Can You Guess Which Artist Painted These Historic Paintings?

By: Valerie
Estimated Completion Time
3 min
Can You Guess Which Artist Painted These Historic Paintings?
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About This Quiz

The following are 50 of the world's most well-known paintings by the best artists in history. Are you able to name the artist from just an image of the famous painting? Take this quiz and find out!
The creation of Adam by Michelangelo
Wiki Commons
Which artist painted this painting?
Wassily Kandinsky
Jan Vermeer
Michelangelo
Paul Klee
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Michelangelo put his signature on the Pietà, his first sculptural masterpiece, but he never signed another work of art. Instead, he would paint himself into them. His most famous "signature" is in "The Last Judgment" fresco that covers an entire wall of the Sistine Chapel.

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Mona Lisa
Wiki Commons
Which artist painted this painting?
Leonardo Da Vinci
Pablo Picasso
Vincent van Gogh
Claude Monet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Leonardo Da Vinci managed to be so many things in one lifetime—painter, inventor, engineer, architect, and scientist. His genius was universal: he is the author of many masterpieces famous worldwide, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. With his intensive studies of nature and anatomy, the ultimate Renaissance man revolutionized both art and science.

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The Last Supper
Youtube
Which artist painted this painting?
Roy Lichtenstein
Leonardo Da Vinci
Frida Kahlo
Lisa Yuskavage
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Even though Leonardo da Vinci is best known as an artist, he was also a scientist and an inventor. His numerous talents and universal genius make him a true Renaissance man.

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Starry Night
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Henri Matisse
Salvador Dali
Vincent Van Gogh
Claude Monet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Vincent Van Gogh produced his most famous artwork while in a mental hospital. One of the greatest artists in world history, Vincent Van Gogh lived in poverty, struggling with depression and mental illness. In less than 10 years, he painted almost 900 paintings.

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Girl with a Pearl Earring
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Titian
Johannes Vermeer
Joan Miro
Jackson Pollock
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Vermeer was a realist painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life; his famous works include "Women with a Water Jug", "Girl with a Pearl Earring" and "the Milkmaid." During his lifetime, Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter who worked for rich people. At the beginning of his career, he focused more on producing history paintings, creating scenes from the Bible and classical mythology, but later on, he chose to paint everyday life scenes instead because they were more popular at the time.

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The Liberty Leading the People
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Eugene Delacroix
Janet Fish
Jackson Pollock
Joan Miro
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Delacroix is the leader of the French Romantic School; many critics consider him to be the greatest French Romantic painter in history. His use of color shaped Impressionist and Post-Impressionist styles; his most famous works of art include "Women of Algiers" and "Liberty Leading the People."

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The Triumph of Galatea
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Rene Magritte
Henri de Toulouse Lautrec
Andrew Wyeth
Raphael
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, or simply, Raphael, was an Italian artist who created "Transfiguration" and "The Sistine Madonna." However, his greatest work is his fresco sequence in the Raphael Rooms in the Papal Palace.

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Napoleon Crossing the Alps
Wiki commons
Which artist painted this painting?
Jacques Louis David
Jacob Lawrence
M.C. Escher
Andy Warhol
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Jacques Louis David began his career shortly after the Rococo period. This artist is considered to be the leader of the Neoclassical style; his famous works include "The Death of Marat" and "Napoleon Crossing the Alps."

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The Scream
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Rembrandt
Edvard Munch
Andy Warhol
Georgia O'Keeffe
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Edvard Munch painted "The Scream," one of the most recognizable works in the history of art. His career and his masterpieces were largely influenced by experimentation, disappointment, and a troubled relationship with his father.

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Impression, Sunrise
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Gustav Klimt
Claude Monet
Jackson Pollock
Vincent van Gogh
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Claude Monet's masterpieces gave a name to the new art movement, Impressionism, that was all about capturing light and natural forms. The French painter was making caricatures of his teachers when he was a child and quickly became famous in his hometown for his sketches of the town’s residents.

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Olympia
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Keith Haring
Edoaurd Manet
David Hockney
Alexander Calder
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Edouard Manet was fascinated by painting at a very young age but his parents always disapproved of his interest. Nevertheless, he eventually went to art school where he studied the old masters of Europe. Later, he started to draw everyday scenes of people, becoming a leading artist during the transition from realism to impressionism.

