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.

The Top Ten

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci (April 15, 1452 - May 2, 1519), more commonly known as Leonardo da Vinci or simply Leonardo, was an Italian polymath. His areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpture, 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.

He showed me the way art can show your feelings. As Leonardo said, "Art is never finished, only abandoned." Always try to do your best and you will succeed. So, express your feelings through art. Be heard. You were born to draw.
Michelangelo Buonarroti

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, born March 6, 1475, and died February 18, 1564, was a towering figure of the Italian High Renaissance. He was a sculptor, painter, architect, and poet whose influence reshaped Western art. During his lifetime, he was widely regarded as the greatest living artist... 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.
Vincent van Gogh

Vincent Willem van Gogh (March 30, 1853 to July 29, 1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter and is among the most famous and influential figures in the history of Western art. In just over a decade, he created about 2,100 artworks, including around 860 oil paintings. Most of these were completed... 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.
Rembrandt

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (July 15, 1606 - October 4, 1669) was a Dutch draughtsman, painter, and printmaker. He was a prolific and versatile master who worked across drawing, painting, and printmaking. Rembrandt is widely regarded as one of the greatest visual artists in history and the most influential... read more

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!
Oscar Claude Monet

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 in plein-air landscape painting. His series paintings, such as those of haystacks, Rouen Cathedral... read more

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.
Pablo Picasso

Pablo Ruiz y Picasso (October 25, 1881 - April 8, 1973), also known as Pablo Picasso, was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, stage designer, poet, and playwright. He spent most of his adult life in France, where he produced a vast and influential body of work.... 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.

The most unique painter ever to exist, his paintings are very unique and interesting to look at. The best thing about him is that he is a perfectionist who always worked hard to make his paintings as pleasing as possible.
Peter Paul Rubens

A great Baroque colorist.
Chinwe Chukwuogo-Roy

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.
Raphael

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 realization of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Alongside Michelangelo... 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.
Édouard Manet

Édouard Manet (January 23, 1832 - April 30, 1883) was a French painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to depict scenes of modern life, and his work played a key role in the transition from Realism to Impressionism. Some of his most influential paintings include Olympia and Le Déjeuner... read more

A great Impressionist who tackled modern subjects rather than romanticizing the old.

The Newcomers

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Hayao Miyazaki

Hayao Miyazaki is a Japanese film director, producer, screenwriter, animator, author, and manga artist. He co-founded Studio Ghibli and directed many of its most acclaimed films, including Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro, and Princess Mononoke. Miyazaki is widely regarded as one of the most influential... read more

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.
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Jackson Pollock

Paul Jackson Pollock, known professionally as Jackson Pollock, was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was best known for his unique drip painting technique. Pollock's work gained widespread recognition in the late 1940s and had a significant impact on the... read more

The Contenders

Francesco Hayez
Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri Marie Raymond de Toulouse-Lautrec-Monfa (November 24, 1864 - September 9, 1901), commonly known as Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, was a French painter, printmaker, draughtsman, and illustrator. He is best known for capturing the theatrical and nightlife scenes of late 19th-century Paris.... read more

Great post-impressionist. His café scenes create an atmosphere that makes you feel you were there.

He did more for the poster industry than all the others put together.
Ben Enwonwu

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 Blake

William Blake (November 28, 1757 - August 12, 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. During his lifetime, he was largely unrecognized and considered eccentric. Today, he is considered a foundational figure in the history of Romantic poetry and visual art.

Guy had to be a bit crazy - produced some pretty scary stuff, but it was good.

The inventor and greatest exponent of relief etching.
John Singer Sargent
Georgia O'Keeffe
Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer, also known as Jan or Johan Vermeer, was a Dutch painter born in 1632 and died in December 1675. He is best known for his paintings depicting domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. Although Vermeer was moderately successful during his lifetime, he did not achieve significant... read more
Bob Ross

Robert Norman Ross (October 29, 1942 to July 4, 1995) was an American painter, art instructor, and television host. He created and hosted The Joy of Painting, an instructional program that aired from 1983 to 1994 on PBS in the United States. The show also aired in Canada, Latin America, and Europe.... 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.
Salvador Dalí

Salvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, Marqués de Dalí de Púbol (May 11, 1904 - January 23, 1989), known as Salvador Dalí, was a prominent Spanish surrealist painter born in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. He is best known for his striking and bizarre images in surrealist work, including The Persistence... read more

The world of art just wouldn't be the same without him!
Pierre-Auguste Renoir

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, commonly known as Auguste Renoir (February 25, 1841 - December 3, 1919), was a French artist and a leading painter in the development of the Impressionist style. He was known for his vibrant light and saturated color, often focusing on people in intimate and candid compositions... read more
Frits Thaulow
Andrew Salgado
Tawaraya Sōtatsu

Outstanding Japanese artist of the Edo period. He also pioneered the Rimpa school that influenced artists for many years.
J. M. W. Turner

The greatest landscape painter in Europe.
Paul Gauguin

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin (June 7, 1848 - May 8, 1903) was a French post-Impressionist artist.
Although underappreciated during his lifetime, Gauguin is now celebrated for his bold use of color and the synthetist style, which marked a significant departure from Impressionism. His work greatly... read more

A leader in the movement toward Symbolism, he paved the way for other great painters.