Friday, May 22nd, 2009
Who Painted These?
I feel like posting something fun today. I liked the little game that I created with guessing artists’ portraits, so I thought I’d do something similar. These are less-well-known paintings by well-known artists. Can you guess who painted these? (The answers are in the comments section.)
How did you do?
Out of these paintings, I think my favorite one is the street scene (second from the bottom). Which one do you like?
Pablo Picasso, First Communion, 1896
(Are you surprised? Obviously this painting was completed before Picasso began his Cubist style.)
Edouard Manet, The Battle of the “Kearsarge” and the “Alabama”, 1864 (This painting by Manet was inspired by a Civil War ship battle off of the coast of France. A few years ago, the Met held an exhibition that included this painting and other seascapes by Manet.)
Raphael, Lady with a Unicorn, c.1505
Willem de Kooning, Gotham News, 1955
Francisco de Goya, The Colossus, 1810
Vermeer, Street in Delft, c. 1657-58
Georgia O’Keeffe, Horse’s Skull with Pink Rose, 1931 (Even though this painting has a flower, I don’t know if I would immediately have attributed this to O’Keeffe. Doesn’t this painting fit with the Surrealist works that were produced at this time? Dali’s Persistence of Memory was painted the same year as this one.)
Hm, 5 out of 7, that’s ok…that’s funny, O’Keefe was the first person who came to mind for me, although I did amost second-guess it. It def. fits with Surrealists’ works.
And I had seen that Picasso painting before, but just couldn’t place it…I KNEW it was him, I really did! 🙂
Thanks – these are fun!
I only got one right. Georgia O’Keefe, though I feel you on the Dali-ness of it.
My favorite though, is the de Goya – his paintings always have such energy and tension.
I’ve been a lurker to your blog for some time. I love it. A little bit of beauty in an otherwise very dreary office!
a miserable 2 out of 7. I also misplaced the Picasso but had seen it.
ps–this is my favorite game. keep it up.
pps-was it you Julie, who was on the Vegas trip where we played the guess-the-artist trip the whole way back?
Thanks for lurking (and commenting!), kashurst. It’s always fun for me to find out that new people are reading and enjoying my blog. (And I agree with you about the energy and tension in Goya’s paintings.)
I’m glad that people like this game. I like it too – it’s fun to familiarize myself with lesser-known works. I’ll make sure to keep it up…
Wow! I knew one — the last one — by O’Keeffe. Even then I wasn’t sure of her name. I just knew it was that “one female artist that died some years ago, but lived to be pretty old, and did a lot of stuff that looked like that.”
I’m not a very good scholar, am I? 🙂
4 out of 7 for me. I knew de Kooning, Vermeer, and O’Keeffe right off the bat, and guessed Goya. I kinda guessed Raphael, but thought it was Leonardo da Vinci. I’m floored by the Picasso. Weird. Had no idea with the Manet, but I can see his style in there now that I know.
I got 2 right – I knew the last one for sure b/c I knew O’Keefe painted skulls along with flowers. I guessed correctly on the Vermeer one b/c the tiny people in the open doorways seemed Vermeer-esque to me. The others stumped me. But for someone who’s never taken an art history course, I think 2/7 artist identification on obscure paintings is pretty decent.