Leonardo da Vinci
• Born in the small Italian town of Vinci in
1452.
• Leonardo lived during the Renaissance.
• He was an architect, a musician, sculptor,
scientist, inventor, and mathematician.
• Leonardo designed plans for beautiful
churches, bridges, even whole cities.
Leonardo da Vinci
• Leonardo used what he learned from
nature and science to make his
paintings look real.
• Leonardo’s father took him to
Florence, Italy, to learn about being
an artist. Florence was one of the
greatest art cities in Europe.
Leonardo da Vinci
• The Virgin of the Rocks was very
important in the history of art.
Before it was painted, most
artists would outline their people
and use very flat backgrounds.
Leonardo painted his figures
without outlining them.
• He made the shadowy part of the
people almost blend into the
mysterious background. The
parts of the people that have
light on them seem to come
forward and appear almost
three-dimensional.
Leonardo da Vinci
• Leonardo’s greatest work was done for the wall of
a dining room that was used by the monks at the
Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, in Milan.
• The Last Supper shows Jesus with his closest
friends, the twelve apostles.
• Leonardo used all the things he had learned while
doing his earlier painting. The shadows, lighting,
and background make this a beautiful painting.
• The special way Leonardo placed the men around
the table gives them a feeling of movement that
had never been seen before.
Leonardo da Vinci
The Last Supper
Leonardo da Vinci
• Leonardo’s most famous painting is the Mona Lisa.
• Ever since, people have been talking about the
mysterious look the lady has – especially her
smile.
• No matter where you stand, the Mona Lisa is
always looking right into your eyes.
• The background of the Mona Lisa is very
interesting, too. It looks like it’s part of a
science fiction or fairy-tale world. In a strange
way, Mona Lisa and the background seem to blend
together.
Leonardo da Vinci
Mona Lisa
Leonardo da Vinci
• Leonardo da Vinci was one of the first artists to
make his paintings seem real in all ways.
• He gave the people in his paintings a feeling of
movement and being alive.
• He used dark shadows and light colors to make
what he was painting seem to come toward you
and away from the painting.
• Leonardo made his beautiful backgrounds a special
part of the whole picture.
• He always tried to make his paintings as perfect
and close to nature as possible. Artists ever
since Leonardo da Vinci have learned from
the discoveries he made.
Leonardo da Vinci
Georgia O’Keeffe
• Born on her family’s large Wisconsin
farm in 1887. She would grow up to
become one of America’s most
famous painters.
• Her clear, bright paintings show the
beauty she found in the simple,
natural things around her.
Georgia O’Keeffe
• -Georgia loved to
paint flowers,
mountains, seashells,
and even animal
bones she found in
the desert.
• -Even though
Georgia was
interested in all
kinds of natural
things, she hardly
ever painted
pictures of people or
animals.
Georgia O’Keeffe
• Georgia often
rearranged the
natural things she
saw, and simplified
them. She made
the seashell to
the right very
large, to give it a
special power and
strength.
Georgia O’Keeffe
• Sometimes she painted
shapes and colors that she
saw in her mind.
• Georgia’s mother thought art
was very important, and made
sure Georgia and her sisters
had art lessons while they
were growing up. Georgia
studied at different art
schools and colleges all over
the country.
Georgia O’Keeffe
• Georgia liked New York City. Georgia
often visited a small gallery in New York
that showed the work of new artists. It
was owned by a well-known photographer
named Alfred Stieglitz.
• Alfred loved modern art and tried to get
people interested in modern European
artists.
• Georgia didn’t know it at the time, but in a
few years, Alfred would help get
people interested in her paintings, too.
Georgia O’Keeffe
• Alfred became very interested in Georgia.
He remembered her from her visits to his
gallery, and had seen some of her newest
works of art. Alfred thought Georgia could
become one of the best American artists
ever.
• Georgia accepted Alfred’s offer to come to
New York and spend all her time painting.
Then she began painting bold shapes and
designs, covering her canvases with bright
color. Soon her work changed, and she
began painting the beautiful flowers
that helped to make her famous.
Georgia O’Keeffe
• Georgia usually made her flowers very large.
She hoped they would make people feel the
same wonderful way she felt when she
looked at real flowers. Georgia’s paintings
got attention right
away. At first, people
were curious to see the
work of a woman artist.
In the 1920s, there
weren’t many well-known
women artists. It didn’t
take long for people to
realize she was a great
artist!
Georgia O’Keeffe
• Alfred and Georgia had respected each
other’s talent for a long time. Now that
Georgia was living in New York and working
closely with Alfred, they found themselves
falling in love. In 1924, they decided to get
married.
