Is this the most famous and celebrated painting of all times? Counterfeited and stolen, retrieved and admired, imitated and surely wanted by all elite collectors worldwide, no such a list could be even remotely complete without this lady and her smile.
2. Rembrandt - Nightwatch
It was actually a comission to the artist, in 1642, but not the client and surely not Rembrandt himself could have imagined that centuries later this would be one of the best known artworks in the whole world.
3. Salvador Dali - The Persistence of Memory
The clock, the landscape, the enigma, the meanings, the interpretations, the serious studies about this artwork and the various artists and fans who wanted a reproduction for it's strange beauty.
4. Vincent van Gogh - Starry Night
Many experts consider this work to be van Gogh's masterpiece, but surely those who love the works of the tormented and unlucky artist could easily find another contender (or several) worthy of the title. But it is surely one of his most famous ones.
5. Gustav Klimt - The Kiss
As it often happens, once this work by Klimt was sold for a record price it made worldwide headlines, and many rediscovered the paintings signed by the artist. Easily to remember due mainly to it's golden beauty it is considered today one of the most popular paintings in recent history.
6. Jan Vermeer van Delft - Girl with the Pearl Earing
The Mona Lisa of the North, as some have named it, but this naive and charming young lady is mostly known today for the book and the following movies inspired by the painting.
7. Georges Seurat - A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
The painter worked for about two years for this painting, and at the first glance it might seem rather a long time. But this masterpiece is composed of dots, and Seurat made about 60 studies for it.
8. Diego Rivera - Cargador de Flores
Maybe he is not as well known as other artists, yet the influence and importance of Diego Rivera in the course of modern art could not ever be ignored.
9. Grant Wood - American Gothic
Depressive, all American, simply impossible to forget, this work was shocking and impressive when it was first seen, and still is one of the most influential and interesting works of modern art.
10. Pierre-Auguste Renoir - Bal du Moulin de la Galette
You probably have seen it everywhere in reproductions, as it is one of the most famous and most expensive paintings. Yet when Renoir presented it there were some conservative art lovers and collectors who were simply appaled by it.
