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Determining who are the best artists in history is essentially subjective; however, based on popularity and evaluation by specialists, a consensus list of the 12 best visual artists of all time is presented below.
1. Michelangelo (1475 – 1564)
Michelangelo is considered the greatest sculptor and painter of all time. He was an important figure of the Renaissance in Italy, especially in Florence and in Rome. Some of his marble sculptures are stunningly beautiful.
Michelangelo is popularly known for his sculptures and for the frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, among other wonderful works of art.
2. Rembrandt van Rijn (1606 – 1669)
Rembrandt was a Dutch painting genius who created several masterpieces. He is particularly known for his passion for history painting and still life portraits. Several of his canvases became famous for their emotional content, which is why Rembrandt was classified as a realist painter.
3. Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973)
Pablo Picasso, the founder of cubism, is one of the most influential artists in history. He was a sculptor, engraver, painter and ceramicist. His are several of the most important paintings of the 20th century. His father was a painter, which encouraged him to develop a successful career, and he had the privilege of studying in the best art schools in Spain.
He was one of the 250 sculptors who held the 3 rd Sculpture International exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, United States, in 1949. He was exceptionally prolific; he produced some 50,000 works of art including drawings, paintings, sculptures and other forms of plastic art. Among all the art forms that he developed, Picasso stood out as a painter.
4. Leonardo da Vinci (1452 – 1519)
Leonardo was born in Florence, Italy. Despite having lived several centuries ago, he remains one of the most influential artists of all time. His only training was in the field of science, and as a young man he was apprenticed to a renowned Florentine painter of the time. Leonardo was considered an intellectual during his lifetime, due to his passion for science.
Leonardo’s contributions to the world of art were relatively few, but two of his paintings are the most popular in history, and remain so today. These are the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper , the latter being the only surviving fresco by Leonardo da Vinci.
The fact that his interests went beyond art could have been the reason that his artistic production was relatively short. He concentrated on studying various aspects of physics, particularly mechanics, designing various machines and devices.
5.Claude Monet (1840-1926)
Claude Monet is considered the founder of French impressionist painting. Monet’s passion was painting nature, and this was the origin of his impressionist painting. When Monet moved to Paris he observed that various artists copied the most popular works of other painters. Instead of imitating them, Monet would sit by a window and paint what he saw.
Gradually Monet became popular for his new impressionist style. He influenced several young artists who embraced the pictorial style, so that impressionism quickly became a popular style in Paris. In 1874 the first exhibition of impressionism was held in the French capital. In that exhibition, Monet presented 12 of his works, five paintings and seven pastels.
6.Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890)
Vincent van Gogh was born in the Netherlands; he was a remarkable painter whose works currently sell for exorbitant prices. His contribution to the plastic arts was in painting; many of them were still lifes, and others were portraits of friends and people he knew. Vincent van Gogh painted about 800 paintings. Aspects of pictorial technique that distinguished him were his understanding of the relationship between colors and his unique brushwork. His work continues to be a source of inspiration for Impressionist painters around the world.
7. Auguste Rodin (1840-1917)
Rodin was a workaholic, a dedicated sculptor. He was a worthy successor to great masters like Michelangelo. Rodin is considered the greatest sculptor of the modern era. His success derives from his ability to shape stone and clay into complex shapes. Rodin made a living collaborating with renowned sculptors of his time.
8. Jan van Eyck (1390 – 1441)
He is one of the most notable artists of the European Renaissance and many of his works are still reproduced today. In addition to working for the court, van Eyck produced a number of paintings for private clients. A peculiarity of his work is that he was the only painter of his time who signed his canvases.
9. Donatello (1386 – 1466)
Donatello is considered the best sculptor of the 15th century. He was undoubtedly one of the best artists of that time. He was very skilled at working with wood, terracotta and stone.
10.Peter Paul Rubens (1386-1466)
Rubens was the most influential artist of the baroque art of the counter-reformation. His artistic contribution developed mainly in painting, working in almost all pictorial genres. He was very versatile, producing both drawings and book illustrations as well as sketches for metalwork and sculpture.
11. Élisabeth Louise Vigée-Le Brun (1755 – 1842)
Élisabeth Vigée-Le Brun was one of the most renowned portrait painters of 18th century France, and the most famous female artist in Europe. Due to her talent and perseverance she achieved success in one of the most turbulent periods in French and European history, and she became one of Queen Marie Antoinette’s favorite painters. She painted more than 20 portraits of Marie Antoinette, along with portraits of other European aristocrats, actors and writers, mainly women. She was chosen to integrate art academies in 10 different cities. She painted more than 900 paintings throughout her life, including some 600 portraits and 200 landscapes.
12. Georgia O’Keeffe (1887 – 1986)
Georgia O’Keeffe was one of the most important artists of the 20th century. She was one of the first American artists to embrace abstraction and became one of the leaders of the American modernist movement. Her art is personal and innovative. She is known for painting large abstract flowers, the dramatic skyscrapers of New York, and the landscapes of the American Southwest.