• Several years later, Georgia was invited out
West to visit some friends in New Mexico.
She thought the desert and clear blue skies
were exciting. Georgia began painting the
animal bones, desert flowers, and sun-baked
adobe churches she found there.
Georgia O’Keeffe
• Georgia spent most of the rest of her life
painting in New Mexico. Alfred agreed it
was the best place for her to be in order to
make her paintings as good as possible.
Georgia only traveled
back to New York for a
few months every year
to be with Alfred and
show her work. Years
later, after Alfred died,
Georgia moved to New
Mexico for good.
Georgia O’Keeffe
• Georgia O’Keeffe lived to be 98 years old.
She decided to become an artist at a time
when it was proper only for women to teach art.
• Georgia didn’t care what people thought about her, or
her art. She worked hard on her paintings and put her
own special feeling into them.
• Georgia met many famous artists during her life. She
learned a lot from them, but never copied their styles or
joined their groups.
• Because of this, Georgia’s paintings are very original.
She often found beauty in things that most people would
ignore or never even notice, and was able to show that
beauty in her paintings.
Georgia O’Keeffe
Vincent van Gogh
• Vincent van Gogh was
one of the most tragic
artists who ever lived.
• Nothing ever seemed to
go right for him and he
wasn’t very happy.
• He never even smiled in
his self-portraits.
Vincent van Gogh
• Van Gogh was born in Holland in 1853 and
died in France in 1890. Unlike most artists,
van Gogh didn’t decide to become a painter
until he was grown up.
• He tried a lot of other things first. He
worked in an art gallery selling paintings.
He tried teaching. He worked in a
bookstore and he was a preacher like his
dad.
• None of these things made him very happy.
Then one day he decided to be an
artist.
Vincent van Gogh
• Van Gogh always tried his best at whatever
he did, so he went to different art schools
to learn everything he could about drawing
and painting. His early drawings were of the
poor people he used to help when he was a
preacher.
Vincent van Gogh
• The colors in van Gogh’s early paintings are
dark and sad.
• He wanted everyone to know how hard the
lives of the poor people were.
• Van Gogh kept using dark colors until he
discovered some very colorful Japanese
artwork. He loved the bright colors and
strong lines and shapes that he saw.
• Soon van Gogh’s paintings started to look
much more colorful.
Vincent van Gogh
• Look at the difference between the gloomy
Potato Eaters and the painting to the right,
which was done only a few years later.
Vincent van Gogh
• Sometimes, van Gogh was too angry to paint,
and sometimes he was too sad to paint.
When he felt good, he painted better than
ever.
• He made the stars in The Starry Night
seem like they’re really shining.
Vincent van Gogh
• The trees in this
painting look like
flames, and it feels
like the whole
picture is moving.
• In this painting van Gogh made
the sun look really hot. You
almost feel like you should put
sunglasses on to look at it.
Vincent van Gogh
• Van Gogh usually put his paint on very thick.
Sometimes he painted so fast he didn’t even
mix his colors. He used paint right out of
the tube.
• Van Gogh used so much paint he was always
running out. Sometimes he stopped buying
food in order to buy more paint, so he was
hungry a lot of the time, and he wasn’t
healthy.
Vincent van Gogh
• Hardly anyone was interested in van Gogh’s
work while he was alive. He sold only a few
drawings and maybe one or two paintings.
People in the 1880s and 1890s just weren’t
used to the bright “moving” pictures that
van Gogh made.
• Today things are different. People have
learned how beautiful Vincent van Gogh’s art
it.
• Now his paintings are some of the most
popular in the world.
Vincent van Gogh
• This may have been van Gogh’s last painting.
Some people think it shows how angry and upset
he must have been feeling because he painted a
scary sky, roads that led to a dark background,
and crows that look like bats.
Vincent van Gogh
• Soon after that painting was finished, van
Gogh shot himself. He died two days later.
• Van Gogh made his paintings seem alive with
color. His colors are so bright and beautiful
you can almost smell the flowers he painted,
or feel the bright sun.
Vincent van Gogh
• His brush strokes give everything a feeling
of movement. Trees, stars, and people feel
alive.
• Maybe more than any other artist, van
Gogh’s feelings came out in his paintings.
That’s why Vincent van Gogh is one of the
world’s greatest artists.
• It’s much better to see a real Vincent van
Gogh painting than a picture of one. It’s fun
to see how thick he put his paint on, his
brush strokes, and how bright the
colors are.
Vincent van Gogh
Pablo Picasso
• Pablo Picasso was one of the greatest
artists of the twentieth century. He
was born in Malaga, Spain, in 1881, and
died in France in 1973.
