tl;dr Look at the pictures you haven’t seen before.

Here I list my favorite western painting art across the centuries and explain in my own simple terms how it all ties up. I won’t bore you with Wikipedia style explanation.

I never thought of myself as an appreciator of the history of painting, but I realized recently that even though my knowledge has huge gaps I still probably know a way lot more that the average person cares for. More importantly, I have found so many paintings and artists that I like that I risk forgetting them if I don’t organize my knowledge and memories somehow. So I’m starting one big page here, organized roughly by publication year because it helps me visualize the chronology better than grouping by art styles — which I don’t even really know.

Medieval art (1400)

No matter how I look at it, all medieval art is terrible to me. The proportions are all wrong, stylization is crap, and religious themes ruin everything with their stiffness. The only good artist I know from this period is the late medieval artist Hieronymus Bosch whose paintings are so surreal that they force you stop and look more carefully.

I don’t mean to say Bosch is good merely because his paintings are unintentionally funny. Rather, I find that the best paintings from any period tend to employ storytelling well. Simple portrait paintings are often boring to me, but fantastic and mythologic paintings, or anything with action or death tend to catch my attention.

All the paintings on this page employ oil painting, which became the dominant form of painting just around the time of Bosch.

Image: The Garden of Earthly Delights, by Hieronymus Bosch (1490)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Visions of the Hereafter, by Hieronymus Bosch (1500)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The Italian masters (1500)

To simply explain the meaning of “Renaissance” in relation to painting: in the Italian city of Florence people started to pay attention to knowledge stored in antique Roman/Greek age recordings and otherwise grew bored of the crappy medieval art style. Whatever the causes, the quality of painting in Italy surged rapidly during this period, and in the opinion of some has only gone down since. These guys were seriously good. The larger Renaissance movement was big enough to formally end the “middle ages”.

Leonardo da Vinci is from this period but I’m not listing him because the point of this article isn’t to show famous paintings, but the ones that I genuinely appreciate.

Symbolism and technique seems to come naturally to the best works of this period.

Image: Venus of Urbino, by Titian (1538)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The School of Athens, by Raphael (1511)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Some of Raphael’s works such as “Lo Spasimo di Sicilia” show amazing technique considering the period, but I find the works otherwise lacking.

Image: The Creation of Adam, by Michelangelo (1511)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Michelangelo seems to have been a sculptor foremost, so it’s rather unbelievable that he could also paint something like the “Creation of Adam”.

Early Dutch

Bosch and his contemporaries seem to have started a separate force of art in the Netherlands that will later reach a “Golden age”. Until then there are artists such as Pieter Brueghel the Elder setting the foundations.

Image: The Hunters in the Snow, by Pieter Brueghel the Elder (1565)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Mannerism

Mannerism was an art style in the late Renaissance whose main point seems to have been exaggeration of beauty. The important point here is perhaps that the art continued to evolve and the changes between the periods were not sudden. The following painting by Wtewael actually came later than Caravaggio’s baroque paintings below.

Image: Perseus and Andromeda, by Joachim Wtewael (1611)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Baroque (1600), Italians

Put simply, I think the Baroque style signifies the start of really using black in painting. Very dark shadows, strong colors, lots of emotion in the storytelling.

Caravaggio

Image: Supper at Emmaus, by Caravaggio (1601)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Sacrifice of Isaac, by Caravaggio (1603)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Seven Works of Mercy, by Caravaggio (1607)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Gentileschi

Artemisia Gentileschi is the first woman artist in my chronology. I tend to like women artists in every medium and painting is no exception. Her works are by far the most gruesome, often featuring severed heads.

Image: Judith and Her Maidservant, by Artemisia Gentileschi (1618)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Jael and Sisera, by Artemisia Gentileschi (1620)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Reni

Image: St Cecilia, by Guido Reni (1606)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: St Matthew and the Angel, by Guido Reni (1621)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Archangel Michael Defeats Satan, by Guido Reni (1635)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Baroque (1600), Belgium

To be clear, at this point great paintings are also being created in other parts of Europe, here are some painters from the area that is now Belgium.

Image: Ecce Homo, by Peter Paul Rubens (1612)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Old Woman and Boy with Candles, by Peter Paul Rubens (1616)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Vision of the Blessed Hermann Joseph, by Anthony van Dyck (1629)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Baroque (1600), Dutch

Now we are entering the golden age of Dutch painting. Basically the Dutch were a very powerful colonial empire at this time and their wealth enabled also artists to flourish compared to other nations.

