аÄÃÅ¿ª½±½á¹û

Pure Genius: 20 Famous Oil Painters

Oil painting is the practice of using pigments and a drying oil substance as a binder. It has traditionally been the most popular method for creative painting. The oil painting has more versatility, richer and denser color, the ability to apply layers, and a larger range from light to dark advantages. However, the procedure takes longer since one layer of paint must cure before another is applied.

The actual method has been employed for ages. Pigments are suspended in drying oils to create oil paints, which commonly combine dry powder colors with linseed oil. Several painters still use it as a core technique today. However, there has been a significant change in how these paints are used. Let’s take a look at some of the most famous oil painters;

1. Hieronymus Bosch

One of the most well-known Dutch artists to fall under this practice is Hieronymus Bosch. Born in 1450 and died on 9 August 1516, he mostly created works using oil paints on wood. His work is best exemplified by “The Garden of Earthly Delights” (1510–1515), which is a stunning illustration with a compelling religious story.

He was able to reach an astounding level of precision by mastering oil paints. Many of the details are barely discernible. He mastered his art so well that he became one of the best oil painters of his time and most young artists look up to him.

2. Leonardo da Vinci 

A Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci Photo sourced from

Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci famously known as just Leonardo da Vinci was born on 15 April 1452 and died on 2 May I know 1519 was an Italian polymath of the High Renaissance who was active as a painter, draughtsman, engineer, scientist, theorist, sculptor, and architect. His fame however rested on his achievements as a painter.

Leonardo is widely regarded to have been a genius who epitomized the Renaissance humanist ideal, and his collective works comprise a contribution to later generations of artists. Some of his most famous oil paintings are the Monalisa which is famously known as the world’s most famous painting ever and one of the most expensive.

Read more about him in Top 7 Interesting Facts About Leonardo Da Vinci

3. Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Pieter Bruegel the Elder born around 1525–1530 and died on 9 September 1569 was the most significant artist of Dutch and Flemish Renaissance painting, a painter and printmaker, known for his landscapes and peasant scenes (so-called genre painting).

He was a pioneer in making both types of subjects the focus of large paintings. The powerful compositions, brilliantly organized and controlled, reflect a sophisticated artistic design. He is one of the best oil painters and his fame remains to date.

4. Caravaggio

A portrait of the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio Photo sourced from

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio born on 29 September 1571 and died on 18 July 1610, was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life who was known to use pigments that were created using ground oils on linen canvas.

He is one of the best oil painters and was truly gifted since he could produce paintings that had impressive elements of realism. He is famously known for his paintings that include The Calling of St Matthew (1600), Bacchus (1596), and Judith Beheading Holofernes (1599).

5. George Stubbs

George Stubbs was born on Aug 24th, 1724, and died on July 10, 1806, was an outstanding English animal painter, and anatomical draftsman known famously for painting Horses. His masterly depictions of hunters and racehorses brought him innumerable commissions.

He is best known for his highly polished paintings of animals and he worked on all scales, occasionally producing huge works, and he painted in this decade racing, hunting, and shooting scenes, portraits of horses, and wild animals.

6. Diego Velázquez

A portrait of Diego Velázquez Photo sourced from

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez famously known as just Diego Velázquez was born around early June 1599, baptized on June 6, 1599, and died on August 6, 1660, was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV of Spain and Portugal, and of the Spanish Golden Age.

Velázquez is often hailed as the father of the Spanish school of art and is one of the greatest artists that ever lived. He developed his principles of art and his technique and unique style earned him a legion of fans and followers. It could be said that he had a greater influence on European art than any other painter.

Read more about him in 15 Most Famous Spanish Painters

7. Johannes Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer also known as Jan Vermeer born in October 1632 and died on 15 December 1675 was a Dutch Baroque Period painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life. 

He excelled in using the color palette in such a way that he presented his competency in creating realistic images with photographic quality. He is one of the most renowned oil painters in the world and his achievements throughout his work. His most famous paintings include the Girl with a Pearl Earring.

8. Joseph Mallord William Turner 

Joseph Mallord William Turner Self Portrait Photo sourced from

Joseph Mallord William Turner RA born on 23rd April 1775 and died on 19th December 1851, known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker, and watercolorist. He is known for his expressive coloring, imaginative landscapes, and turbulent, often violent marine paintings.

Turner is perhaps the best-loved English Romantic artist and he became known as ‘the painter of light’, because of his increasing interest in brilliant colors as the main constituent in his landscapes and seascapes. His works include watercolors, oil,s, and engravings.

9. Édouard Manet

Édouard Manet born on 23rd January 1832 and died on 30th April 1883 was a French modernist painter. He was one of the first 19th-century artists to paint modern life, as well as a pivotal figure in the transition from Realism to Impressionism.

He developed his simple and direct style that would be heralded as innovative and serve as a major influence for future painters. He is often credited with bridging the gap between two of the most important art movements of the 19th century, Realism and Impressionism.

