Top 10 Most Iconic Artworks of All Time

Painted by Vincent van Gogh in June 1889 while he was a voluntary patient at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, The Starry Night depicts the view from his room window just before sunrise. Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime, but The Starry Night now attracts over 5 million visitors annually to MoMA in New York, where it has been permanently displayed since 1941. It has inspired more than 15,000 versions and adaptations in music, film, and digital art.

Commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and completed in 1498, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper covers a 460 x 880 cm wall in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Unlike most Renaissance fresco artists, Leonardo experimented with tempera and oil on a plaster base, causing the painting to deteriorate almost immediately — it has undergone 20 major restoration campaigns since the 17th century. It has been copied more than any other painting in history and remains a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Norwegian artist Edvard Munch created four versions of The Scream between 1893 and 1910, combining oil paint, tempera, and pastel to depict a figure of existential anguish against a blood-red sky. One version sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2012 for $119.9 million (then a world auction record), while the National Gallery of Norway's version was famously stolen in 1994 and recovered months later. The Scream's central image has become the universal symbol of modern anxiety.

Johannes Vermeer's c.1665 oil painting of an anonymous girl wearing a large pearl earring against a dark background is sometimes called "the Mona Lisa of the North." The 44.5 x 39 cm painting, housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, inspired Tracy Chevalier's 1999 novel (and its 2003 film adaptation starring Scarlett Johansson) and drew a record 407,000 visitors in 2014. Infrared analysis in 2020 revealed Vermeer originally painted a green curtain in the background.

Salvador Dali painted The Persistence of Memory in just two hours in 1931, depicting melting pocket watches in a dreamlike Catalan landscape. The 24 x 33 cm oil on canvas, now permanently displayed at MoMA in New York, was inspired by Dali's vision of a piece of Camembert cheese melting in the summer heat. The painting sold for $29.9 million in 1999 and its iconic drooping clocks have been reproduced on more merchandise than any other Surrealist work in history.

Pablo Picasso created Guernica in response to the Nazi bombing of the Basque town of Guernica on 26 April 1937, in which 150-1,600 civilians were killed. The 349 x 776 cm monochrome oil painting was exhibited at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris and has become the defining anti-war artwork of the 20th century. Picasso refused to allow the painting to return to Spain until democracy was restored; it remained in MoMA's custody until 1981, two years after Franco's death. It now draws 2+ million visitors annually to the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

Georges Seurat spent more than 2 years (1884-1886) painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, developing the technique of Pointillism to do so. The 205 x 305 cm oil painting consists of approximately 3.5 million individual dots of colour applied in a precise grid pattern to create optical blending. Now at the Art Institute of Chicago, it inspired the 1984 Stephen Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George and has been analyzed as one of the most technically complex paintings ever created.

Sandro Botticelli's c.1484-1486 tempera painting depicting the goddess Venus emerging from the sea fully grown is one of the best-known works of the Italian Renaissance. The 172 x 278 cm painting, now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, was commissioned by the Medici family and represents the first large-scale non-religious nude female figure in Western art since antiquity. The Uffizi receives 4+ million visitors annually, with Botticelli's works — including The Birth of Venus — among the most photographed in the museum.

Grant Wood's 1930 oil painting depicting a pitchfork-holding farmer and a woman in front of a Carpenter Gothic house was purchased by the Art Institute of Chicago for $300 in 1930 and is now considered priceless. Inspired by a small white house Wood spotted in Eldon, Iowa, the painting has become one of the most recognized and parodied works in American art — appearing in over 70,000 parodies and adaptations since its creation. The two subjects (Wood's sister and dentist) achieved accidental immortality as symbols of American rural resilience.

Painted by Vincent van Gogh in June 1889 while he was a voluntary patient at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, The Starry Night depicts the view from his room window just before sunrise. Van Gogh sold only one painting during his lifetime, but The Starry Night now attracts over 5 million visitors annually to MoMA in New York, where it has been permanently displayed since 1941. It has inspired more than 15,000 versions and adaptations in music, film, and digital art.

Commissioned by Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, and completed in 1498, Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper covers a 460 x 880 cm wall in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. Unlike most Renaissance fresco artists, Leonardo experimented with tempera and oil on a plaster base, causing the painting to deteriorate almost immediately — it has undergone 20 major restoration campaigns since the 17th century. It has been copied more than any other painting in history and remains a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Norwegian artist Edvard Munch created four versions of The Scream between 1893 and 1910, combining oil paint, tempera, and pastel to depict a figure of existential anguish against a blood-red sky. One version sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2012 for $119.9 million (then a world auction record), while the National Gallery of Norway's version was famously stolen in 1994 and recovered months later. The Scream's central image has become the universal symbol of modern anxiety.

Johannes Vermeer's c.1665 oil painting of an anonymous girl wearing a large pearl earring against a dark background is sometimes called "the Mona Lisa of the North." The 44.5 x 39 cm painting, housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague, inspired Tracy Chevalier's 1999 novel (and its 2003 film adaptation starring Scarlett Johansson) and drew a record 407,000 visitors in 2014. Infrared analysis in 2020 revealed Vermeer originally painted a green curtain in the background.

Salvador Dali painted The Persistence of Memory in just two hours in 1931, depicting melting pocket watches in a dreamlike Catalan landscape. The 24 x 33 cm oil on canvas, now permanently displayed at MoMA in New York, was inspired by Dali's vision of a piece of Camembert cheese melting in the summer heat. The painting sold for $29.9 million in 1999 and its iconic drooping clocks have been reproduced on more merchandise than any other Surrealist work in history.

Pablo Picasso created Guernica in response to the Nazi bombing of the Basque town of Guernica on 26 April 1937, in which 150-1,600 civilians were killed. The 349 x 776 cm monochrome oil painting was exhibited at the 1937 World's Fair in Paris and has become the defining anti-war artwork of the 20th century. Picasso refused to allow the painting to return to Spain until democracy was restored; it remained in MoMA's custody until 1981, two years after Franco's death. It now draws 2+ million visitors annually to the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.

Georges Seurat spent more than 2 years (1884-1886) painting A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, developing the technique of Pointillism to do so. The 205 x 305 cm oil painting consists of approximately 3.5 million individual dots of colour applied in a precise grid pattern to create optical blending. Now at the Art Institute of Chicago, it inspired the 1984 Stephen Sondheim musical Sunday in the Park with George and has been analyzed as one of the most technically complex paintings ever created.

Sandro Botticelli's c.1484-1486 tempera painting depicting the goddess Venus emerging from the sea fully grown is one of the best-known works of the Italian Renaissance. The 172 x 278 cm painting, now at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, was commissioned by the Medici family and represents the first large-scale non-religious nude female figure in Western art since antiquity. The Uffizi receives 4+ million visitors annually, with Botticelli's works — including The Birth of Venus — among the most photographed in the museum.

Grant Wood's 1930 oil painting depicting a pitchfork-holding farmer and a woman in front of a Carpenter Gothic house was purchased by the Art Institute of Chicago for $300 in 1930 and is now considered priceless. Inspired by a small white house Wood spotted in Eldon, Iowa, the painting has become one of the most recognized and parodied works in American art — appearing in over 70,000 parodies and adaptations since its creation. The two subjects (Wood's sister and dentist) achieved accidental immortality as symbols of American rural resilience.