White on White (1918) Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Edouard Manet (1832-83)
Most influential 19th century modern French artist, associated with Impressionism.
Le Dejeuner sur L'Herbe (1863) Musee d'Orsay.
Olympia (1863) Musee d'Orsay.
A Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1882) Courtauld Institute, London.

Man Ray (Emmanuel Radnitzky) (1890-1976)
Photographer, painter, draughtsman, sculptor; surrealist and founder of American Dada.
Aline and Valcour (1950) private collection.

Franz Marc (1880-1916)
With Kandinsky, the founder of Der Blaue Reiter Expressionist group, Killed at Verdun.
The Large Blue Horses (1911) Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis.
Tiger (1912) Stadtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich.

Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Post-Impressionist leader of Fauvism, noted also for his later blue nudes & collages.
Luxe Calme et Volupte (1904) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
La Danse (1910) Hermitage, St Petersburg.
The Piano Lesson (1916) Museum of Modern Art.
Blue Nude III (1952) gouache on paper, Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris.

Adolph Menzel (1815-1905)
Pioneer German Impressionist and historical painter.
Living Room with the Artist's Sister (1847) Neue Pinakothek, Munich.

Manolo Millarez (1926-72)
Founder of El Paso ("The Step") avant-garde group, influenced by Surrealists.
Painting 150 (1961) Tate Museum, Liverpool.

Jean-Francois Millet (1814-75)
Devout French realist painter of peasants at work, key member of Barbizon School.
The Angelus (1859) Musee d'Orsay.
Man with a Hoe (1860) Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Joan Miro (1893-1983)
Spanish Surrealist painter, noted also for his lithographs, etchings, ceramic art.
The Farm (1921-2) National Gallery of Art, Washington DC
The Harlequin's Arrival (1924-5) Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo NY.
Dog Barking at the Moon (1926) Philadelphia Museum of Modern Art.
Woman (1934) pastel on paper, private collection.

Paula Modersohn-Becker (1876-1907)
Worpswede artist, noted for her pioneering expressionist portraits of peasants and farmers.
The Old Farmer (1903) Kunsthalle, Hamburg.
Poorhouse Woman with Glass Bowl (1907) Ludwig Roselius Collection, Bremen.

Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)
Bohemian Paris-based Italian painter noted for his Expressionist portraits of nudes.
Pierrot (1915) State Art Museum, Copenhagen.
Paul Guillaume (1916) Galleria Civica d'Arte Moderna, Milan.
Paul Guillaume (1916) National Museum of Modern Art, Paris.
Max Jacob (1916) Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Dusseldorf.
Seated Nude (1916) Courtauld Institute, London.
Girl with Braids (1918) Nagoya City Art Museum.
Gypsy Woman with Child (1919) National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)
Dutch master, leader of Neo-Plasticism movement of geometric abstraction.
Apple Tree in Bloom (1912) private collection.
Broadway Boggie Woggie (1942-3) Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Creator of the best Impressionist paintings, devoted to plein-airism.
Impression, Sunrise (1873) Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris.
Poppies Near Argenteuil (1873) Musee d'Orsay.
Waterlily Pond (1899) National Gallery, London. See also: Art Museums in Europe.

Giorgio Morandi (1890-1964)
Italian painter of muted still lifes, influenced by Jean Chardin & Paul Cezanne.
Still Life (1960) private collection.

Gustave Moreau (1826-98)
Highly influential French symbolist painter, noted for complex expressive mythological works.
Orpheus (1865) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
The Apparition (1876) watercolour, Louvre, Paris.

Bertha Morisot (1841-95)
Leading female Impressionist painter, great grand-daughter of Jean-Honore Fragonard.
The Cradle (1872) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

Robert Motherwell (1915-91)
Abstract Expressionist noted for his "Elegy" series inspired by Spanish Civil War.
Extended series of acrylic paintings entitled: Elegy to the Spanish Republic.

Edvard Munch (1863-1944)
Greatest Norwegian painter, pioneer of Expressionism, noted for his morbid pictures.
The Scream (1893) oil tempera & pastel, National Gallery, Oslo.
The Madonna (1894) Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo.

N-O

Paul Nash (1889-1946)
Neo-Romantic English painter of visionary landscapes, influenced by De Chirico.
Totes Meer (Dead Sea) (1940-1), Tate Collection, London.

Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Powerful Die Brucke German Expressionist painter, watercolourist, etcher & lithographer.
The Prophet (1912) woodcut, various locations.
Young Men From Papua (1913-14) Staatliche Museen, Berlin.
Red Poppies (1920) watercolour on paper, Leonard Hutton Galleries, New York.

