Top 10 Greatest Artists of All Time
Art has always been one of the most profound ways humans have expressed themselves, offering windows into different eras, emotions, and perspectives. This list brings together some of the most celebrated figures in art, spanning centuries and styles - from the masters of the Renaissance to the pioneers of modernism.Do you gravitate toward the timeless beauty of classical masterpieces, or do you admire the daring innovations of the avant-garde? Are you drawn to the intricate details of portraiture, or do the bold abstractions of modern art speak to you more deeply? Whatever your preferences, your voice matters in shaping this collection of history's most iconic creative minds.
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 - May 2, 1519) more commonly Leonardo da Vinci or simply Leonardo, was an Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy,... read more Leonardo is identified as one of the greatest painters in the history of Western art and is often credited as the founder of the High Renaissance.
Despite having many lost works and fewer than 25 attributed major works - including numerous unfinished works - he created some of the most influential paintings in the Western canon.
He is widely considered one of the most diversely talented individuals ever to have lived. According to scholars, the scope and depth of his interests were without precedent in recorded history, and his inventions have forever shaped how we interact with the world.
Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (6 March 1475 – 18 February 1564) was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art... read more Michelangelo's creative abilities and mastery in a range of artistic arenas define him as an archetypal Renaissance man, along with his rival and elder contemporary, Leonardo da Vinci.
Given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences, Michelangelo is one of the best-documented artists of the 16th century. He was lauded by contemporary biographers as the most accomplished artist of his era.
Ok, the Vatican, Sistine Chapel, the David, and Moses. This was hard for me. Da Vinci was a very close second with the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.
Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch draughtsman, painter, and printmaker. A prolific and versatile master across three media, he is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history. You can stand right next to a Rembrandt painting and find it impossible to believe that the material of clothes he has painted is not real. You almost know that it will feel like velvet and not paint!
I like 'realistic' art. I can't think of any other artist who is more able to make a painting so realistic. They are not like photographs as they convey the character of the people as well as the scene.
I wanted to touch his paintings in the Amsterdam Museum. Even so close, I just could not believe the clothes were not real!
Pablo Ruiz y Picasso, (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) also known as Pablo Picasso, was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet and playwright who spent most of his adult life in France... read more Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France.
One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, he is known for co-founding the Cubist movement, the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore.
Picasso achieved universal renown and immense fortune for his revolutionary artistic accomplishments and became one of the best-known figures in 20th-century art.
Vincent Willem van Gogh (30 March 1853 – 29 July 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art... read more An artist who lived a very depressing life, but his works of art beam with happiness. Over the great periods of life, his art still astounds us. The bright, vibrant colors he uses in his paintings, his transformation and presentations of the array of emotions he beheld, he really is an artist deserving of a good reputation.
Starry, starry night, paint your palette blue and grey. Look out on a summer's day with eyes that know the darkness in my soul...
He was a charm... the epitome of charm when he let his hands touch paint and draw mystic surreal frozen lives.
Oscar-Claude Monet was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. His landscape paintings are very beautiful to look at. He was also very good at blending the colors to paint the landscapes.
The feelings are seen occupying the atmosphere around the person who sets his eyes upon his beautiful pieces.
He was a total art rebel because he was one of the first impressionists!
A great Baroque colorist.
Exponent of bright color and strong images. A pioneer of several printmaking techniques who pushed the boundaries of artistic styles. I believe her to be the greatest African artist and one of the most influential in modern Western art.
I believe that she gave more hope and inspiration to more people than any other artist in history, yet most of those people will never be aware of it!
What a tragedy that she is no longer here. The world has lost the greatest artist of our time.
Michael Joseph Jackson (August 29, 1958 - June 25, 2009) was an American singer, dancer, and songwriter. He passed away from cardiac arrest caused by acute propofol and benzodiazepine intoxication, which was ruled a homicide. Jackson is widely regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures... read more Often referred to as the "King of Pop," Michael Jackson's musical achievements helped to complete the desegregation of popular music in the United States and introduced an era of multiculturalism. His rise to becoming the best-selling solo music act of all time broke barriers in how pop music was consumed and how artistic quality standards were presented through dance, fashion, and music videos.
