10 fun facts about paintings by famous artists

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

On December 3, 1961, a significant event took place at the New York Museum of Modern Art - Matisse's painting "The Boat", which hung upside down for 46 days, was properly weighed. It is worth saying that this is not an isolated amusing incident associated with the paintings of great artists.

Pablo Picasso painted one of his famous portraits in less than 5 minutes

Once, one of Pablo Picasso's acquaintances, looking at his new works, sincerely said to the artist: “Sorry, but I can't understand this. Such things simply do not exist. " To which Picasso retorted: “You don't understand Chinese either. But he still exists. " However, many did not understand Picasso. Once he invited the Russian writer Ehrenburg, his good friend, to paint his portrait. He happily agreed, but did not have time to sit in a chair to pose, as the artist said that everything was ready.

Ehrenburg expressed surprise at the speed of execution of the work, after all, not even 5 minutes had passed, to which Picasso replied:.

Ilya Repin helped sell a painting that he did not paint

One lady bought a completely mediocre painting on the market for only 10 rubles, on which the signature "I. Repin" proudly flaunted. When a connoisseur of painting showed this work to Ilya Efimovich, he laughed and finished writing "This is not Repin" and signed his autograph. After a while, an enterprising lady sold a painting by an unknown artist signed by the great master for 100 rubles.

Bears in the famous painting by Shishkin were painted by another artist

There is an unspoken law among artists - professional mutual assistance. After all, each of them has not only favorite plots and strengths, but also weaknesses, so why not help each other. So, it is known for certain that for the painting "Pushkin on the Seashore" by Aivazovsky, the figure of the great poet was painted by Repin, and for the painting by Levitan, "Autumn Day. Sokolniki "the lady in black was painted by Nikolai Chekhov. The landscape painter Shishkin, who could draw every blade of grass in his paintings, did not get bears when creating the painting "Morning in a Pine Forest". Therefore, the bears for the famous Shishkin painting were painted by Savitsky.

A piece of fiberboard, over which paint was simply poured, became one of the most expensive paintings

The most expensive painting in the world in 2006 was Jackson Polock's "Number 5, 1948". At one of the auctions, the painting went for $ 140 million. It may seem funny, but the artist did not particularly "bother" to create this picture: he simply poured paint over a piece of fiberboard spread out on the floor.

Rubens encrypted the date of creation of his painting by the stars

For a long time, art critics and scientists could not establish the date of creation of one of the most famous paintings by Rubens - the painting "Feast of the Gods on Olympus". The mystery was solved only after astronomers took a closer look at the picture. It turned out that the characters in the picture were arranged in exactly the same order as the planets were located in the sky in 1602.

The Chupa-Chups logo was painted by the world famous surrealist

In 1961, Enrique Bernata, the owner of the Chupa-Chups company, asked the artist Salvador Dali to design an image for a candy wrapper. Dali fulfilled the request. Today this image, albeit in a slightly modified form, is recognizable on the candies of this company.

It should be noted that in 1967 in Italy with the blessing of the Pope was released unique version of the Bible with illustrations by Salvador Dali.

The most expensive painting Torment brings misfortune

Munch's painting "The Scream" was sold at auction for $ 120 million and is today the most expensive painting by this artist. They say that Munch, whose life path is a series of tragedies, put so much grief into her that the picture absorbed negative energy and takes revenge on the offenders.

One of the employees of the Munch Museum somehow accidentally dropped the painting, after which he began to suffer from terrible headaches that led this man to commit suicide. Another museum employee, who could not hold the painting, just a few years later got into a terrible car accident. And a visitor to the museum, who allowed himself to touch the picture, after some time was burnt alive in the fire. However, it is possible that these are just coincidences.

Malevich's "Black Square" has an "older brother"

"Black Square", which is perhaps the most famous painting by Kazimir Malevich, is a 79, 579, 5 centimeters canvas, on which a black square is depicted on a white background. Malevich painted his painting in 1915. And back in 1893, 20 years before Malevich, Alphonse Allay, a French humorist writer, painted his "black square". True, Alla's painting was called "The Battle of Blacks in a Deep Cave on a Dark Night".

Christ and Judas have one face in da Vinci's painting

They say that the creation of the painting "The Last Supper" required a titanic effort from Leonardo da Vinci. The artist found the person from whom the image of Christ was painted quickly enough. One of the choristers of the church choir approached this role. But Da Vinci was looking for "Judas" for three years.

Once on the street, the artist saw a drunkard, who unsuccessfully tried to get out of the cesspool. Da Vinci took him to one of the drinking establishments, sat him down and began to paint. What a surprise the artist was when, having opened up, the drunkard admitted that several years ago he had already posed for him. It turned out that this is the same chorister.