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The Arnolfini Portrait
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Which artist painted this painting?
Jan Van Eyck
Leonardo da Vinci
Paul Cezanne
Marc Chagall
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The founder of Early Netherlandish painting school and one of the most significant representatives of Northern Renaissance art, Jan Van Eyck is famous for painting the altarpiece for the Church of St. Bavon. He is also an author of another masterpiece, "Arnolfini Wedding."

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Charles I in Three Positions
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Maxfield Parrish
Anthony Van Dyck
Robert Bateman
Piet Mondrian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Van Dyck grew up in the shadow of Rubens, another famous Flemish painter, so his genius was often underrated. However, he was an immensely gifted and original artist who completely transformed the art of portrait drawing.

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The Gleaners
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Jean Francois Millet
Romare Bearden
Alexander Calder
David Hockney
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Jean Francois Millet is well-known for his paintings of peasant farmers and rural life. He spent his childhood and youth working on the land; that's how peasant subjects became Millet’s principal concern in art.

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Luncheon of the Boating Party
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Pierre Auguste Renoir
Edvard Munch
Paul Gauguin
Edouard Manet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Renoir made several thousand paintings during his lifetime. He started off early as a porcelain painter; he worked in a porcelain factory making drawings when he was just a boy. In his free time, he studied drawing and famous works of other painters.

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The Kiss
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Caravaggio
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Gustav Klimt
Raphael
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Gustav Klimt is a famous Austrian artist. Perhaps Klimt’s most famous work is 1907's "Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I." This painting was sold at auction in June of that year for $135 million, making it the most money ever paid for a work of art. The mysterious portrait has been the subject of different books and documentaries, such as the film, "Woman in Gold," which stars Helen Mirren as Maria Altmann.

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Paris Street in Rainy Weather
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Andy Warhol
Ron Gorchov
Gustave Caillebotte
Jackson Pollock
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Even though Gustave Caillebotte was an Impressionist, he drew in a much more realistic manner than other artists in the group. The painter was from a rich family and helped Léon Bonnat, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, and Pierre Auguste Renoir to organize their first group exhibition in Paris in 1874.

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A sunday afternooon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Georges Seurat
Joan Miro
Edvard Munch
Frida Kahlo
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Famous painter Georges Seurat took his technique a step beyond Impressionism. He painted in an unusual way - with small strokes of pure color that blended to create a complete picture when viewed from a distance. This method, called Pointillism, can be seen in a lot of his major works, such as "A Sunday on La Grande Jatte."

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Birth of Venus
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Salvador Dali
Ansel Adams
Sandro Botticelli
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

When Sandro Botticelli began his career, he caught the attention of Lorenzo de'Medici, also known as 'The Magnificent.' Brunelleschi, Donatello, and Michelangelo were also under the patronage of the Medici; together, they were roughly called the Florentine School.

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View of Toledo
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Edvard Munch
El Greco
Joan Miro
Roy Lichtenstein
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

El Greco (his real name is Domenikos Theotokopoulos) was born on the island of Crete when it was a Venetian possession. He was a prominent painter, sculptor and architect of the Spanish Renaissance. His pseudonym El Greco means “The Greek.”

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The Third of May 1808
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
John Singer Sargent
Wassily Kandinsky
Francisco Goya
Sandro Botticelli
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Often called the father of modern art, Francisco Goya painted a lot of royal portraits during his lifetime, as well as a few prominent masterpieces that criticized the social and political problems of his era. Goya mostly learned to paint by imitation. He copied the works of great masters who inspired him, such as Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez and Rembrandt van Rijn.

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Mr. and Mrs. Robert Andrews
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Thomas Gainsborough
Andy Warhol
Piet Mondrian
Kazimir Malevich
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Thomas Gainsborough was a well-known English portrait and landscape painter who created most of his works in the second half of the 18th century. Mostly influenced by the Dutch landscape painters, he developed his own style remarkable for its details and use of color.

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American Gothic
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Edgar Degas
Grant Wood
Goya
Edouard Manet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The artist who created the iconic work "American Gothic," Grant Wood painted in a deliberately primitivizing style, often satirizing his subjects. One of the principal Regionalists of the 1930s, he was born in Iowa and grew up on a farm.

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Breezing Up
Wiki commons
Which artist painted this painting?
John Graham
Winslow Homer
Francis Bacon
Jackson Pollock
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

One of the ​greatest American painters of the nineteenth century, Winslow Homer was born in Boston and raised in the rural area. The artist worked as a commercial printmaker for a long time and studied oil painting only briefly. Nevertheless, he is the author of famous "Breezing Up (A Fair Wind)," "The Gulf Stream," and "The Fog Warning."

