The most famous paintings in the world
The top 3 according to 241 votes from people: Mona Lisa · The Scream · The Last Supper. (Updated Mar 26, 2024.)
The paintings that top every 'most famous paintings' guide, with who painted them, when, and where you can see them today.
Top 25
-
1
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci, c. 1503-1519. Louvre, Paris; stolen in 1911 and the most visited painting on Earth.
-
2
The Scream
Edvard Munch, 1893. Several versions; the 1893 painting is in the National Museum, Oslo.
-
3
The Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci, 1495-1498. A mural in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan.
-
4
Las Meninas
Diego Velázquez, 1656. The Infanta Margarita with Velázquez himself painting; Museo del Prado, Madrid.
-
5
The Birth of Venus
Sandro Botticelli, c. 1484-1486. Uffizi Gallery, Florence.
-
6
The Persistence of Memory
Salvador Dalí, 1931. The melting clocks; MoMA, New York.
-
7
Guernica
Pablo Picasso, 1937. His response to the bombing of Guernica; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid.
-
8
The Kiss
Gustav Klimt, 1907-1908. Gold leaf and all; Belvedere, Vienna.
-
9
Girl with a Pearl Earring
Johannes Vermeer, c. 1665. 'The Mona Lisa of the North', at the Mauritshuis, The Hague.
-
10
The Garden of Earthly Delights
Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1490-1510. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
-
11
The Starry Night
Vincent van Gogh, 1889. Painted from the asylum at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence; MoMA, New York.
-
12
The Creation of Adam
Michelangelo, c. 1508-1512. Part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling, Vatican City.
-
13
The Great Wave off Kanagawa
Katsushika Hokusai, c. 1831. A woodblock print with impressions in museums worldwide.
-
14
Impression, Sunrise
Claude Monet, 1872. The painting that gave Impressionism its name; Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.
-
15
The School of Athens
Raphael, 1509-1511. A fresco in the Vatican's Raphael Rooms.
-
16
The Third of May 1808
Francisco de Goya, 1814. Museo del Prado, Madrid.
-
17
Water Lilies
Claude Monet, 1896-1926. Around 250 paintings; the great panels are at the Musée de l'Orangerie, Paris.
-
18
The Night Watch
Rembrandt, 1642. Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
-
19
Liberty Leading the People
Eugène Delacroix, 1830. Louvre, Paris.
-
20
Nighthawks
Edward Hopper, 1942. A late-night diner; Art Institute of Chicago.
-
21
The Arnolfini Portrait
Jan van Eyck, 1434. National Gallery, London.
-
22
American Gothic
Grant Wood, 1930. The farmer with the pitchfork; Art Institute of Chicago.
-
23
A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Georges Seurat, 1884-1886. The masterpiece of pointillism; Art Institute of Chicago.
-
24
Wanderer above the Sea of Fog
Caspar David Friedrich, c. 1818. Hamburger Kunsthalle.
-
25
Sunflowers
Vincent van Gogh, 1888. A series; versions in London, Amsterdam, Munich, Philadelphia and Tokyo.
Candidates
They don't make it into the top 25… yet. Vote for them to move them up.
-
26
The Son of Man
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.
Is something missing?
Comments (16)
The Kiss in Vienna, all that gold ✨
Starry Night at MoMA is the one that moved me most.
The Scream has several versions, people don't know that
The Creation of Adam, you need binoculars in the Sistine Chapel lol
Girl with a Pearl Earring is so small in real life too!
Saw 7 of these, the Mona Lisa was the most disappointing and Guernica the best.
The Birth of Venus at the Uffizi, worth the queue.
Mona Lisa at #1 but in person it's tiny and behind 50 phones 😅
Persistence of Memory is surprisingly small at MoMA
The Night Watch restoration you can watch live at the Rijksmuseum was fascinating.
Las Meninas is the greatest painting ever made imo
This list is so predictable lol
It's 'most famous', not 'best' 🙂
Guernica in the Reina Sofía, standing in front of it is overwhelming.
The Last Supper needs to be booked weeks ahead, only 15 minutes inside.
Where's Van Gogh's Sunflowers?