# The most famous paintings in the world

The paintings that top every 'most famous paintings' guide, with who painted them, when, and where you can see them today.

- 241 votes · 26 items
- Mar 26, 2024 · archivist_grumpy
- https://even.best/en/l/386/the-most-famous-paintings-in-the-world

## Top 25

1. **Mona Lisa** (21 · ▲21 ▼0) — Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503-1519. Louvre, Paris; stolen in 1911 and the most visited painting on Earth.
2. **The Scream** (16 · ▲16 ▼0) — Edvard Munch, 1893. Several versions; the 1893 painting is in the National Museum, Oslo.
3. **The Last Supper** (12 · ▲13 ▼1) — Leonardo da Vinci, 1495-1498. A mural in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.
4. **Las Meninas** (11 · ▲11 ▼0) — Diego Velázquez, 1656. The Infanta Margarita with Velázquez himself painting; Museo del Prado, Madrid.
5. **The Birth of Venus** (10 · ▲11 ▼1) — Sandro Botticelli, c. 1484-1486. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
6. **The Persistence of Memory** (10 · ▲10 ▼0) — Salvador Dalí, 1931. The melting clocks; MoMA, New York.
7. **Guernica** (9 · ▲10 ▼1) — Pablo Picasso, 1937. His response to the bombing of Guernica; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid.
8. **The Kiss** (9 · ▲10 ▼1) — Gustav Klimt, 1907-1908. Gold leaf and all; Belvedere, Vienna.
9. **Girl with a Pearl Earring** (8 · ▲9 ▼1) — Johannes Vermeer, c. 1665. 'The Mona Lisa of the North', at the Mauritshuis, The Hague.
10. **The Garden of Earthly Delights** (8 · ▲8 ▼0) — Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1490-1510. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
11. **The Starry Night** (6 · ▲14 ▼8) — Vincent van Gogh, 1889. Painted from the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence; MoMA, New York.
12. **The Creation of Adam** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — Michelangelo, c. 1508-1512. Part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Vatican City.
13. **The Great Wave off Kanagawa** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1831. A woodblock print with impressions in museums worldwide.
14. **Impression, Sunrise** (6 · ▲7 ▼1) — Claude Monet, 1872. The painting that gave Impressionism its name; Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.
15. **The School of Athens** (6 · ▲6 ▼0) — Raphael, 1509-1511. A fresco in the Vatican's Raphael Rooms.
16. **The Third of May 1808** (5 · ▲6 ▼1) — Francisco de Goya, 1814. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
17. **Water Lilies** (5 · ▲5 ▼0) — Claude Monet, 1896-1926. Around 250 paintings; the great panels are at the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris.
18. **The Night Watch** (4 · ▲7 ▼3) — Rembrandt, 1642. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
19. **Liberty Leading the People** (4 · ▲7 ▼3) — Eugène Delacroix, 1830. Louvre, Paris.
20. **Nighthawks** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Edward Hopper, 1942. A late-night diner; Art Institute of Chicago.
21. **The Arnolfini Portrait** (4 · ▲5 ▼1) — Jan van Eyck, 1434. National Gallery, London.
22. **American Gothic** (4 · ▲4 ▼0) — Grant Wood, 1930. The farmer with the pitchfork; Art Institute of Chicago.
23. **A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Georges Seurat, 1884-1886. The masterpiece of pointillism; Art Institute of Chicago.
24. **Wanderer above the Sea of Fog** (3 · ▲4 ▼1) — Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1818. Hamburger Kunsthalle.
25. **Sunflowers** (2 · ▲2 ▼0) — Vincent van Gogh, 1888. A series; versions in London, Amsterdam, Munich, Philadelphia and Tokyo.
26. **The Son of Man** (1 · ▲3 ▼2) — René Magritte, 1964. The man in a bowler hat with an apple in front of his face; private collection.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.