You will be surprised! Where are the most famous paintings in the world

The history of art has countless masterpieces. They are admired in museums, galleries and historical sites around the world. In this guide from Zen.Yandex for art, we explore some of the world's most famous paintings and sculptures, and the cultural institutions that house them.

Find out where to find 20 famous pieces of art.

"MONA LISA" - LOUVRE (PARIS, FRANCE)

The Mona Lisa is the most famous portrait in the world. It was written by the polymath Leonardo da Vinci around 1506. The painting of a softly smiling woman is a hallmark of High Renaissance portraiture. It depicts a mysterious woman, believed to be Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco Giocondo, a draper and silk merchant, seated against a misty landscape. Since 1804, the Mona Lisa has been a permanent decoration of the Louvre.

Location: Louvre, Paris, France.

THE LAST SUPPER - SANTA MARIA DELL GRAZIE (MILAN, ITALY)

In 1495, the Duke of Milan commissioned Leonardo da Vinci to write «Last Supper" - a massive fresco measuring 4,5 by 9 meters. He commissioned it for the Dominican monastery of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan as part of a renovation project. Unlike other images on the subject, Leonardo chose to illustrate the moment when Jesus tells his followers that one of them will betray him. Completed in 1498, the fresco has remained the pearl of the monastery and the city ever since.

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Location: Santa Maria delle Grazie, Milan, Italy.

"STARRY NIGHT" - MOMA (NEW YORK, NEW YORK)

Post-Impressionist pioneer Vincent van Gogh wrote «starry night» while in a psychiatric hospital in southern France. The painting depicts the view from his room in the orphanage with a dreamy sky made up of celestial swirls, stylized stars and a shining moon. Van Gogh considered the painting a failure at the time and gave it to his brother Theo van Gogh, whose wife sold it to a collector in 1900. After a change of ownership, the painting was acquired by the New York Museum of Modern Art in 1941.

Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York.

GUERNICA - QUEEN SOPHIA (MADRID, SPAIN)

"Guernica" by Pablo Picasso is one of the national treasures of Spain. In 1937, the government of the Spanish Republic commissioned a painting to decorate the Spanish pavilion for the forthcoming World Exhibition in Paris. Inspired by the ongoing Spanish Civil War, Picasso decided to create a solemn grayscale painting with an anti-war message. The piece was sent to the United States to raise funds for Spanish refugees. And Picasso said that the painting should be returned to Spain only after the restoration of the republic. The masterpiece has been in the Reina Sofia Museum in Madrid since 1981.

Location: Reina Sofia Museum Madrid, Spain.

"IMPRESSION", "SUNRISE" - MUSEUM MARMOTTAN MONET (PARIS, FRANCE)

The Impressionist impulse is believed to have begun in the 1870s with a single work: Impression, Sunrise, a light and airy landscape painting by Claude Monet.

“Landscape is only an impression, instantaneous, hence the label that we were given - and all because of me, for that matter,” Monet recalled. “I imagined something taken from my window in Le Havre, sunlight in the mist with several masts in the foreground jutting out from the ships below. They wanted a name for the catalog; it couldn't really pass for a view of Le Havre, so I replied, "Write down 'Bimprint". Impressionism came out of this, and jokes grew ... "Today, Impressions, Sunrise It is part of the permanent collection of the Musée Marmottan Monet in Paris.

Location: Marmottan Monet Museum, Paris, France.

"GIRL WITH A PEARL EARRING" - MAURITSHUIS (THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS)

Known as "Mona Lisa North", "Girl with a Pearl Earring" by the old master Johannes Vermeer is a key example of Northern Renaissance portraiture. The master depicted a young woman, whose identity has not been established, sitting against a dark background. Her hair is covered in a blue and yellow turban, which is accentuated by a frame. A large teardrop-shaped pearl earring shimmers in the shadows. Since 1902, the painting has been in the Mauritshuis in The Hague, famous for its extensive collection of Dutch Golden Age paintings.

Location: Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands.

THE BIRTH OF VENUS – UFFIZI GALLERY (FLORENCE, ITALY)

"Birth of Venus" (1486) is one of the most famous paintings of the Renaissance. This masterpiece was created by Sandro Botticelli in 1486. It depicts a newly born Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty, standing in a shell. It is one of the first paintings to reflect classical inspiration and depict a nude woman. "Birth of Venus" и "Primavera" from the beginning of the 20th century are the main decoration of the famous Florentine Uffizi Gallery.

Location: Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy.

"DAVID" - ACADEMY GALLERY (FLORENCE, ITALY)

Since its debut in the early 16th century, "David" has fascinated both artists and art connoisseurs. Created by 26-year-old renaissance artist Michelangelo, it depicts the biblical character David moments before his fight with Goliath. Its enormous scale and realistic anatomy have made it one of the most famous marble sculptures. It was originally intended to be displayed outdoors, but since 1872 the statue has been in the Accademia Gallery.

Location: Accademia Gallery, Florence, Italy.

LAS MENINAS – PRADO MUSEUM (MADRID, SPAIN)

For over 350 years «Las Meninas" delights art lovers. This intricate oil painting by Diego Velázquez is an incredibly subtle depiction of life at the court of King Philip IV of Spain. The name translates as "Ladies in Waiting"". The painting is a turning point in art history before Velázquez abandoned the rigid, formal portraits that usually defined royalty. This masterpiece is now in the Prado Museum in Madrid.

Location: Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.