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The Sleeping Gypsy
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Mary Cassatt
Edward Hopper
Henri Rousseau
Edouard Manet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The prominent French artist, Henri Rousseau, taught himself to draw while working as a toll collector in Paris. He was also a friend of Picasso and a real inspiration to the Paris avant-garde.

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The Night Watch
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Michelangelo
Peter Paul Rubens
Edgar Degas
Rembrandt
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Rembrandt lived and worked during the 17th century Dutch Golden Age. Most famous for his 1642 painting, "The Night Watch," he was a real genius who painted portraits and landscapes exploring themes from the Bible and classical antiquity.

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The Fall of the Damned
Wiki commons
Which artist painted this painting?
Jackson Pollock
Henri Matisse
Peter Paul Rubens
Willem de Kooning
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Peter Paul Rubens is best known for such works as 'Wolf and Fox Hunt," "The Descent from the Cross," and "The Garden of Love." Rubens was insanely famous during his lifetime; his patrons included royalty, rich people, and churches.

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The Tower of Babel by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
youtube
Which artist painted this painting?
Pieter Bruegel
Romare Bearden
Andrew Wyeth
Paul Klee
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Pieter Bruegel was a pioneer in making peasant scenes and landscapes the focus of large paintings. At that time, almost nobody painted peasants in everyday life; Bruegel’s work gives an important insight into everyday life of people in the 16th century.

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The Sleepers
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Leonardo DaVinci
Salvador Dali
Pablo Picasso
Gustave Courbet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Gustave Courbet is well-known for his powerful pictures of peasants and scenes of everyday life. In the 19th century, the prominent French painter shocked the world with his large-scale paintings showing simple scenes of rural life.

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The Bathers
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Paul Cezanne
Gerhard Richter
Henri Matisse
Barnett Newmane
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The influential French Post-Impressionist painter, Paul Cezanne, paved the way for 20th century Modernism. The artist ultimately showed that color, line, and "form" can be the same thing, and one component simply can't exist without another.

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Nighthawks
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Keith Haring
Edward Hopper
Amadeo Modigliani
Mark Rothko
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

American Artist Edward Hopper is the painter behind the iconic masterpiece, "Nighthawk." He lived in New York City almost all his life, depicting the commonplaces of urban life with still, lonely figures. Trained as an illustrator, he also devoted much of his early career to advertising.

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A Cotton Office in New Orleans
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Georgia O'Keeffe
Henri Matisse
Edgar Degas
Jackson Pollock
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Edgar Degas was fascinated with the subject of dance; more than half of his works depict dancers. However, he often called the ballerinas he painted "little monkey-girls" and took a real pleasure in watching his models contort in agony.

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The Astronomer
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
René Magritte
Johannes Vermeer
Paul Cézanne
Vincent van Gogh
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

A successful provincial genre painter, Johannes Vermeer was mostly drawing domestic interior scenes of middle-class life and sold a lot of his works during his lifetime.

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Musicians
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Diego Rivera
Henri Matisse
Roy Lichtenstein
Caravaggio
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Caravaggio's works became popular for the tenebrism technique, which uses shadows to emphasize light areas. He was immensely popular during his lifetime and is even considered one of the fathers of modern painting. However, his career was short-lived. Caravaggio killed a man during a brawl and died not long after, in 1610.

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The Lady with the Ermine
Wiki commons
Which artist painted this painting?
Jasper Johns
Lee Bontecou
Andy Warhol
Leonardo Da Vinci
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Leonardo Da Vinci was a genius: his areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, and more. He is sometimes also credited with the inventions of the parachute, helicopter, ​and tank.

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Whistler's Mother
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Barnett Newmane
Henri Matisse
Willem de Kooning
James Abbott McNeil
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

James Abbott McNeil was an influential artist in the late 19th century. He was the son of a railroad engineer who built a railroad from St. Petersburg to Moscow. He spent his childhood in Russia, where his family lived in luxury.

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The Ninth Wave
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Ivan Aivazovsky
M.C. Escher
Ansel Adams
Claude Monet
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Ivan Aivazovsky was a famous Russian Romantic painter, specializing in seascape and landscape scenes. His talent was obvious from a very early age. Ivan was such a good painter, that influential locals in Simferopol helped him to move to St. Petersburg and enter the Academy of Art.

