Famous Artists

Historically, artists become famous either for their unique style or the character they exude to the world of art . Beginning with the Renaissance Era, art was transformed, it elevated the value of art and produced a respect it from society that was not there in the past. Art masters became known everywhere, their work were studied during and beyond their lifetime. Following the Renaissance, innovations and varying school’s of thought took place and artists and their work distinguished themselves from every era ever since. For the best paintings of all time, view the most famous paintings.

Below are lists of the most famous artists of all time and their works starting with the Renaissance Movement:

Italian Renaissance Artists


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Donatello (1386-1466)
Donatello was a Renaissance artist born in Florence, Italy. He was famous for his artwork in bas relief, a type of shadow relief sculpture.
Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510)
Botticelli was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He hailed from Florence, Italy.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519)
Da Vinci was someone who was skilled and knowledgeable in many, many subjects, including science, mathematics, music, and most importantly, art. He was the epitome of a Renaissance man if there never was one.
Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564)
Also known as Michelangelo, he was an Italian Renaissance artist. He is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, alongside Leonardo da Vinci.
Raphael Sanzio (1483-1520)
Better known as just Raphael, an Italian architect and painter of the High Renaissance. He was best known for the perfection and grace in his artwork. Raphael was considered a master, among Leonardo da Vinci, and Michelangelo..
Titian (1488-1576)
Titian was known as an Italian painter, one of the most versatile. He was equally adept with landscape paintings, portraits, and mystical subjects.

Northern Renaissance Artists


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Albrecht Durer (1471-1528)
Durer was an important Northern Renaissance man from Germany. He was prominent in painting, printmaking, mathematics, engraving, and theory..
El Greco (1541-1614)
El Greco was a Spanish Renaissance artist of Greek descent. He became a master in Post-Byzantine art before moving to Rome. In Italy, his style was embellished with components of Venetian Renaissance and Mannerism..

Baroque Artists


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Caravaggio (1571-1610)
Caravaggio was an artist of the Baroque style, which emerged out of Mannerism. With the threat of Protestantism, the Roman Catholic Church sought for new art. Caravaggio’s radical naturalism and dramatic style offered them what they thought they needed..
Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Peter Paul Rubens was a Baroque painter who specialized in painting color, sensuality, and movement. He was famous for many Counter-Reformation artworks.
Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680)
Gian Lorenzo Bernini was an Italian artist who was skilled in sculpting, architecture, playwriting, stage-setting, and painting. His abilities as a sculptor set him apart from other artists of his age..
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669)
Rembrandt’s artworks gave way to what historians refer to as the Dutch Golden Age. Rembrandt was an excellent painter and etcher, one of the greatest in European art history..

18th Century Artists


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Francisco de Goya (1746-1828)
Francisco de Goya was a Spanish romantic artist known for his dark prints, and paintings, and for being cruelly realistic in each one of them. He never tried to beautify a personal portrait, and he portrayed things as he saw them, not how people wanted them.

19th Century Artists


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Camille Pissarro (1830-1903)
Camille Pissarro was a French Impressionist painter. He was an important contributor to both Impressionism and Post-Impressionism during his time.

  • Old Chelsea Bridge, London
  • The garden of Pontoise
  • The Côte des Bœufs at L’Hermitage
  • Washerwoman, Study
  • Conversation
  • The Harvest
Édouard Manet (1832-1883)
Édouard Manet was an important artist in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. He was one of the first nineteenth century artists to approach modern-life subjects.
Edgar Degas (1834-1917)
Edgar Degas was a famous French artist regarded as one of the founders of Impressionism, though he rejected the term and regarded himself a realist.
Winslow Homer (1836-1910)
Winslow Homer was an American landscape painter and printmaker. He was a freelance illustrator who was very prominent in American art during his time.
Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)
Cezanne was a French Post-Impressionist painter who contributed to the transition from the 19th century’s Impressionism to the 20th century’s new line of artistic enquiry: Cubism.
Oscar Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Oscar Claude Monet was a founder of French Impressionist painting. Monet lived by the philosophy of Impressionism that emphasizes the expression of one’s perceptions before nature.
Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)
Pierre-Auguste Renoir was a French artist who contributed to the development of the Impressionist style. He emphasized beauty in his artwork, especially of feminine sensuality.
Henri Rousseau (1844-1910)
Henri Rousseau was a French Post-Impressionist painter who specialized in Naïve or Primitive manner. His best paintings depict jungle scenes despite the fact that he never left France or saw a jungle.
Mary Cassatt (1844-1926)
Mary Cassatt was an American painter and printmaker. Most of her adult life was spent in France, where she met Edgar Degas and later became one of the Impressionists. Her paintings emphasized intimate and private lives of women, especially of those pertaining to the relationship between mothers and children.

