Leonardo Da Vinci's Life

Leonardo Da Vinci is one of the most well known artists today.   He was not only an artist though; he was also a scientist and an inventor.   His Mona Lisa is probably the most recognized painting ever!   Leonardo had a very interesting, busy life.

Caravaggio's Life

Caravaggio is an extremely well known Italian painter who painted in the Realistic Baroque style of art.   His dramatic use of light and dark is revolutionary.   Many other painters have tried to paint like him and failed.

Edgar Degas' Life

Edgar Degas is a French artist that specialized in painting things in motion.   He is known for being a master at drawing the human figure in motion.   He had an extremely long career and is one of the most famous artists today.

Edouard Manet's Life

Edouard Manet was a revolutionary painter.   His work changed art forever and inspired the impressionistic style of painting.   His art is so inspirational that it even influences today's art!

Rembrandt's Life

Rembrandt is an extraordinary Dutch painter, etcher and draftsman of the 1600s.   He is most well known for his chiaroscuro, his brushwork and the way in which he connected with the human soul.   His life, however, was not a happy one.

More Secrets of Leonardo Da Vinci

Da Vinci left many mysterious messages in his art.   Learn about two more paintings that include baffling images.

Edgar Degas

A successful and prosperous artist throughout his lengthy career, retaining his popularity up to this very day, this article examines the many Parisian influences that created the hallmarks of one of the most popular French artists renowned for his painting of dancers - Edgar Degas.

Bedroom at Arles, Painted in 1889

Read an analysis of the Bedroom at Arles by Vincent van Gogh.

The Potato Eaters, 1885

The Potato Eaters - Some see beauty in it, precisely because the characters are so genuine. Theo van Gogh

Postman Roulin

I have made portraits of a whole family, he wrote, the postman, his wife, the baby, the little boy, and the son of sixteen, all characters. We look at the Postman Roulin painting.

The Starry Night, 1889

Analysis of A Night of Light: Van Gogh's The Starry Night, 1889

Analysis of The Sunflowers

Van Gogh's Sunflowers are among his most famous paintings, but few people realize he did many sunflower pictures, not just the most famous Vase with Twelve Sunflowers and Vase with Fifteen Sunflowers. These were canvases he made to decorate the Yellow House in Arles in anticipation of his friend Paul Gauguin's visit, and in the hope that other artists would follow and form a Utopian art community. Some of Vincent's sunflower paintings are all but indistinguishable, with only tiny differences to prove one reproduction is different from the next. During his stay in Paris, he painted cut sunflowers in different stages of being, from fresh to wilted to dry.

Van Gogh's Postman Roulin

I have made portraits of a whole family, he wrote, the postman, his wife, the baby, the little boy, and the son of sixteen, all characters.   We look at the Postman Roulin painting.

Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol: Father of Pop Art Legend, he was the most famous Pop Artist ever. Second and not half as famous was Roy Lichtenstein. Warhol is also attributed for bringing Pop Art to the US. Most famous for his Campbell Soup print.

The definition of an artist is wide-ranging and covers a broad spectrum of activities to do with creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common useage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only. The term is often used in the entertainment business, especially in a business context, for musicians and other performers (less often for actors). "Artiste" (the French for artist) is a variant used in English only in this context. Use of the term to describe writers, for example, is certainly valid, but less common, and mostly restricted to contexts like criticism.