# What's the second most \*famous\* painting? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 30, 2018, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822 "2018-07-30T18:09:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Bijou\_Drains](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bijou_drains/32/2814_2.png) [@Bijou\_Drains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bijou_Drains)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/41 "2018-07-30T21:29:16Z")
Girl with a Pearl Earring , a novel was written to speculate about how it was made and then a movie was based on the novel. [Girl with a Pearl Earring - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/42 "2018-07-30T22:16:34Z")
_Last Supper_ is what immediately came to mind, followed by _Birth of Venus_ and possibly _The Sistine Chapel_. But this is very Euro-centric, of course. My criterion is mainly, would my mother and father recognize it? They don’t know art very well at all, and I would be very doubtful they’d recognize even _Starry Night_, much less _The Scream_ or _Guernica_ or _Napolean Crossing the Alps_ (heck, _I_ had to look that one up, and I’m not entirely sure I recognize it. I sure as heck wouldn’t be able to name it.) But certainly they know _Last Supper_. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/43 "2018-07-30T22:20:05Z")
> [@Bijou\_Drains](#): > > Girl with a Pearl Earring , a novel was written to speculate about how it was made and then a movie was based on the novel. > > [Girl with a Pearl Earring - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring) MHO: The movie was incredibly boring. Don’t bother. I’ve seen “American Gothic” in person. It’s not very big either; in this case, it was behind a rope with a security guard next to it. ---
**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/44 "2018-07-30T22:29:40Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > _Last Supper_ is what immediately came to mind…My criterion is mainly, would my mother and father recognize it? Yeah - my parents were as far from art aficionados as could be, but even they knew the Last Supper - we had one of those lenticular 3-D effect ones hanging in the house when I was a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/45 "2018-07-30T22:34:42Z")
> [@Cardigan](#): > > Marcel Duchamp’s Mona Lisa? > [https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Marcel\_Duchamp\_Mona\_Lisa\_LHOOQ.jpg](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/6e/Marcel_Duchamp_Mona_Lisa_LHOOQ.jpg) Why not Rick Meyerowitz’s? [![](https://www.rickmeyerowitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2.Mona-700pix1-1000x700.jpg) ](https://www.rickmeyerowitz.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/2.Mona-700pix1-1000x700.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [July 30, 2018, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/46 "2018-07-30T23:38:59Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > As for American paintings, _American Gothic_ is probably the single most famous, but Norman Rockwell’s oeuvre as a whole is probably better-known (except, again, there’s no one of them that stands out above the rest). Coincidentally, I was just watching The Beat with Ari Melber and he was doing a topic on women running in '18. I noticed one candidate had a print of what to me is Rockwell’s most important painting… [The Problem We All Live With](http://reinterpellations.web.unc.edu/files/2016/07/The-Problem-We-All-Live-With.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/47 "2018-07-31T00:37:34Z")
> [@Roderick\_Femm](#): > > Or Blue Boy, for the same kinds of reasons (not jokes, but prevalence in popular culture). Huh. Apparently I know nothing about “Blue Boy.” I’m looking up Google images of it, and I don’t recognize it all. Where is it used in pop culture? Looks like I may have found another one of my black holes of pop culture (and I actually _do_ enjoy keeping up on pop culture and being aware of any and all pop cultural references.) ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/48 "2018-07-31T00:51:27Z")
_Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds_, created by Julian Lennon? Everyone’s heard of it. More seriously, Andy Warhol’s paintings of the soup can and Marilyn Munroe. ---
**Author:** ![jaycat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jaycat/32/3015_2.png) [@jaycat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jaycat)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/49 "2018-07-31T00:58:45Z")
> [@MacCat](#): > > Coincidentally, I was just watching The Beat with Ari Melber and he was doing a topic on women running in '18. I noticed one candidate had a print of what to me is Rockwell’s most important painting… > > [The Problem We All Live With](http://reinterpellations.web.unc.edu/files/2016/07/The-Problem-We-All-Live-With.jpg) That is a piece of art that does what art is supposed to do. And from what many might consider an unlikely source. It amazes me to think that I lived through those times. I wonder if anyone under 50 (and white) even knows what that painting means. ---
**Author:** ![Aspenglow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspenglow/32/76_2.png) [@Aspenglow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspenglow)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/50 "2018-07-31T00:59:40Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > Whistler’s Mother is probably a painting most people would know. I’m another who would vote for Whistler’s Mother. The main reason I think it comes in second because a lot of people recognize it from [Mr. Bean](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDaB62torng). Kinda sad. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/51 "2018-07-31T01:10:13Z")
It seems likely to me that the second most famous painting is gonna be one that’s got serious pop culture chops. Las Meninas? No chance. The Last Supper? Still very low chance. The Wave? I love it, but unlikely. The Birth of Venus and Scream have both been parodied and referenced endlessly, as has The Creation of Adam. I’d suspect it’d be one of these three (with Adam being the likeliest). But that raises a question: what’s meant by “famous”? Is it enough to vaguely recognize the painting but not to know its name or artist or anything about it beyond one identifying feature? ---
