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. 1
   Mona Lisa

   Leonardo da Vinci's portrait of Lisa Gherardini, painted from about 1503 and now in the Louvre.
2. 2
   Girl with a Pearl Earring

   Vermeer's tronie of an unnamed girl turning to face the viewer, painted around 1665.
3. 3
   The Arnolfini Portrait

   Jan van Eyck's 1434 double portrait, famous for the convex mirror behind the couple.
4. 4
   Whistler's Mother

   Whistler's 1871 study in grey and black of his mother in profile.
5. 5
   Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear

   Van Gogh's 1889 self-portrait made weeks after he cut off part of his ear.
6. 6
   Las Meninas

   Velázquez's 1656 group portrait of the Infanta Margarita, her maids and the painter himself.
7. 7
   Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I

   Klimt's gold-leaf 1907 portrait, once looted by the Nazis and returned in 2006.
8. 8
   American Gothic

   Grant Wood's 1930 painting of a farmer and his daughter in front of a Gothic window.
9. 9
   The Blue Boy

   Gainsborough's 1770 full-length portrait of a young man in blue satin.
10. 10
    Portrait of Henry VIII

    Holbein's image of the Tudor king, planted square-on, that fixed his face for five centuries.
11. 11
    The Laughing Cavalier

    Frans Hals's 1624 portrait of a smiling officer with an extravagantly embroidered sleeve.
12. 12
    Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace

    Frida Kahlo's 1940 self-portrait with a hummingbird, a monkey and a black cat.
13. 13
    Napoleon Crossing the Alps

    Jacques-Louis David's 1801 propaganda portrait of Bonaparte on a rearing horse.
14. 14
    Portrait of Madame X

    Sargent's 1884 portrait of Virginie Gautreau that scandalised the Paris Salon.
15. 15
    Lady with an Ermine

    Leonardo's portrait of Cecilia Gallerani, held in Kraków and rarely lent abroad.
16. 16
    Self-Portrait at 28

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

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