"KISS" - ÖSTERREICHISCHE GALERIE BELVEDERE (VIENNA, AUSTRIA)

The Kiss is Gustav Klimt's most beloved work and one of the most romantic paintings in the world. It was written at the height of the golden phase of creativity (1908–1909). It depicts an embracing couple, each dressed in a geometric print, kneeling in a grassy patch of wildflowers. The man tilts his head forward to kiss the woman, whose arm is wrapped around her partner's neck to hold him closer. The magnificent painting was bought by the Austrian government and placed in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna.

Location: Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere Museum, Vienna, Australia.

"GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS" - PRADO MUSEUM (MADRID, SPAIN)

Hieronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights triptych is a terrifying painting with surprisingly surreal details. Three scenes of the work depict animal hybrids, imaginary cars and other creative inventions. Although this work was from Northern Europe, it was purchased by King Philip II of Spain in 1591. Centuries later, the triptych was moved to the Prado Museum during the Spanish Civil War for safekeeping and has remained there ever since.

Location: Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain.

"GRAND JATTE ISLAND SUNDAY AFTERNOON" - ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO (CHICAGO, IL)

"Sunday Afternoon on the Island of Grand Jatte" was written by Georges Seurat, a pioneer of pointillism. He applied millions of colored dots to the canvas to create an image of a typical walk of Parisians who lived in the 1880s. Although he received mixed reviews during his lifetime, he has since become an icon of the Post-Impressionist movement and dazzles daily visitors to the Art Institute of Chicago, where he resides.

Location: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

“LIBERTY LEADING PEOPLE” – LOUVRE (PARIS, FRANCE)

Romantic painter Eugène Delacroix painted Liberty Leading the People in the autumn of 1830. The painting offers a modern take on the French Revolution. In the center of the painting is a woman known as Marianne, the symbol of the French Republic. She holds a flag in her right hand and a gun in her left. Barefoot and bare-chested, symbolizing the dedication of the French, who are capable of going to the enemy with a “bare chest”, she walks over a pile of corpses, as if coming out of the canvas directly at the viewer. The painting has been attracting crowds of visitors to the Louvre for many years.

Location: Louvre, Paris, France.

NIGHTHAWKS - ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO (CHICAGO, IL)

All his life, New Yorker Edward Hopper believed that "great art is the outward expression of the inner life of the artist, and this inner life will lead to his personal vision of the world." While this intimate artistic approach is evident in many of Hopper's masterpieces, it is especially visible in Nighthawks, the iconic oil painting that helped define the modernist movement. A few months after completion, the work was sold to the Art Institute of Chicago, where it remains to this day.

Location: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois.

"PORTRAIT OF ARNOLFINI" - NATIONAL GALLERY (LONDON, UK)

Nearly 100 years before Leonardo da Vinci created "Mona Lisa" , the Flemish painter Jan van Eyck demonstrated an early mastery of oil portraiture in his painting "Portrait of Arnolfini". It depicts a merchant and his wife in a richly decorated room showing luxury. Presumably this is Giovanni di Nicolau di Arnolfini. Van Eyck achieved this depth of color using a wet-on-wet technique in which he added layers of wet paint before the previous layers had dried. Amazing details of the painting can be seen up close at the National Gallery in London.

Location: National Gallery, London, UK.

LUNCH ON THE GRASS - ORSE MUSEUM (PARIS, FRANCE)

Through his unique style, Manet bridged the gap between two major artistic movements: Realism and Impressionism. One of the works illustrating this peculiar approach is "Breakfast on the Grass" (" Le déjeuner sur l'herbe" ), a painting that has become one of the most famous works of Manet and modern art. It depicts a picnic in the fresh air among a group of people, one of the heroines is naked. Today "Breakfast on the grass "- one of the most striking expositions of the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Location: Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France.

SCREAM - NATIONAL GALLERY (OSLO, NORWAY)

There are four versions «Scream by Edvard Munch. The most famous performance was the second attempt out of four, done in tempera paint on cardboard. He captured a moment of extreme human pain and suffering as a lone figure holds his face in his hands and screams. This famous version can be found in the National Gallery of Norway.

Location: National Gallery, Oslo, Norway.

"PERMANENCE OF MEMORY" - MOMA (NEW YORK, NY)

Surrealist Salvador Dali called The Persistence of Memory "a hand-drawn photograph of a dream." The picture was painted in 1931. Although the action takes place in a realistically rendered landscape, the masterpiece contains bizarre scenes that resemble a dream. First of all, the iconic melting clock, which is draped in an imaginary landscape, and an anthropomorphic form. The unusual painting has puzzled visitors to the Museum of Modern Art since 1934.

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Location: Museum of Modern Art, New York, New York.

"NIGHT WATCH" - STATE MUSEUM (AMSTERDAM, NETHERLANDS)

The company of Frans Banning Cock and Willem van Rijtenburg, better known as The Night Watch, is a massive masterpiece by Rembrandt van Rijn. He created the painting at the request of Captain Bannick Cock and 17 members of his civilian militia. It depicts a total of 34 figures. Rembrandt uses composition, as well as light and shadow, to create hierarchy in The Night Watch. This is the Rijksmuseum's most famous painting from 1885.

Location: Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

BOAT PARTY LUNCH - PHILLIPS COLLECTION (WASHINGTON, DC)

For years, audiences have been fascinated by Breakfast on a Boat, an impressionist masterpiece by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The work is known for its exquisite brushwork and attractive color palette. At the same time, the picture demonstrates three characteristic subjects of Renoir: portraiture, still lifes and scenery in the open air. In 1923, art collector Duncan Phillips purchased the painting, which he called "one of the greatest paintings in the world." The valuable item remains on permanent display in the Phillips collection.

Location: Philips Collection, Washington DC.