The 16 Most Famous Portraits in Art History

Faces everyone has seen and most people cannot name the painter of. Some hang behind bulletproof glass; one is a farm couple with a pitchfork.

1

Mona Lisa

Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Lisa Gherardini, painted from about 1503 and now in the Louvre.

2

Girl with a Pearl Earring

Vermeer's tronie of an unnamed girl turning to face the viewer, painted around 1665.

3

The Arnolfini Portrait

Jan van Eyck's 1434 double portrait, famous for the convex mirror behind the couple.

4

Whistler's Mother

Whistler's 1871 study in grey and black of his mother in profile.

5

Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear

Van Gogh's 1889 self-portrait made weeks after he cut off part of his ear.

6

Las Meninas

Velázquez's 1656 group portrait of the Infanta Margarita, her maids and the painter himself.

7

Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

Klimt's gold-leaf 1907 portrait, once looted by the Nazis and returned in 2006.

8

American Gothic

Grant Wood's 1930 painting of a farmer and his daughter in front of a Gothic window.

9

The Blue Boy

Gainsborough's 1770 full-length portrait of a young man in blue satin.

10

Portrait of Henry VIII

Holbein's image of the Tudor king, planted square-on, that fixed his face for five centuries.

11

The Laughing Cavalier

Frans Hals's 1624 portrait of a smiling officer with an extravagantly embroidered sleeve.

12

Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace

Frida Kahlo's 1940 self-portrait with a hummingbird, a monkey and a black cat.

13

Napoleon Crossing the Alps

Jacques-Louis David's 1801 propaganda portrait of Bonaparte on a rearing horse.

14

Portrait of Madame X

Sargent's 1884 portrait of Virginie Gautreau that scandalised the Paris Salon.

15

Lady with an Ermine

Leonardo's portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, held in Kraków and rarely lent abroad.

16

Self-Portrait at 28

Dürer's 1500 self-portrait, painted frontally in a pose reserved for images of Christ.