Oil Painting: History, Famous Paintings in Oils

Famous Oil Paintings By the Most Influential Artists

Almost all of the world's greatest painters since the Renaissance, except for Michelangelo (1475-1564), have produced masterpieces using the medium of oil paint. Here is a short selection of the world's most influential oil painters and their works. For the full list, see: Famous Paintings Analyzed.

Terms
See: Diptych (2-panel oil); Triptych (3-panel oil); Polyptych (multi-panel oil).

Robert Campin (c.1378-1444)
Seilern (Entombment) Triptych (1410) Courtauld Institute.
Merode Altarpiece (Annunciation Triptych) (c.1425) Cloisters, NY.

Jan Van Eyck (1390-1441)
Ghent Altarpiece (1432) Saint Bavo Catherdal, Ghent.
Arnolfini Portrait (1433-4) National Gallery, London.
Portrait of a Man in a Red Turban (1433) National Gallery, London.

Roger Van der Weyden (1399-1464)
Descent From the Cross (Deposition) (c.1435-40) Prado, Madrid.

Hans Memling (1433-94)
The Donne Triptych (1480) National Gallery, London.

Hugo Van Der Goes (1440–1482)
Portinari Altarpiece (Triptych) (1475) Uffizi, Florence.

Hieronymus Bosch (1450–1516)
Garden of Earthly Delights (1500-05) Prado Museum, Madrid.

Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519)
Lady with an Ermine (c.1490) Czartoryski Museum, Cracow
Mona Lisa (1503-6) Louvre, Paris

Matthias Grunewald (1475-1528)
The Isenheim Altarpiece (1512-15) Musee d'Unterlinden, Colmar.

Giorgione (Giorgio da Castelfranco) (1477-1510)
The Tempest (1508) Galleria dell'Accademia, Venice.

Titian (c.1477-1576)
Assumption of the Virgin (1516-8) S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice.
Venus of Urbino (1538) Uffizi, Florence.

Raphael (1483-1520)
The Sistine Madonna (1513) Gemaldegallerie, Dresden.
Portrait of Pope Leo X (1518) Uffizi, Florence.

Hans Holbein The Younger (1497-1543)
The Ambassadors (1533) National Gallery, London.
Portrait of Henry VIII (1536) Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum, Madrid.

Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti) (1518-1594)
The Crucifixion (1565) Scuola Grande di San Rocco, Venice.
The Last Supper (1592-4) St Giorgio Maggiore, Venice.

Pieter Bruegel the Elder (c.1525-1569)
Tower of Babel (1563) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Hunters in the Snow (1565) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.

Paolo Veronese (1528-88)
Wedding Feast at Cana (1563) Louvre, Paris.

El Greco (1541-1614)
Burial of Count Orgaz (1586) Church of Sainto Tome, Toledo.
Portrait of a Cardinal (1600) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Caravaggio (1573-1610)
Conversion on the way to Damascus (1601) Cerasi Chapel, Rome.
Supper at Emmaus (1601) National Gallery, London.
The Entombment (1602-4) Vatican Museums.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640)
Samson and Deliah (1609) National Gallery, London
Descent from the Cross (1611-14), Cathedal of Our Lady, Antwerp

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)
Rape of the Sabines (1638), Louvre, Paris
The Holy Family on the Steps (1648), National Gallery, Washington DC

Velazquez (1599-1660)
Portrait of Pope Innocent X (1650) Galleria Doria Pamphili
Las Meninas (1656) Prado Museum, Madrid

Rembrandt (1606-69)
The Nightwatch (1642) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
Syndics of the Cloth-Makers Guild (1662) oil, Rijksmuseum

Jan Vermeer (1632-1675)
Girl with the Red Hat (1665-6) National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.
The Art of Painting: An Allegory (c.1666) Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna.
Girl with a Pearl Earring (1666) Mauritshuis, The Hague.
The Letter (1668) Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-88)
Jonathan Buttall: "Blue Boy" (1770) Huntington Library & Gallery, San Marino.

Jean Honore Fragonard (1732-1806)
The Swing (1767) Wallace Collection, London.

Francisco Goya (1746-1828)
Naked Maja (Maja des Nuda) (1800) Prado Museum, Madrid
The Third of May 1808 (1814) Prado Museum, Madrid
Saturn Devouring his Son (1823) Prado Museum, Madrid

JMW Turner (1775-1851)
Burning of the House of Lords and Commons (1835) Philadelphia Museum
The Fighting Temeraire (1839) National Gallery, London

John Constable (1776-1837)
Boatbuilding Near Flatford Mill (1815) Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
The Hay Wain (1821) National Gallery, London.

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres (1780-1867)
Bather of Valpincon (1808) Louvre, Paris.
The Grand Odalisque (1814) Louvre.

Edouard Manet (1832-83)
A Bar at the Folies-Bergere (1882) Courtauld Institute, London.

Paul Cezanne (1839-1906)
The Card Players (1885-90) Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia, PA.
The Large Bathers (Les Grandes Baigneuses) (1894-1905) National Gallery, London; Museum of Art, Philadelphia; Barnes Foundation, Merion, PA.

Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Impression, Sunrise (1873) Musee Marmottan Monet, Paris.
Poppies Near Argenteuil (1873) Musee d'Orsay.

Paul Gauguin (1848-1903)
Annah The Javanese (1893) private collection.
Where Do We Come From? Who Are We? (1897) Boston MFA.
Girl with a Fan (1902) Folkwang Museum, Hessen.

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Sunflowers (1888) National Gallery, London.
Cafe Terrace at Night, Arles (1888) Yale University Art Gallery.
Wheat Field with Crows (1890) Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.

John Singer Sargent (1856-1925)
The Daughters of Edward Darley Boit (1882) Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
Portrait of Madame X (1884) Metropolitan Museum of Art.