• Picasso’s father was an art teacher at
the local school. He encouraged his
son to paint and draw. He wanted
Picasso to become a great artist
some day.
Pablo Picasso
• Picasso’s painting style
changed over the period
of his life more than any
other great artist. He
was always trying new
and different things.
• This painting was done when he was
only fifteen years old.
Pablo Picasso
• This painting was done when
Picasso was fifty-seven.
• There’s quite a difference
between the two paintings,
isn’t there?
Pablo Picasso
• Sometimes Picasso
would paint things
that looked very flat.
• Sometimes he would
paint things that
looked so round that
you might be able to
pick them up off the
painting.
Pablo Picasso
• When Picasso was nineteen, he left Spain and went to
Paris, France. Some of the first paintings he did there
look a little bit like the work of other famous French
artists.
• This painting reminds many people of the work done by
Toulouse-Lautrec. Some of Picasso’s other early paintings
remind people of Van Gogh, Gauguin, and Monet.
Pablo Picasso:
The Blue Period
• Then something happened! Picasso’s paintings
changed. His work became different from
anyone else’s.
• His best friend died, and Picasso felt alone and
sad. At the same time, none of his paintings
were selling, and he was almost starving to death.
• Because of his mood, Picasso began to paint with
lots of blue (blue can be a very sad color). He
made all the people in his paintings look lonely
and sad.
Pablo Picasso:
The Blue Period
• Some people thought Picasso’s
blue paintings were great. Others
(including Picasso’s father)
thought they were just too
strange. This meant his paintings
were controversial.
• Picasso’s Blue Period ended when
he met a girl named Fernande.
Fernande and Picasso fell in love, and soon a
happier color started showing up in Picasso’s
paintings. This was the beginning of
the Rose Period.
Pablo Picasso:
The Rose Period
• Not only were Picasso’s
colors happier during the
Rose Period, but he
started painting happier
things. Picasso painted a
lot of circus people
during this time. He
often painted them with
their animals.
• The Rose Period didn’t
last very long, though,
because Picasso found a
new way to paint that
was really exciting and
different.
Pablo Picasso:
Cubism
• Cubism was the next style of
painting that Picasso developed
and made famous.
• This is a cubist painting of one of
Picasso’s friends. The man in the
painting looks like he’s been broken
up into little cubes. That’s where
the name cubism came from.
• Look closely. Can you see the man’s
face, what he was wearing, his
hands, a bottle, a glass, and maybe
his pet cat? Can you find anything
else?
Pablo Picasso:
Cubism
• Cubism is one of the most important periods in
the history of modern art.
• For hundreds of years, artists tried very hard to
paint things so they would look real. Then
Picasso came along and started to paint people
and things that didn’t look the way people and
things were supposed to look.
• Picasso was always shocking people, but when he
started painting people who had eyes and noses in
the wrong places – well, even some of his
closest friends thought he had gone too
far.
Pablo Picasso:
Cubism
• Picasso kept working with
cubism and changed it over the
years. It became much more
colorful and flatter looking. It
also became easier to see what
Picasso was painting.
• In the painting Three
Musicians, you can see the
three musicians, and tell what
instruments they’re playing.
Pablo Picasso:
Cubism
• In another style that popped
for a while, Picasso painted
people who looked more real
again. Picasso had just visited
Rome, a city filled with statues
and monuments. When he
returned from his trip, he did a
series of paintings in which
people look like they’ve been
chiseled out of stone, like
statues.
Pablo Picasso:
Guernica
• In 1937 something happened that made Picasso
paint his most powerful and serious painting.
• During the civil war that was going on in Spain,
the small town of Guernica was destroyed by
bombs. Thousands of innocent people were killed
or injured.
• Picasso became very angry and used everything
he knew to make a painting that would show the
world how foolish war was. He named
the painting after the town that was
destroyed.
Pablo Picasso:
Guernica
Pablo Picasso:
Guernica
• Picasso used darker colors, cubism, and
lots of expression to get his angry feelings
across in this painting.
• He also used size. This painting is huge.
It’s 12 feet high and 25 feet wide!
Pablo Picasso
• Many of Picasso’s paintings
look funny because of the
way he moves eyes, noses,
and chins around. The
amazing thing about these
paintings is how much they
look like the real person.
Pablo Picasso
• The thing that made Picasso such a great artist
was his originality. He had the imagination to try
new and different things through his entire life.
• Picasso lived to be ninety-two years old. He was
a great painter, but he was great at other things,
too.
• He made sculptures, prints, drawings,
beautifully colored dishes and bowls.
He even made costumes and scenery for
plays.
Pablo Picasso