Julian Opie (b.1958)
British painter, sculptor, printmaker, noted for minimal figurative images.
Woman Taking off Man's Shirt in two Written Stages (2003) private collection.

William Orpen (1878-1931)
Irish classical academic portraitist, hugely influential in Ireland.
Cafe Royal in London (1912) Musee d'Orsay.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Spanish genius, the greatest, most versatile artist in the history of modern art.
Blue Nude (c.1904) Picasso Museum, Barcelona.
Garcon a la Pipe (1905) private collection.
Girl In a Chemise (1905) Tate Collection, London.
Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Portrait of Ambroise Vollard (1909-10) Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.
Guernica (1937) Reina Sofia, Madrid.
Weeping Woman (1937) Tate Gallery, London.

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
Only participant in all 8 Impressionist exhibitions; introduced Cezanne to plein air painting.
Foxhill, Upper Norwood (1870) National Gallery, London.
Lower Norwood under Snow (1870) National Gallery, London.
Entrance to the Village of Voisins (1872) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
Boulevard Montmartre At Night (1897) National Gallery, London.

Jackson Pollock (1912-56)
Inventor, with Lee Krasner, of "action-painting" style of Abstract Expressionism.
No.1, 1950 (Lavender Mist) (1950) oil/enamel/canvas, National Gallery, Washington DC.

Q-R

Odilon Redon (1840-1916)
French painter & printmaker, leader member of Symbolist art movement.
Cyclops (c.1898) oil on panel, Rijksmuseum, Kroller-Muler, Otterlo.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Leading member of French Impressionism, greatest painter of "dappled light".
Luncheon of the Boating Party (1880-1) Phillips Collection, Washington DC.
Young Boy with a Cat (1868) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
Le Moulin de la Galette (1876) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.

Ilya Repin (1844-1930)
Most famous late-19th century Russian painter, teacher at St Petersburg Academy.
Bargemen on the Volga (1870-73) Russian Museum, St.Petersburg.
Religious Procession in Kursk Gubernia (1883) Tretyakov Gallery.
Ivan the Terrible and his Son (1885) Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

Bridget Riley (b.1931)
British painter, designer; leader, with Victor Vasarely, of Op-Art movement.
Fission (1963) tempera on board, Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Movement in Squares (1961) tempera on board, British Council Collection.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-82)
British painter, leader of Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood.
Beata Beatrix (1864-70) Tate Gallery.
Proserpine (1882) Birmingham Museum of Art.

Mark Rothko (1903-70)
Russian-born Abstract Expressionist, pioneer of large-scale Colour Field Painting.
Yellow and Gold (1956) Philip Johnson Collection.
Untitled (1960-1) private collection.

Georges Rouault (1871-1958)
French Expressionist artist noted for religious works, drawings, illustrations.
Christ on the Cross (1936) aquatint on paper, private collection.
The Old King (1937) private collection.

Henri Rousseau (1844-1910)
Greatest of French naive (naif) artists, known as Le Douanier.
The Dream (1910) Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (1884-1976)
Member of Die Brucke German expressionist group, noted for vividly coloured paintings.
Pharisees (1912) Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Double Portrait of S and L (1925) Museum am Ostwall, Dortmund.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
Greatest society portraitist of his era, noted for his supreme painterly technique.
The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882) Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Madame X (1884) Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Antonio Saura (1930-98)
Spanish painter influenced by Velazquez' Crucifixion and Goya' brooding paintings.
Crucifixion 3.85 (1985) private collection.

Konstantin Savitsky (1844-1905)
Russian genre painter who specialized in group scenes of workers and peasants.
Repairing the Railway (1874) Tretyakov Gallery.

Egon Schiele (1890-1918)
Neurotic Viennese genius, one of the greatest daughtsmen and self-portraitists.
Self-Portrait Nude (1910) Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna.
The Embrace (1917) Osterreichischegallerie, Vienna.

Valentin Serov (1865-1911)
Brilliant Russian Impressionist portraitist, genre-painter and landscape artist.
Girl with Peaches (1887) Tretyakov Gallery.
Portrait of Isaac Levitan (1893) Tretyakov Gallery.
Colts at a Watering Place, Domotkanovo (1904) Tretyakov Gallery.

Paul Serusier (1864-1927)
French symbolist painter, follower of Gauguin, founder of Les Nabis.
Landscape: Bois d'Amour (The Talisman) (1888) Musee d'Orsay.

Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
Neo-Impressionist French painter, pioneer of Divisionism colour theory.
Bathers at Asnieres (1884) National Gallery, London.
Sunday on La Grande Jatte (1884-6) Art Institute of Chicago.

Ivan Shishkin (1832-98)
Russian landscape artist, arguably the greatest ever painter of forest scenery.
Oak Grove (1887) Museum of Russian Art, Kiev.

Walter Richard Sickert (1860-1942)
British painter, pupil of Whistler, advocate of French avant-garde art in Britain.
Mornington Crescent (1908) private collection.

Maria Helena Vieria da Silva (1908-92)
Portugese painter, member of Art Informel movement, noted for architectural imagery.
Theatre de Gerard Philipe (1975) Unterlindenmuseum, Colmar.

Alfred Sisley (1839-1899)
Anglo-French Impressionist, one of the greatest ever landscape painters.
Misty Morning (1874) Musee d'Orsay.
Snow at Louveciennes (1878) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
Moret Bridge in the Sun (1892) private collection.

Chaim Soutine (1893-1943)
Belarus-born painter, leading member of Ecole de Paris expressionists.
Portrait of Oscar Miestschaninoff (1923) Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris.
Page Boy at Maxim's (1927) Albright-Knox Art Gallery.

Clyfford Still (1904-1980)
With Rothko & Newman, member of Colour Field Painting style of Abstract Expressionism.
Painting 1944 (1944) Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Vasily Surikov (1848-1916)
Siberian history painter, portraitist.
The Morning of the Execution of the Streltsy (1881) Tretyakov Gallery.

Graham Sutherland (1903-80)
British painter, engraver and etcher, noted for portraits & semi-abstract landscapes.
Portrait of Somerset Maugham (1949) Tate Gallery, London.

Antoni Tapies (b.1923)
Barcelona painter influenced by Klee and Miro, noted for abstract paintings & prints.
White and Orange (1967) mixed media on plywood, Private Collection.

Mark Tobey (1890-1976)
American painter noted for abstract works fusing Pollock with eastern calligraphy.
White Journey (1956) distemper on paper, Beyeler Collection, Basel.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Disabled French aristocrat painter, famous for Parisian night club scenes.
At the Moulin Rouge (1892) Art Institute of Chicago.
Portrait of Yvette Guilbert (1894), Musee d'Orsay.

U-V

Maurice Utrillo (1883-1955)
Alcoholic French painter, noted for his "White Period" and street scenes of Monmartre.
Flag over the Town Hall, Musee de l'Orangerie, Paris.

Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958)
French painter, printmaker; an early Fauvist, then influenced by Cezanne.
The Bar Counter (1900) Musee de Calvet, Avignon.
Champs de Ble and Restaurant at Bougival (1905-6) Musee d'Orsay, Paris.
The Blue House (1906) Minneapolis Institute of Arts.
The Wheat Field (Champs de Ble) (1906) Milwaukee Art Museum.

Mikhail Vrubel (1856-1910)
Russian symbolist painter, expressionist artist.
The Seated Demon (1890) Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.
Girl against a Persian Carpet (1886) Museum of Russian Art, Moscow.

Edouard Vuillard (1868-1940)
French painter, lithographer, pioneer of Intimisme School of Post-Impressionism.
In the Garden (1894-5) Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow.

W-Z

John William Waterhouse (1849-1917)
English Romantic artist, influenced by Pre-Raphaelites.
Lady of Shalott (1888) Tate Collection, London.

James McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)
American painter, one of the greatest etchers, noted for unique tonal paintings.
Nocturne: Blue & Silver, Chelsea (1871) oil on wood, Tate Collection, London.
Arrangement in Grey & Black: The Artist's Mother (1871) Musee d'Orsay.
Nocturne in Black & Gold: The Falling Rocket (1875) oil on wood, Detroit Institute of Arts.

Grant Wood (1891-1942)
American realist painter, active in Iowa, known as "The Hans Memling of the Mid-West".
American Gothic (1930) oil on beaverboard, Art Institute of Chicago.

Andrew Wyeth (b.1917)
American realist painter in watercolour or tempera, noted for nostalgic regionalist pictures.
Christina's World (1948), tempera on panel, Museum of Modern Art.

Note: For details of the world's costliest paintings, complete with auction details, see: Top 10 Most Expensive Paintings Ever.

• For more about modern art, see: Art Encyclopedia.