It was this integration that future generations of performers followed. Due to his unprecedented influence, Michael Jackson is recognized today as one of the most globally renowned figures in history, with his impact reaching even the most remote corners of the world.
Édouard Manet (23 January 1832 – 30 April 1883) was a French painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, and a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. A great Impressionist who tackled modern subjects rather than romanticizing the old.
The Newcomers
Ernst Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish director, writer, and producer who worked in film, television, theatre and radio. Ingmar Bergman was a Swedish film and theater director and screenwriter. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential film directors of all time, his films have been described as "profoundly personal meditations into the myriad struggles facing the psyche and the soul."
Among his most acclaimed works are Persona, which has been frequently ranked as one of the greatest movies of all time, along with The Seventh Seal, Wild Strawberries, Autumn Sonata, Cries and Whispers, and Fanny & Alexander.
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential of all composers. His best-known compositions include 9 symphonies, 5 piano concertos, 1 violin concerto,... read more Beethoven is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music. His works rank among the most performed in the classical music repertoire and span the transition from the Classical period to the Romantic era in classical music.
Oscar-Claude Monet was a founder of French Impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. I love his landscape paintings the most. His landscape paintings are very beautiful and colorful. He knew how to blend the colors very well to paint the landscapes, and they were meticulously done. Although he used dots and lines as the main brush strokes, he knew how to use dots and lines to paint marvelous landscapes.
My favorite paintings of his are the landscape near Monte Carlo, San Giorgio Maggiore at Dusk, and Woman with a Parasol.
He is the true founder of Impressionism, and his style formed itself upon his pure emotion and expression. Every painting was so beautifully unique, and his lily pad series was wonderfully remarkable. Truly the greatest artist of his time.
Outstanding African artist of the last century. He led the way for other notable artists from Africa and North America.
The greatest African artist of the mid-1900s, he led the way and inspired artists like Bruce Onobrakpeya and Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy, who, like Enwonwu, painted the Queen.
A groundbreaker and trendsetter in a time of repression and prejudice.
William Shakespeare was an English poet, playwright, and actor, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon" (or simply "the Bard").
His extant works, including collaborations, consist of some 39 plays, 154 sonnets, three long narrative poems, and a few other verses, some of uncertain authorship. His plays have been translated into every major living language and are performed more often than those of any other playwright. Shakespeare remains arguably the most influential writer in the English language, and his works continue to be studied and reinterpreted.
Robert Norman Ross (October 29, 1942 – July 4, 1995) was an American painter, art instructor, and television host. He was the creator and host of The Joy of Painting, an instructional television program that aired from 1983 to 1994 on PBS in the United States, and also aired in Canada, Latin America,... read more Amazing artist. Made landscape paintings that look photorealistic in a matter of minutes and taught you how to do it at the same time.
I keep randomly looking at lists and think there should be a Bob Ross.
Just paint happy little trees.
I used to watch his show and paint pictures. He inspired me to take up painting.
William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age. Guy had to be a bit crazy - produced some pretty scary stuff, but it was good.
The inventor and greatest exponent of relief etching.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, baptised as Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart, was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era, born in Salzburg. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical period. Despite his short life, his rapid pace of composition resulted in more than 800 works representing virtually every Western classical genre of his time.
Many of these compositions are acknowledged as pinnacles of the symphonic, concertante, chamber, operatic, and choral repertoire. Mozart is widely regarded as one of the greatest composers in the history of Western music, with his music admired for its "melodic beauty, its formal elegance, and its richness of harmony and texture."
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with... read more One of the best Renaissance artists. He painted works such as the School of Athens, showing harmony, light sources, symmetry, and linear perspective.
Contemporary of Da Vinci and much of his work quite similar but more detailed.
Outstanding Japanese artist of the Edo period. He also pioneered the Rimpa school that influenced artists for many years.
Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, author, and manga artist. Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese animator, filmmaker, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and serves as its honorary chairman.
Over the course of his career, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a masterful storyteller and creator of Japanese animated feature films. He is widely regarded as one of the most accomplished filmmakers in the history of animation.
Johannes, Jan or Johan Vermeer (1632 – December 1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life.Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He evidently was not wealthy, leaving his wife and children in debt at his... read more