A course of lectures on the history of art has never been so simple and understandable - our short tips on how to recognize an artist by the style of a painting quickly and easily will help even the most distant people from painting to become specialists and connoisseurs.

We recognize the name of the artist by the style of his painting:

Cave painting is the first manifestation of the creativity of our distant ancestors recorded in history, who over thousands of years have gone from naive cave paintings to contemporary art of the twenty-first century. During this time, civilization was enriched with hundreds of great artists who created tens of thousands of imperishable masterpieces of fine art - graphics, sculpture, painting, and since the end of the nineteenth century, also photographs.

Secrets of famous artists

Even professionals have to study for years in order to navigate without errors in the huge number of museum exhibits and masterpieces of private collections, but such knowledge is simply not available to mere mortals. Or rather, it was like that before. And now, thanks to the simple instructions presented below, every amateur will be able to feel like a connoisseur of painting from the beginning of centuries to the present and will learn to recognize the artist by the picture, style, characteristic features and creative secrets. Of course, the method is not ideal, it is exaggerated and allows for exceptions, but for all its humorous and entertaining nature, it is quite accurate and witty.

Salvador Dali

The eccentric, madman and genius Salvador Dali went so far in his creative search that his works cannot be confused with other representatives of surrealism. The Spanish artist is not the founder of the genre, but truly became its ideal illustration both in art and in life.

Caravaggio (Michelangelo da Caravaggio)

The Italian erotomaniac loved women and men, girls and boys with girlish features. Caravaggio's effeminate men are the name given to the artist's characteristic style, in whose eyes male and female beauty are interchangeable and sometimes indistinguishable.

Claude Monet

Paintings of nature in rural and urban France, painted with quick, sharp strokes and bright, brilliant colors - this is the brilliant impressionist Monet.

Michelangelo

The ideal embodiment of a Renaissance man - Buonarroti glorified his name in sculpture, architecture, philosophy and, of course, painting, where Michelangelo's style is physically attractive, beautiful, pumped-up people who do not hesitate to expose their muscular torso.

Interesting articles

Hieronymus Bosch

Little people in the face of a total apocalypse. Religious texts, apocrypha, myths and legends fascinated Bosch, who transferred his thoughts to the artistic canvas, where infernal torment, hellish executions, a biblical Old Testament nightmare and a universal catastrophe awaited humanity.

Piet Mondrian

The Dutch abstract artist died long before the advent of Excel spreadsheets, but his works look exactly like an accountant's desk.

Edgar Degas

The French impressionist adored not only painting, but also ballet, which Degas regularly attended and transferred to his canvases. Edgar Degas was interested in various themes and motifs, but his main artistic imprint on history forever remained ballerinas.

Pieter Bruegel

The most complex plots, compositions consisting of multiple small figures - this is Bruegel’s style, which is structurally similar to Bosch, but much more optimistic, cheerful, cheerful and does not promise the apocalypse with every work of art.

Frida Kahlo

The famous Mexican woman spent most of her life suffering from back pain after a terrible car accident in her youth. She was admired by the great artist and part-time husband Diego Rivera, and Frida herself admired her eccentric person, who left behind dozens of self-portraits, where the viewer’s eyes are immediately caught by the models’ fused eyebrows. This is not an exaggeration - Frida Kahlo really was the owner of luxurious hair above her eyes, she was proud of it and always tried to emphasize it not only in herself, but also in other models.

Vincent van Gogh

Van Gogh spent the key years of his short but extremely stormy work in the midst of rural nature and severe heat, so his paintings are full of bright spots, which can be called a riot of flowers and colors. Vincent Van Gogh especially loved to fill the canvas with yellow flowers, as in the famous Sunflowers.

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Antoine Watteau

Jean Antoine Watteau's creative peak occurred in the first decades of the eighteenth century at the court of the French king, where aristocrats loved to dress up in colorful, lush clothes - these are the people you can find in almost all of Watteau's works.

Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso lived a very long life, during which his artistic style underwent dramatic changes. But still, his main achievement in painting is cubism, so Picasso is all about deformed, bizarre shapes and models.

Titian Vecellio

The background is in dark colors, the blessed man or the holy martyr in the foreground are paintings by Titian.

Rembrandt

Dull, yellow, gloomy tones and a man with a painful, sad, tired look - a painting by Rembrandt.