Image: Banquet at the Crossbowmen’s Guild in Celebration of the Treaty of Münster, by Bartholomeus van der Helst (1648)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rembrandt

I’m still a bit on the fence about Rembrandt. His technique is great and the volume and breadth of his work immense: Other artists at his time would only painting portraits, or only painting landscapes, or only paint “genre” works. Rembrandt could do all of those easily. Yet, looking at his whole output I have trouble finding pieces that really capture my attention. Even his most famous work “Night Watch” fails to move me.

Image: Sacrifice of Isaac, by Rembrandt (1635)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Aristotle with a Bust of Homer, by Rembrandt (1653)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Pallas Athena, by Rembrandt (1657)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

van der Neer

This work caught my attention with its strong stylization that is so essential in the modern times but wasn’t back then.

Image: River View by Moonlight, by Aert van der Neer (1650)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Vermeer

Johannes Vermeer’s works seem to be held in high regard because of the artist’s unprecedent ability to render light so accurately. His works take on photographic qualities, which has led academics to speculate he used advanced optical tools as part of his painting process.

Personally I don’t care about the history, only what the paintings look like. And here I don’t find Vermeer that special. The only painting of his that I like and find evocative is the girl with the earring, and I suspect that too is mainly due to being conditioned to like old art. It’s hard to look truly objectively at famous works.

Image: Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer (1665)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1700

West

Image: The Death of General Wolfe, by Benjamin West (1770)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Fuseli

Image: The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli (1781)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Turner

Rendering seascapes takes such special skill that there was a big genre of “Marine art”, of which Turner was a master:

Image: Fishermen at Sea, by J. M. W. Turner (1796)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1800

Image: Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, by Caspar David Friedrich (1818)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Ninth Wave, by Ivan Aivazovsky (1850)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Road in Häme, by Werner Holmberg (1860)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Cat at Play, by Henriëtte Ronner (1860)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Gérôme

Image: DiogenesDiogenes of Sinope, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1860)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Phryne before the Areopagus, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1861)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Bath, by Jean-Léon Gérôme (1882)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Rivière

Image: Fidelity, by Briton Rivière (1869)
Public domain

Image: Daniel in the Lions’ Den, by Briton Rivière (1872)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Impressionism (1850)

Fair enough, the artists eventually bore of drawing everything in the same realistic way and tried to embrace the infinite possibilities of drawing. To me the style they first chose here does not really matter — the important thing was the unshackling of expression.

Image: Impression, Sunrise, by Claude Monet (1872)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Woman with a Parasol, by Claude Monet (1875)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Self-Portrait, by Vincent van Gogh (1887)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1876)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Portrait of Mademoiselle Irène Cahen d’Anvers, by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1880)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Realism

Bouguereau

William-Adolphe Bouguereau was an “academic painter” which apparently means he kept up with the old traditions while nonsense such as impressionism was getting the attention.

Image: Nymphs and Satyr, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1873)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Birth of Venus, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1879)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Dusk, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1882)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Not Too Much To Carry, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1895)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Seamstress, by William-Adolphe Bouguereau (1898)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Inconsolable, by Frans Verhas (1878)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Young Italian Woman with the Dog Puck, by Thérèse Schwartze (1879)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Finnish art

The next entries show my special interest in Finnish art.

Image: Art Connoisseurs in the Louvre, by Gunnar Berndtson (1879)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: An October Day in Åland, by Victor Westerholm (1885)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: An Unlikely Duo, by Maria Wiik (1882)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: In the Church, by Maria Wiik (1884)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Edelfelt

Image: The Luxembourg Gardens, Paris, by Albert Edelfelt (1887)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Women Outside the Church at Ruokolahti, by Albert Edelfelt (1887)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Later

Waterhouse

Image: DiogenesDiogenes of Sinope, by John William Waterhouse (1882)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Lady of Shalott, by John William Waterhouse (1888)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Hylas and the Nymphs, by John William Waterhouse (1896)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Windswept, by John William Waterhouse (1903)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Siemiradzki

Image: Phryne at the Poseidonia in Eleusis, by Henryk Siemiradzki (1889)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Christian Dirce, by Henryk Siemiradzki (1897)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Finnish Romantic nationalism

Image: Under the Yoke, by Eero Järnefelt (1893)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Orphan, by Albert Gebhard (1895)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Lissom Lassies at the Lakeside, by Pekka Halonen (1895)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Gallen-Kallela

Image: The Aino Triptych, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1891)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Forging of the Sampo, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1893)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Defence of the Sampo, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1896)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: Lemminkäinen’s Mother, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1897)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: The Departure of Väinämöinen, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1906)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Image: By the River of Tuonela, by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1903)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Later works

Painting obviously did not end at the turn of the 20th century, but the paintings I like from that time on look very different and in my opinion do not really fit the continuum of realistic painting of humans that this page covers.

Image: The Death of the Princesse de Lamballe, by Léon Maxime Faivre (1908)
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons