I think it’s inarguable that the Mona Lisa is the most famous painting in the world. Ask 100 people to think of a famous painting, and I bet at least 50 (and probably more like 75) would name Leonardo’s work.
So what do you think the second-most-famous painting in the world is? Which painting would get 20% (or 10%) of the vote?
The possibilities that occur to me:
Leonardo’s Last Supper
Dali’s The Persistence of Memory
one of Warhol’s Marilyns
But maybe I’m overlooking something obvious. Your thoughts?
It almost certainly depends on where you live. We’ve had discussions before that brought out the fact that the famous paintings in one country don’t match those in others. If a painting is in a museum inside the country that will make it disproportionately more familiar in that country.
It’s also hard to know what western works of art are well known in Asia and Africa. There are definitely famous works of art from those places that are mostly unknown in the west.
I think it depends on where you ask the question. In the U.S. the majority of laymen would probably answer with the Mona Lisa. After that it’d probably be American Gothic or maybe Whistler’s Mother (thought they might not know the titles).
But how about Stuart’s Portrait of George Washington? Familiar to all who have held a dollar bill, subject of an exciting rescue starring Dolly Madison, hangs in the world’s most famous residence.
The thing is, only the Mona Lisa carries the triple whammy of being an instantly recongizable image that any halfway-literate person, anywhere in the West, can immediately identify by title and artist.
Once you get beyond the Mona Lisa, there are “famous” paintings and “famous” images, but not always in combination. The Scream is about as ubiquitous and easily recognized an image as you can find, but I’m sure there are educated people that don’t know the artist. Picasso’s Guernica is a more famous painting by title and artist, but doesn’t contain any single image as recognizable as The Scream.
I was being western-centric, certainly, though it’s a good point that different groups of pollees would give different answers.
I’m interested in a broad definition of “painting” – a layman’s understanding. And it’s not as important to me that people know the artist, or even the true name of the painting, so something like Scream – great thought – counts even if they just know it’s the painting that looks like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone.
And the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is another good one – certainly iconic.
“Whistler’s Mother” isn’t the name though. It’s Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist’s Mother.
I would think Hokusai’s The Great Wave would be up there.
The big portrait of Chairman Mao in Beijing is also surely one of the most recognized in the world. Not good, but recognized.