Francois Boucher

The artist François Boucher lived and worked in the mid-eighteenth century, but dealt primarily with biblical and ancient subjects, plump cupids in a variety of plot intricacies - Boucher's style.

El Greco

El Greco is all about harsh paintings, gaunt faces and religious themes.

Peter Rubens

The great Flemish artist Peter Rubens was a slender, lean man who, in his artistic quest, found the opposite of his own motifs - obese men, fat ladies with kilograms of cellulite and chubby babies. Women of Rubens is the name given to the style of the Fleming, whose paintings cannot be confused with others.

Jan van Eyck

The early Dutch artist and the modern Russian politician are separated by half a millennium of history and are united by canvases where Jan van Eyck persistently painted people strangely similar to Vladimir Putin.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir

The impressionist looked at the world positively, so Renoir’s paintings are light colors and contented, happy faces.

Edouard Manet

Another founder of impressionism, Edouard Manet, perceived the universe much less positively, which is why his paintings are full of gloomy colors, dull contours and sad people.

Leonardo da Vinci

The great Florentine is perhaps the most famous artist in the history of mankind, so even people far from art know the paintings of Leonardo da Vinci. But if we describe da Vinci's work in one sentence, we can say - epic landscapes in the background and beautiful men and women in the foreground.

There is an opinion that not only writers rewrite the same book, directors rewrite a film, and artists rewrite a painting. Therefore, having studied the entire gallery of the selected painter, we can isolate his characteristic style-forming features, thanks to which the Historian derived the form - how to recognize an artist by the style of his paintings.

"- A long time ago, in the first year, we had the history of art. Lectures were held on Saturday at 8 am and at five to five the “teacher” stood at the door, and then closed it with a lock. And that’s it. If you didn’t have time, you got a pass. All for a year he showed us slides of paintings, ranging from cave paintings to Russian artists of the 90s. And he had all these slides in the form of postcards. And at the end of the year, as usual, there were two questions, and then an execution. individually. According to the number of your passes in a year (!), he took out postcards from the pack. And they had to say the author or the name of the Mona Lisa and a couple more, and they quickly remembered. To guess the author, we in the group came up with a classification. And you know, in 97 cases out of a hundred, it still works!

If you see a dark background in a painting and all sorts of suffering on their faces, this is Titian.

The exception is this bare-bottomed person with no signs of thought on her face. You can remember one. Venus, not Venus, but there is something venereal in her:

If the picture shows buttocks and cellulite even on men, don’t hesitate - it’s Rubens.

If the men in the painting look like hairy-eyed, curly-haired women, this is Caravaggio.

He generally drew the woman one and a half times. The next picture is of a woman. Gorgonyan Medusa Arutyunovna. Why she looks like a johnide is a mystery purer than the smile of the Mona Lisa.

If there are a lot of little people in the picture - Bruegel.

A lot of little people, and a lot of other things - Bosch.

If all people look like homeless people, at night in the light of a dim lantern, this is Rembrandt.

If you can easily add a couple of fat-bottomed cupids and sheep to the picture (or they are already there) - this is Boucher.

Beautiful, everyone is naked and their figures are like those of bodybuilders after drying - Michelangelo.

You see a ballerina - you say Degas. If you say Degas, you see a ballerina.

Contrasting, harsh, bluish, and everyone has such skinny, bearded faces - El Greco.

And finally, if everyone, even the aunts, looks like Putin, it’s Jan van Eyck

For many, it seems like an impossible task to remember artists and their paintings. Over hundreds of years, history has written down the names of many artists whose names are well-known, unlike their paintings. How to remember the artist's personality and style? We have prepared a brief description for those who want to understand fine arts:

If the paintings show people with big butts, you can be sure it's Rubbens

If people in beautiful clothes relax in nature - Watteau

If men look like curly-haired women with hairy eyes - This is Caravaggio

If a painting with a dark background shows a person with a beatific expression or a martyr - Titian

If the painting contains multi-figure compositions, many people, objects, Christian and surreal motifs - this is Bosch

If the painting contains multi-figure compositions and complex plots, but they look more realistic than Bosch’s paintings, rest assured that this is Bruegel.

If you see a portrait of a person against a dark background in dim, yellow light - Rembrandt

Biblical and mythological scenes depicting several plump cupids - Francois Boucher

Naked, pumped up bodies, perfect shapes - Michelangelo

Ballerinas are drawn, this is Degas

Contrasting, sharp image with gaunt and bearded faces - El Greco

If the painting shows a girl with a unibrow, this is Frida

Quick and light strokes, bright colors and depictions of nature – Monet

Light colors and rejoicing people – Renoir

Bright, colorful and rich - Van Gogh

Dark colors, black outlines and sad people - Manet

The background is like from the movie “The Lord of the Rings”, with a light blue fog. Madonna's wavy hair and aristocratic nose - Da Vinci

If the body depicted in the painting has an unusual shape - Picasso

Colored squares like an Excel document - Mondrian

A fun cheat sheet for artists
(style cheat sheet here)

Original taken from vasily_sergeev V

A Brief Guide to Fine Arts

A long time ago, in my first year, we studied art history. The subject itself is terribly interesting, but the teacher is crap that you wouldn’t find with a flashlight during the day. As far as I know, there is not a single student who likes him. He gave lectures on Saturdays, from 8 in the morning until five minutes to five he stood at the door, and then locked it. That's all. Didn't make it before eight - a pass, and many passes - a great grief. Now I'll tell you why. All year he showed us slides of paintings, sculptures, mosaics and other things, ranging from cave paintings to Russian artists of the 80s. And he had all these slides in the form of postcards. Here's a pack.

And at the end of the year, as usual, there is an exam. First two questions, and then additional execution on an individual basis. Based on the number of your absences per year (!), he took postcards out of the stack. At random, it was necessary to name the author and the title. Or at least the author, or at least the title. They quickly remembered the Mona Lisa and a couple of others, but something had to be done with the rest of the mulyon. Especially because everyone went to the retake already in a hurry. And so, in order to guess the authors, we in the group came up with a classification. And you know, in 97 cases out of a hundred it works! Still!

By remembering a few simple points, in a company that is not too close to ISO, you can be considered an expert, and in general.

1. If you see a dark background in the picture and all sorts of suffering on the faces, this is Titian.

The exception is this naked person with no signs of thought on her face. You can remember one. Venus, not Venus, but there is something venereal in her.

2. If in the picture there are buttocks and cellulite even on men, don’t hesitate - it’s Rubens.

3. If the men in the picture look like hairy-eyed, curly-haired women or just Italian fagots, this is Caravaggio.

He generally painted women one and a half times. In the next picture there is a woman: Gorgonyan Medusa Arutyunovna. Why she looks like Jonidep is a mystery worse than Monalisa’s smile.

4. If there are a lot of little people in the picture, this is Bruegel.

5. Many little people, little incomprehensible garbage - Bosch

6. If you can easily add a couple of fat-assed cupids and sheep to the picture (or they are already there in various configurations), without disturbing the composition - these could be:

b) Watteau

7. Beautiful, everyone is naked, and the figures are like those of bodybuilders after drying - Michelangelo.

8. You see a ballerina - you say Degas. If you say Degas, you see a ballerina.

9. Contrasting, harsh, and everyone has such skinny, bearded faces - El Greco.

10. If everyone, even the aunts, looks like Putin, it’s Van Eyck

11. Monet - spots, Manet - people

And all because this issue has not lost its relevance to this day. The essence of this method was to remember several starting points. It was actually invented in order to pass an exam, but it worked so well that by using this trick one could be considered an intellectual connoisseur of painting.

And here is the story itself.

“A long time ago, in my first year, we studied art history. The subject itself is terribly interesting, but the teacher is crap that you wouldn’t find with a flashlight during the day. As far as I know, there is not a single student who likes him.

He gave lectures on Saturdays, from 8 in the morning until five minutes to five he stood at the door, and then locked it. That's all. Didn't make it before eight - a pass, and many passes - a great grief.

Now I'll tell you why. All year he showed us slides of paintings, sculptures, mosaics and other things, ranging from cave paintings to Russian artists of the 80s. And he had all these slides in the form of postcards. Here's a pack.
And at the end of the year, as usual, there is an exam. First two questions, and then additional execution on an individual basis. Based on the number of your absences per year (!), he took postcards out of the stack.

Especially because everyone went to the retake already in a hurry. And so, in order to guess the authors, we in the group came up with a classification. And you know, in 97 cases out of a hundred it works! Still!"

Here's part of that classification: