By: Wonder Matala
Many paintings have been made and put up in museums for the world to see but some of them are the most famous, recognizable, and notable of the group. Let’s look at some of them.
Famous Paintings
Of course, to no one’s surprise, one of the most famous paintings in the world is the “Mona Lisa”by Leonardo da Vinci. The painting was made in Florence and was based on Lisa Gherardini. The painting was commissioned by Francesco del Giocondo because he wanted a picture of his wife , Lisa, in their home. Allegedly, the painting was worked on for 16 years likely due to hand injuries before Leonardo died in 1519. The Mona Lisa is approximately 860 million dollars. This painting is one of the most well known and one of my personal favorites.
The Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911 by Vincenzo Peruggia. He and two others stowed away in a closet, waited until the museum closed, and stole it. This is when the painting was minor work. He took a train and left before years later, he tried to sell the painting but it backfired because the buyer called the director of a museum and the police arrested him. And while we’re on this topic, you would not believe the amount of times the Mona Lisa has been damaged or almost damaged. Someone has thrown a rock at it, someone tried to spray paint it, someone threw a teacup at it, and the most well known one, someone threw A CAKE at it. They should really put protective glass around it.
Next up is maybe another notable one, “Girl With Pearl Earring” by Johannes Vermeer. The painting was made in 1665. The painting is of a woman looking at the observer with, obviously, a pearl earring on her ear. Johannes was a Dutch Golden Age painter and the painting went by many names over the century but in the 20th century it was decided based on the girl with the earring portrayed there. This might confuse some people but “Girl with Pearl Earring” isn’t actually based on a painting of anyone which confuses a lot of people. This painting was lost for 200 years and found, dusted off, and displayed. Fun fact: It is priceless since the people who had it, would never sell it. I knew this one existed but never really cared but I still thought it was great, just not one of my favorites.
The next painting is another recognizable one, “The Starry Night” by Vincent Van Gogh. Most people have heard of this painting’s name or seen it. The painting was created in June, 1889 and was actually started in the same month. That’s fast. The reason it was painted was because Van Gough was seeking respite from plaguing depression at the Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy in southern France. It was based on his view from the window in his cell, hence the name. Van Gough actually thought this painting was a failure. “The Starry Night” is worth about $100 million dollars following its $50 million sale in 1990. My personal opinion about this painting is that it’s iconic, unique, and special. Fun fact, this is one of the 2 paintings on this list that was stolen or damaged.
The next painting is another one of my favorites, “The Scream” by Edvard Munch. In 1893. It stemmed from a panic attack that Munch suffered in 1892. Fun fact, even though the painting looks like the person in the painting is screaming, they are not. According to the artist, the person in the painting is hearing someone scream. Another fact, “The Scream” was actually painted on cardboard because Munch was a struggling young artist coming to terms with his mother’s and sister’s death. Did you know, The painting was actually stolen twice in 1994 and 2004? Yeah, the security must have been pretty disappointing to be able to have the painting being stolen twice only 10 years apart. When I think of this picture, I think of the kid from home alone. The face and the hand position just remind me of that pose the kid did. The painting was sold to someone in an auction for about 120 million dollars and the person is unknown.
The last painting I have to show you is- oh. Nevermind. That picture is not good for our eyes. Let me just…..there. The next painting to show is “Whistler’s Mother” by James McNeil Whistler. It was painted in 1871 and the person in the painting is Anna McNeil Whistler who is obviously James’s mother. It was done in traditional oil on canvas form in a frame made by Whistler. People say that James wasn’t gonna paint his mother in the first place but that the model that he was gonna paint didn’t show up so his mother helped him. This painting also goes by “Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 1” but people call it “Whistler’s Mother” because of the long name. There was another one named “Arrangement in Grey and Black No. 2” and the painting was of Thomas Carlyle. He agreed to do it in a similar position after looking at the first one. Many people would think that this painting’s other name is Whistler’s Father but that’s not true because Thomas isn’t James’s father. This painting isn’t as well known as the rest of the paintings here. I didn’t know this painting existed until I looked it up. I think it’s great and all, just not my style.
Things We Did
There are some things that we all did when drawing or painting when we were younger. Let’s look at some of them.
We all did the sun in the corner of the frame. And we did lines like the rays of light coming from it. We all did this at least once in our drawings as a child. It was just an easier way of drawing a sun in our pictures and it looked better because I know for a fact that none of us knew how to create perfect circles. If you say you didn’t do it, you’re lying but you had to have seen someone else do it.
When drawing a house, all we did was squares , a triangle, and sometimes, a rectangle. It would be the base of the house, the roof, and the chimney. This was the basic structure we all did. Even now, some people still do it because there’s no need for a hyper realistic house for a single drawing.
I’m pretty sure we did similar facial features for drawings. For the eyes, we just put a dot. That’s basically all we did before we drew the circle around it first. The mouth was a simply curved line. Basic, again, but effective. Some of us just didn’t draw the nose because it looked bad when we tried. For example, if you drew a nose like a sideways v, it would look kinda weird. I never did the half circle for my nose because I thought it was ugly in all the pictures. I just never got my nose down. Most of us didn’t.
We all traced something. Either on a computer or off a paper. You press the paper against the picture and just trace it. It’s not completely scummy but it’s still bad to do it. It’s worse if you claim it as your own since, come on, it’s not. If I was the artist that was stolen from, I don’t know whether I would be mad or flattered that someone stole my art but I would probably be more mad. All that hard work just for some John Doe to steal it. Moral of the story, don’t do it unless you don’t have malicious intent.
Stick figures are the building blocks of a character. We all did them, we all were them, and we all (maybe) love them. This was the easiest way to do people because it was hard to do human figures and don’t get me started on animals. Simple, but effective is what I think it is. Stick figures are funny too and they never get tiring or old. Overall, I love stick figures.
Conclusion
Overall, art plays a big part of human life and whether we liked it or not, we did some type or form of art. It puts what we feel onto paper or a canvas. It also lets us let out our creativity. It shows others these things or past experiences. Art is important to our lives and this article is supposed to show you that art has more emotion and is deeper than just someone randomly throwing paint onto a canvas. I hope you understand what art truly is now and how it affects us.
