Johannes Vermeer (baptized October 31,

1632, Delft, Netherlands—buried December

16, 1675, Delft), Dutch artist who created

paintings that are among the most beloved

and revered images in the history of art.

Although only about 36 of his paintings

survive, these rare works are among the

greatest treasures in the world’s finest

museums. Vermeer began his career in the

early 1650s by painting large-scale biblical and

mythological scenes, but most of his later

paintings—the ones for which he is most

famous—depict scenes of daily life in interior

settings. These works are remarkable for their

purity of light and form, qualities that convey

a serene, timeless sense of dignity.

Vermeer’s most famous work, Girl with a

Pearl Earring, was created in 1665 using oil

paint on canvas.

Gir

l wit

h a

Pe

arl E

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ng

Guernica by Pablo Picasso - On April 26, 1937, Spanish dictator Francisco Franco ordered the bombing of the

small town of Guernica. It was a market day; civilians, predominantly women and children, were outdoors in

public squares. As the first place where democracy was established in Spain’s Basque region, the town was a

symbolic target. The brutal bombing killed hundreds of people and injured as many as 900 others. This painting

was inspired by that attack. The original work is a mural that is 11 ½ feet tall and 25 ½ feet long. It was created

by Pablo Picasso and is considered by many to be his greatest work.

The painting is a mural 11 ½ feet tall by 25 ½ feet long. It is displayed at a museum in Paris.

The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

One of the 4 great

postimpressionists,

Vincent van Gogh is

generally considered

the greatest Dutch

painter after

Rembrandt. His

reputation is based

largely on the works of

the last 3 years of his

short 10 year painting

career, and he had a

powerful influence on

Expressionism in

modern art. He

produced more than

800 oil paintings and

700 drawings, but he

sold only one during his

lifetime.

The Starry Night on display at MoMA (The Museum of Modern Art) in New York City

Seurat painted this

masterpiece entirely

by means of dots of

pure color. The most

subtle ranges of color

could be shown by

changing the

combination of colors

of the dots. This was

a very controlled way

of painting, and the

compositions of his

pictures are entirely

in keeping with the

great care required

by the method. The

painting Sunday

Afternoon on the

Island of the Grande

Jatte is a view of a

holiday crowd on an

island near Paris.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - George Seurat

This painting is more than 700 years old! It is categorized as a bird-and-

flower painting and was created by artist, Qian Xuan. Here’s some text

from an article accompanying an image of the work in Wikipedia,

“according to Chinese tradition, bird-and-flower painting covers flowers,

birds, fish, and insects. It can thus deal with a wide range of natural topics,

including flowers (plants), fish, insects, birds, pets (dogs, cats) etc.” Look

closely at the detailed dragonflys, frogs and plants. The artist’s work was,

and still is, amazingly detailed!

Here is an enlarged view

of one section of the

painting. Look at the

amount of detail in the

dragonflies’ wings, as well

as the plants’ stems and

leaves.

Artist Jean Michel Basquiat transitioned from being homeless and unemployed to selling a single painting for up to $25,000 in a matter of several years. In 1978, Basquiat worked for the Unique Clothing Warehouse in their art department and at night he began "SAMO," painting his original graffiti art on neighborhood buildings. Unique's founder Harvey Russack discovered Basquiat painting a building one night, they became friends, and

he offered him a day job. Note: the man shown in the photograph is NOT Jean Michel Basquiat.

This work, Untitled, has been sold at auction for more than $100 million.