  • The Boating Party
  • Tea
  • Summertime
  • The Child’s Bath
  • Under the Horse Chestnut Tree
  • Children on the Beach
  • Jules Being Dried by His Mother
  • Mother and Child
  • Young Woman in Green, Outdoors in the Sun
Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
Eugene Henri Paul Gauguin was a prominent French Post-Impressionist painter, print-maker, writer, sculptor, and ceramist.
Edvard Munch (1853-1944)
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter and printmaker. He was an important figure in expressionist art.
Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939): Alphonse Mucha was a Czech Art Nouveau artist known for his unique techniques.
Gustav Klimt (1862-1918)
Gustav Klimpt was known as one of the most important Austrian Symbolist artist of the Vienna Secession movement.
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901)
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a French artist who was regarded as one of the best painters from the Post-Impressionist era, alongside Gauguin, Van Gogh, and Cezanne.

20th Century Artists


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Henri Matisse (1869-1954)
Henri Matisse was a French painter, draughtsman, sculptor, and printmaker. He is known alongside Picasso and Marcel Duchamp as the three artists who contributed to the revolutionary developments of plastic arts in the early twentieth century.
Paul Klee (1879-1940)
Paul Klee was a Swiss and German painter who found inspiration in expressionism, surrealism, cubism, and orientalism.
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)
Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish draughtsman, sculptor, and painter who spent most of his life in France. Picasso was particularly skilled from childhood and into adolescence, and in his twenties he experimented with different ideas and techniques. His accomplishments in art brought him much fame.
Edward Hopper (1882-1967)
Edward Hopper was an American printmaker and realist painter. He was most skilled with oil painting and proficient in water-coloring and printmaking.
Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944)
Wassily Kandinsky was a Russian art theorist and painter. He was one of the first artists to experiment with abstract art.
Diego Rivera (1886-1957)
Diego Rivera was a famous Mexican painter and husband of the artist Frida Kahlo. He was an active communist during his time.
Marc Chagall (1887-1985)
Marc Chagall was a Russian-French Jewish artist with many art styles. He was an early modernist and was one of the most successful artists of the twentieth century.
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887-1986)
Georgia O’Keeffe was an American artist who distinguished herself as one of America’s most prominent modern artists, which is significant because the American art community was dominated by men during her time.
Georges Seurat (1859-1891)
Georges Seurat was a French Post-Impressionist painter. His most famous painting, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte,” ushered modern art into Neo-Impressionism.
Vincent Willem van Gogh (1853-1890)
Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist artist whose works carried lots of influence on 20th century art due to their portrayal of colors and emotions.
Joan Miró (1893-1983)
Joan Miro was a Spanish artist. His works have been interpreted as Surrealism.
Norman Rockwell (1894-1978)
Norman Rockwell was an American illustrator and painter.
René Magritte (1898-1957)
Rene Magritte was a Belgian Surrealist artist. His goal was to challenge viewers’ preconceptions of reality and force them to become hypersensitive to their surroundings.
M.C. Escher (1898-1972)
M.C. Escher was a Dutch graphic artist. He was famous for his mathematically inspired lithographs, mezzotints, and woodcuts, featuring constructions such as tessellations, architecture, and infinity.
Ansel Adams (1902-1984)
Ansel Adams was an American photographer best known for his photographs of the American West, particularly in Yosemite.

  • In Glacier National Park
  • Church, Taos Pueblo
  • Evening, McDonald Lake, Glacier National Park
  • The Tetons and the Snake River
Mark Rothko (1903-1970)
Mark Rothko was a Russian-born American painter who was interpreted as an abstract expressionist.
Salvador Dalí (1904-1989)
Salvador Dali was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter. Dali was very imaginative and had an affinity for unusual and grandiose behavior.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954)
Frida Kahlo was a Mexican painter. She was best known for her self-portraits. Her art has been celebrated in Mexico as representative of national and indigenous tradition, and by feminists for their forthright depiction of the female form.
Jackson Pollock (1912-1956)
Jackson Pollock was an American painter who spearheaded the abstract expressionist movement.
Andy Warhol (1928-1987)
Andy Warhol made Pop Art. His use of immediate culture in all his work is what brought him fame and glory.
Jack Vettriano (Born November 17, 1951)
Jack Vettriano is a Scottish painter. He did not take up painting until the 70s, when his girlfriend bought him a set of watercolors for his 21st birthday.

  • The Singing Butler