10. Rembrandt

Rembrandt van Rijn – Self-Portrait Photo sourced from

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn born on 15 July 1606 and died on 4 October 1669, usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker, and draughtsman. He is generally considered one of the greatest visual artists in the history of art and the most important in Dutch art history.

Rembrandt’s works depict a wide range of styles and subject matter, from portraits and self-portraits to landscapes, genre scenes, allegorical and historical scenes, biblical and mythological themes, and animal studies. He is one of the best oil painters to ever exist.

Read more about him here

11. Claude Monet

Oscar-Claude Monet born on 14th November 1840 and died on 5th December 1926 was a French painter and one of the founders of impressionist painting. He is seen as a key precursor to modernism, especially in his attempts to paint nature as he perceived it.

He was and remains a key figure in the Impressionist movement that transformed French painting in the second half of the nineteenth century. Throughout his long career, his oil paintings consistently depicted the landscape and leisure activities of Paris and its environs as well as the Normandy coast.

12. Vincent Van Gogh 

Vincent van Gogh, Self-Portrait Photo sourced from

Vincent Willem van Gogh born on 30th March 1853 and died on 29th July 1898 was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter who posthumously became one of the most famous and influential figures in Western art history. He remains one of the best oil painters who used so many colors in his paintings.

Some of his paintings include landscapes, still, life, portraits, and self-portraits, and are characterized boldly by colors and dramatic, impulsive, and expressive brushwork that contributed to the foundations of modern art. One of his most-known paintings is the Sunflowers.

Read more about him here

13. Gustav Klimt 

Gustav Klimt born on July 14th, 1862, and died on February 6, 1918, was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the famous Vienna Secession movement whose major works included paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects.

Klimt’s primary and major subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism with most of his paintings being on display in the Vienna Secession gallery. He is one of the top artists whose oil paintings were naturally defined by their colors.

14. Pablo Picasso

Pablo Ruiz Picasso born on 25th October 1881 and died on 8 April 1973 was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and theatre designer. He was one of the most influential artists of the 20th century and he is most known for co-founding the Cubist movement

He is also famed for the invention of constructed sculpture, the co-invention of collage, and for the wide variety of styles that he helped develop and explore. He is one of the best oil painters who are renowned for endlessly reinventing himself, switching between styles so radically.

15. Salvador Dali 

Portrait of Salvador Dali Photo sourced from

One of the other most famous oil painters in our list today is Salvador Dali born on 11th May 1904 and died on 23rd January 1989 was a Spanish surrealist artist renowned for his technical skill, precise draftsmanship, and striking and bizarre images in his work.

Dalí was mostly renowned for his flamboyant personality and role of mischievous provocateur as much as for his undeniable technical virtuosity. His paintings also evince a fascination for Classical and Renaissance art, clearly visible through his hyper-realistic style and religious symbolism of his later work.

Read more about him in 10 interesting facts about Salvador Dali

16. Max Ernst

Next, on our list is Max Ernst born on 2nd April 1891 and died on 1st April 1976 was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. Known an as of the most prolific painters, Ernst was a primary pioneer of the Dada movement and Surrealism.

His work reflects such early 20th-century creative developments and upheavals and his works have been the subject of exhibitions at institutions including the Centre Pompidou, the Museum of Modern Art, and even the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

17. Mark Rothko

Photograph of Mark Rothko, painter, by Conseulo Kanaga Photo sourced from

Mark Rothko born on September 25th, 1903, and died on February 25, 1970, was a Latvian-American abstract painter who is best known for his color field paintings that depicted irregular and painterly rectangular regions of color. He takes his place among the best and most famous oil painters.

He is renowned for his use of color as the sole means of expression that led to the development of Colour Field Painting. He is mostly associated with the American Abstract Expressionist movement of modern art for his artistic works.

18. Grace Hartigan

Grace Hartigan born on March 28th, 1922, and died on November 15th, 2008 was an American Abstract Expressionist painter and a significant member of the vibrant New York School of the 1950s and 1960s. She is perhaps one of the only female painters on our list.

She is known for her ability to combine gestural abstraction with imagery derived from art history and popular culture. Hartigan’s best-known works combine the abstraction of her early work with recognizable images from everyday life.

19. Vasudeo S. Gaitonde 

Vasudeo S. Gaitonde born in 1924 and died on 10th August 2001, also known as V. S. Gaitonde, was regarded as one of India’s foremost abstract painters. His paintings reflect the multicultural vision that Gaitonde developed in the 1960s when he received a Rockefeller Foundation grant that brought him to New York City.

He was an artist of singular stature and was known to fellow artists and intellectuals as well as to later generations of students and admirers, as a man of uncompromising integrity of spirit and purpose and he remains one of the most sought-after oil painters of his generation.

20. Paul Cezanne

A Portrait of Paul Cézanne in 1861 Photo sourced from

Paul Cézanne born on 19th January 1839 and died on 22nd October 1906 was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work introduced new modes of representation and influenced avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century.

Cézanne often applied his pigments to the canvas in a series of discrete, methodical brush strokes as though he was constructing a picture rather than painting it. Thus, his work remains true to an underlying architectural ideal.