Masterpieces and painters

Famous paintings and sculptures and the artists behind them — what to look for and why they matter.

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• A Goddess Blown Ashore: How to Read Botticelli's Birth of Venus

  The Birth of Venus shows the goddess of love, born fully grown from the sea, blown ashore on a shell while a Hora waits to dress her.

• Hokusai, the Old Man Mad About Art: The Life Behind The Great Wave and Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji

  Katsushika Hokusai (1760–1849) made The Great Wave and Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji, used some thirty names and worked until 88. His restless life and legacy.

• How Did Impressionism Get Its Name? Claude Monet, a Sunrise and a Critic's Insult

  A critic mocked Monet's Impression, Sunrise in 1874 and accidentally named a movement. How Monet went from that insult to the Water Lilies.

• How Did Van Gogh Become Famous After He Died? The Brother, the Widow and 600 Letters

  Van Gogh died in 1890 seen as a failure. His fame came later, thanks to Theo's widow Jo, early exhibitions and the letters she published.

• How Many Sunflowers Did Van Gogh Paint? A Guide to the Paris and Arles Versions

  Two series: four canvases of cut sunflowers in Paris in 1887 and seven vases of sunflowers in Arles in 1888–89, one of which was destroyed in 1945.

• How Many Thinker Statues Are There? Rodin's Bronze and Its Casts Around the World

  There is no single Thinker. Besides the 1904 bronze in the Musée Rodin, about 27 other full-size casts exist, plus smaller and plaster versions.

• Not 1789: The July Revolution Behind Delacroix's Liberty Leading the People

  Liberty Leading the People shows the July Revolution of 1830, not 1789: Liberty, flag in hand, leads Parisians of every class over a barricade.

• Paradise, Pleasure, Hell: How to Read Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights Panel by Panel

  Bosch's triptych moves from Eden to a garden of naked pleasure-seekers to a nightmarish hell. Scholars still argue about what the middle panel means.

• Raphael, the Youngest Giant of the Renaissance: The School of Athens and a Career Cut Short at 37

  Raphael (1483–1520), one of the three giants of the High Renaissance, painted The School of Athens and died at 37. His life and art.

• Rembrandt's Rise and Fall: The Night Watch, Dozens of Self-Portraits and a Painter Who Lost Everything

  Rembrandt (1606–1669), the Dutch master of light and shadow, painted The Night Watch and honest self-portraits, then went bankrupt. His life.

• The Gap Between Two Fingers: Reading Michelangelo's Creation of Adam

  In The Creation of Adam, God reaches out to give Adam life, but their fingers stay about 2 cm apart, a gap some read as the distance to God.

• What Does Klimt's The Kiss Represent? Gold, Lovers and Vienna in 1908

  The Kiss shows two lovers wrapped in gold robes on a flowery meadow. Klimt painted it in 1907–08, at the height of his Golden Period in Vienna.

• What Is Happening in The Last Supper? Leonardo's Mural Explained

  Leonardo's Last Supper shows the moment Jesus says one apostle will betray him. Learn who is who, how it was painted and why it decayed.

• What Is the Meaning of The Starry Night? Van Gogh's Night Sky Explained

  The Starry Night shows the view from Van Gogh's asylum window in 1889, plus an imagined village. Here is what it depicts and what it may mean.

• What Is The Scream Really About? Edvard Munch and the Art of Inner Feelings

  Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) grew out of a sunset walk and a life shaped by illness and loss. What it shows, its versions and its two thefts.

• Who Is the Girl with a Pearl Earring? The Mystery Behind Vermeer's Gaze

  Nobody knows for sure. Vermeer's c. 1665 painting is a tronie, a study of a face rather than a portrait, so the girl may be real or imagined.

• Who Is Watching Whom? Unpacking the Puzzle of Velázquez's Las Meninas

  Las Meninas shows five-year-old Infanta Margaret Theresa and her maids in Velázquez's studio as the painter and a mirrored royal couple look out.

• Why Did Goya Paint Saturn Devouring His Son? The Story Behind His Darkest Picture

  Goya painted Saturn Devouring His Son on his own dining-room wall and never titled it. What it shows, what it may mean, and how it reached the Prado.

• Why Did Leonardo da Vinci Finish So Few Paintings? The Restless Mind Behind the Mona Lisa

  Leonardo left fewer than 25 attributed major works, many unfinished, yet changed Western art. Why a genius of painting kept turning to science instead.

• Why Did Michelangelo Paint the Sistine Chapel If He Saw Himself as a Sculptor?

  Michelangelo called himself a sculptor, yet a pope made him paint the Sistine ceiling from 1508 to 1512. How a reluctant painter made art history.

• Why Did Millet's The Gleaners Make Paris Critics Nervous in 1857?

  Millet's The Gleaners (1857) shows three peasant women picking up leftover wheat. Critics read it as a political threat; today it hangs in the Musée d'Orsay.

• Why Is Klimt's The Kiss Covered in Gold? Gustav Klimt and the Vienna Secession

  Gustav Klimt, a gold engraver's son, rebelled against Vienna's art establishment and made gold leaf the star of paintings like The Kiss. His art and scandals.

• Why Is the Figure in The Scream Screaming? Munch's 1893 Painting, Versions and Thefts

  The Scream shows Munch's memory of a sunset walk when he felt an endless scream pass through nature. Here is its story, versions and thefts.

• Why Is the Mona Lisa So Famous? Leonardo's Portrait Explained

  The Mona Lisa is famous for Leonardo's soft sfumato technique, its mysterious smile and a 1911 theft that made it a worldwide celebrity.

• Why Is The Night Watch So Famous? Rembrandt's Masterpiece That Isn't Set at Night

  Rembrandt's 1642 Night Watch turned a stiff militia portrait into a drama of light and movement. Why it is famous, why it is misnamed, and what happened to it.