Top 10 Most Iconic Paintings in History

Painted in June 1889 while Van Gogh was voluntarily committed to Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, The Starry Night depicts the view from his room window before sunrise, with the addition of an idealised village. The swirling sky has been analysed by physicists who found its turbulent patterns correspond mathematically to Kolmogorov's theory of turbulence in fluid dynamics. It entered the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection in 1941 and has never been for sale.

Painted in tempera and oil on a dry plaster wall in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, The Last Supper has suffered severe deterioration since Leonardo's experimental technique began failing within a decade of completion. Despite 500 years of damage and restorations, and a 1943 bombing that destroyed the building's roof while the wall survived, it remains the most reproduced religious painting in history. The original stretches 8.8 x 4.6 metres — a scale photographs cannot convey.

Commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici and housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Botticelli's Birth of Venus was one of the first large-scale non-religious paintings of the Italian Renaissance to depict a nude female figure. The work — measuring 172.5 x 278.9 cm on canvas — was kept in the Medici family's private collection for generations, protecting it from the Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497. It entered the Uffizi in 1815 and is now the museum's most visited work, drawing 4.4 million visitors annually.

Picasso completed Guernica in 35 days in June 1937, responding to the Nazi and Fascist bombing of the Basque town of Guernica on 26 April 1937 during the Spanish Civil War — the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian population in European history. The 7.77 x 3.49 metre oil painting in monochrome grey, black, and white toured internationally as anti-war propaganda. Picasso refused to allow it to return to Spain until democracy was restored; it was kept at MoMA New York from 1939 to 1981.

Edvard Munch created four versions of The Scream between 1893 and 1910 — two in pastel, two in paint — inspired by a diary entry: "I felt an infinite scream passing through nature." The image has become the defining visual symbol of existential anxiety and has been reproduced on an estimated one billion items of merchandise, making it among the world's most commercially replicated artworks. The pastel version sold at Sotheby's in 2012 for $119.9 million, then a world auction record for the category.

Vermeer's 44.5 x 39 cm oil painting — known as the "Mona Lisa of the North" — depicts an unknown young woman with a large teardrop-shaped pearl earring against a black background. The painting was auctioned in The Hague in 1882 for just 2 guilders 30 cents before its true attribution was recognised; it now anchors the Mauritshuis collection in The Hague. Tracy Chevalier's 1999 novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, adapted into a 2003 film starring Scarlett Johansson, brought it global fame beyond the art world.

Rembrandt's 363 x 437 cm masterpiece depicting a militia company was so large it was cut down on three sides in the 18th century to fit Amsterdam's town hall — the removed sections are now lost. It has survived two deliberate attacks: knife slashes in 1975 (requiring 18 months of restoration) and an acid attack in 1990. The painting's innovative depiction of figures emerging from shadow into light was a revolutionary departure from the formal group portraits common at the time, and it has been exhibited in the Rijksmuseum since 1808.

Dali completed The Persistence of Memory in approximately two hours, inspired by watching a piece of Camembert cheese melt in the heat. The 24 x 33 cm oil on canvas depicts melting pocket watches in a dreamlike Catalonian coastal landscape — an image that has become the defining visual shorthand for Surrealism globally. Donated to MoMA in 1934 by art dealer Julien Levy, it has been exhibited almost continuously ever since. Dali later created The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954) as a quantum physics-themed sequel.

Seurat spent over two years creating this 207.6 x 308 cm painting using Pointillism — applying small dots of unmixed colour that blend optically in the viewer's eye. The work required 60 preliminary studies and depicted Parisian society taking leisure on an island in the Seine. It was the centrepiece of the 1886 Impressionist Exhibition, launching the Neo-Impressionist movement. Acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1924, it inspired Stephen Sondheim's 1984 Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George.

Painted in June 1889 while Van Gogh was voluntarily committed to Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Remy-de-Provence, The Starry Night depicts the view from his room window before sunrise, with the addition of an idealised village. The swirling sky has been analysed by physicists who found its turbulent patterns correspond mathematically to Kolmogorov's theory of turbulence in fluid dynamics. It entered the Museum of Modern Art's permanent collection in 1941 and has never been for sale.

Painted in tempera and oil on a dry plaster wall in the refectory of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, The Last Supper has suffered severe deterioration since Leonardo's experimental technique began failing within a decade of completion. Despite 500 years of damage and restorations, and a 1943 bombing that destroyed the building's roof while the wall survived, it remains the most reproduced religious painting in history. The original stretches 8.8 x 4.6 metres — a scale photographs cannot convey.

Commissioned by Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici and housed in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Botticelli's Birth of Venus was one of the first large-scale non-religious paintings of the Italian Renaissance to depict a nude female figure. The work — measuring 172.5 x 278.9 cm on canvas — was kept in the Medici family's private collection for generations, protecting it from the Bonfire of the Vanities in 1497. It entered the Uffizi in 1815 and is now the museum's most visited work, drawing 4.4 million visitors annually.

Picasso completed Guernica in 35 days in June 1937, responding to the Nazi and Fascist bombing of the Basque town of Guernica on 26 April 1937 during the Spanish Civil War — the first major aerial bombardment of a civilian population in European history. The 7.77 x 3.49 metre oil painting in monochrome grey, black, and white toured internationally as anti-war propaganda. Picasso refused to allow it to return to Spain until democracy was restored; it was kept at MoMA New York from 1939 to 1981.

Edvard Munch created four versions of The Scream between 1893 and 1910 — two in pastel, two in paint — inspired by a diary entry: "I felt an infinite scream passing through nature." The image has become the defining visual symbol of existential anxiety and has been reproduced on an estimated one billion items of merchandise, making it among the world's most commercially replicated artworks. The pastel version sold at Sotheby's in 2012 for $119.9 million, then a world auction record for the category.

Vermeer's 44.5 x 39 cm oil painting — known as the "Mona Lisa of the North" — depicts an unknown young woman with a large teardrop-shaped pearl earring against a black background. The painting was auctioned in The Hague in 1882 for just 2 guilders 30 cents before its true attribution was recognised; it now anchors the Mauritshuis collection in The Hague. Tracy Chevalier's 1999 novel Girl with a Pearl Earring, adapted into a 2003 film starring Scarlett Johansson, brought it global fame beyond the art world.

Rembrandt's 363 x 437 cm masterpiece depicting a militia company was so large it was cut down on three sides in the 18th century to fit Amsterdam's town hall — the removed sections are now lost. It has survived two deliberate attacks: knife slashes in 1975 (requiring 18 months of restoration) and an acid attack in 1990. The painting's innovative depiction of figures emerging from shadow into light was a revolutionary departure from the formal group portraits common at the time, and it has been exhibited in the Rijksmuseum since 1808.

Dali completed The Persistence of Memory in approximately two hours, inspired by watching a piece of Camembert cheese melt in the heat. The 24 x 33 cm oil on canvas depicts melting pocket watches in a dreamlike Catalonian coastal landscape — an image that has become the defining visual shorthand for Surrealism globally. Donated to MoMA in 1934 by art dealer Julien Levy, it has been exhibited almost continuously ever since. Dali later created The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (1954) as a quantum physics-themed sequel.

Seurat spent over two years creating this 207.6 x 308 cm painting using Pointillism — applying small dots of unmixed colour that blend optically in the viewer's eye. The work required 60 preliminary studies and depicted Parisian society taking leisure on an island in the Seine. It was the centrepiece of the 1886 Impressionist Exhibition, launching the Neo-Impressionist movement. Acquired by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1924, it inspired Stephen Sondheim's 1984 Broadway musical Sunday in the Park with George.