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The Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Caspar David Friedrich
Fernando Botero
Jasper Johns
Piet Mondrian
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

One of the most important German artists, Caspar David Friedrich was a son of a candlemaker who was drawing mysterious and enchanting landscapes all his life. Caspar David Friedrich became a famous artist shortly after he won a competition organised by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

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Watson and the Shark
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
John Singleton Copley
Henri Matisse
Gerhard Richter
James Ensor
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

John Singleton Copley became famous for his detailed portraits of important figures in colonial New England. He is also known as the greatest artist of colonial America.

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The Embarkation for Cythera
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Jasper Johns
Lee Bontecou
Antoine Watteau
Frida Kahlo
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Antoine Watteau was painting in the tradition of Correggio and Rubens typifying the Rococo style. His brief career spurred the revival of interest in color and embraced the artifice of the theater.

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Bacchus and Ariadne
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Titian
Diego Rivera
Andy Warhol
Vincent Van Gogh
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Titian was the master of religious art, a popular portraitist, and the creator of unique mythological compositions famous for their unique decorative beauty. One of his earliest works, "Christ Carrying the Cross," was believed to have been Giorgione's work for many years.

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Grande Odalisque
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Wassily Kandinsky
Janet Fish
Goya
Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres was drawing historic painting all his life but by the end of his life, it was Ingres's self portraits, both painted and drawn, that became his most famous and recognizable works of art.

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Las Meninas
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Diego Velazquez
Albrecht Durer
Edward Hopper
Edgar Degas
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Velázquez was a court painter. Even when the Spanish crown under Philip IV was going broke and was unable to pay its court painters, they still paid Velázquez, who was always the king's favorite. He drew mainly portraits of the royal family and other important court figures.

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The Laughing Cavalier
Wiki commons
Which artist painted this painting?
Frans Hals
Lynda Benglis
Francis Bacon
James Ensor
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Frans Hals mostly drew the portraits of disreputable people. According to his biographer, he also drank too much and too often mixed too freely with all of those people he loved to draw.

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Jean Honore Fragonard
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Peter Paul Rubens
Joan Miro
Jean Honore Fragonard
Gustav Klimt
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Jean Honore Fragonard was a French artist whose paintings are remembered for their fluid grace and sensual charm. He was a real virtuoso whose Rococo manner was distinguished by delicate hedonism. His famous works include "The Swing," "A Young Girl Reading," and "The Secret Meeting."

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Pollice Verso
Wiki commons
Which artist painted this painting?
Andrew Wyeth
Francis Picabia
Rembrandt
Jean Leon Gerome
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Jean Leon Gerome was mostly creating historical and mythological compositions, such as "Pygmalion" and "Galatea." His paintings were sometimes anecdotal, sometimes melodramatic, and frequently erotic. His latest works are more exotic because they are largely influenced by his trip to Egypt.

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the storm on the sea of galilee
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
John Graham
Kazimir Malevich
Piet Mondrian
Rembrandt
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Rembrandt was a rich and successful painter. He married his art dealer's cousin who was from a wealthy family, and when he wasn’t busy working on portraits for wealthy clients, he taught many students. All of this helped him to save 13,000 guilders (an enormous sum) and buy a big upscale town house, which is now The Rembrandt House Museum.

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The Gross Clinic
WikiCommons
Which artist painted this painting?
Jacob Lawrence
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Thomas Eakins
Rembrandt
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Thomas Eakins painted portraits that were so true to life, they could almost be mistaken for photographs. His greatest work is the controversial painting, "The Gross Clinic," created to honor the achievements of surgeon Dr. Samuel D. Gross, who was also a native of Philadelphia.

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St. George and the Dragon
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Helen Frankenthaler
Umberto Boccioni
Paolo Uccello
Stuart Davis
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

The Italian artist, Paolo Uccello, is mostly known for his pioneering style in visual art perspective. He is the author of the breathtaking "The Hunt in the Forest" and famous "The Battle of San Romano."

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Foxes
YouTube
Which artist painted this painting?
Henri Matisse
Franz Marc
Pablo Picasso
Francis Bacon
Correct Answer
Wrong Answer

Franz Marc was a talented artist, print maker, and co-founder of the magazine, The Blue Rider. He was in touch with many French artists and famous actors. The artist loved to copy the style of famous painters and did it a lot to learn the different techniques.

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