**Author:** ![Mahaloth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mahaloth/32/1079_2.png) [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/52 "2018-07-31T01:22:19Z")
> [@MacCat](#): > > [The Problem We All Live With](http://reinterpellations.web.unc.edu/files/2016/07/The-Problem-We-All-Live-With.jpg) A great painting, but not _that_ famous around the world, is it? ---
**Author:** ![Dropo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/53 "2018-07-31T01:52:45Z")
_The Luncheon on the Grass_ (1862) by Edouard Manet [http://www.manet.org/luncheon-on-the-grass.jsp](http://www.manet.org/luncheon-on-the-grass.jsp) ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/54 "2018-07-31T02:13:20Z")
In the top 20 I’d include _A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte_ by Seurat which is the [pointillism painting](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sunday_Afternoon_on_the_Island_of_La_Grande_Jatte) by the lake. And also _A Bar at the Folies-Bergère_, by Manet, the one with [the bartender](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Bar_at_the_Folies-Berg%C3%A8re) reflected weirdly\* in the mirror. \*_Or [maybe not](https://artforus.wordpress.com/2012/12/18/bar-at-the-folies-bergere/) so weirdly_ ---
**Author:** ![Iggy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iggy/32/3364_2.png) [@Iggy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iggy)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/55 "2018-07-31T02:16:32Z")
Best of the unmentioned… [_The Beheading of St John the Baptist_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beheading_of_St_John_the_Baptist_(Caravaggio)#/media/File:The_Beheading_of_Saint_John-Caravaggio_(1608).jpg) by Caravaggio. At least from an art critic point of view it makes several top ten lists. I had the privilege to see it in person and it is simply stunning - and HUGE (370cm x 520cm or about 10ft 2in x 17ft 1in). Stopped me in my tracks. I think **Mr Dibble** was the only one to mention [_The Persistence of Memory_](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persistence_of_Memory#/media/File:The_Persistence_of_Memory.jpg) and it is instantly recognizable, but few know it by name. It’s that melting clock painting by Salvador Dali. Probably another top ten. And I’ve just been ninja’d by **GuanoLad** with \*A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte \*by Seurat. Easily his most recognizable work and a good top ten contender. But #2 is still The Last Supper. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/56 "2018-07-31T02:33:16Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Huh. Apparently I know nothing about “Blue Boy.” I’m looking up Google images of it, and I don’t recognize it all. Where is it used in pop culture? Looks like I may have found another one of my black holes of pop culture (and I actually _do_ enjoy keeping up on pop culture and being aware of any and all pop cultural references.) It was once famous enough [to show up in Mad Magazine](https://www.madmagazine.com/blog/2014/12/12/don-martin-the-blue-boy). (I thought they did an Alfred E. Neumann version, too, but I can’t find it. Found [this](https://www.pinterest.com/pin/393009504973297300/) recent one, though.) [Other parodies are thick on the ground](https://www.google.com/search?q=%22blue+boy%22+parody&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjLxo-GpsjcAhXJ5oMKHQVzDYwQsAQIDQ). ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/57 "2018-07-31T02:39:10Z")
> [@Leaffan](#): > > I’m Canadian too, and Washington Crossing the Delaware is extremely well known. It’s been parodied by many, even Larson in The Far Side. This must mean I’ve seen many references to it without recognizing or understanding them. Makes sense. ---
**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/58 "2018-07-31T02:43:18Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > … > > The Birth of Venus and Scream have both been parodied and referenced endlessly, as has The Creation of Adam. I’d suspect it’d be one of these three (with Adam being the likeliest). We need to make a new painting, combining them all - we’ll call it “Adam Is Created, Venus Is Born, … Oh No!” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![MacCat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maccat/32/216_2.png) [@MacCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacCat)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/59 "2018-07-31T02:53:40Z")
> [@Mahaloth](#): > > A great painting, but not _that_ famous around the world, is it? I don’t know, but I was not suggesting it as the second most famous painting, just as possibly Rockwell’s most famous in response to the bolded below. > [@](#): > > Norman Rockwell’s oeuvre as a whole is probably better-known (except, again,\*\* there’s no one of them that stands out above the rest\*\*) and the coincidence that I had seen it on the TV just minutes before reading the above. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [July 31, 2018, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822/60 "2018-07-31T03:10:33Z")
> [@jaycat](#): > > That is a piece of art that does what art is supposed to do. And from what many might consider an unlikely source. > > It amazes me to think that I lived through those times. I wonder if anyone under 50 (and white) even knows what that painting means. Rockwell quit working for the _Saturday Evening Post_, where 99% of his iconic paintings appeared, because they wouldn’t let him tackle serious subjects. That painting is what he really wanted to do at the time. The Norman Rockwell Museum is a fine small museum and will turn your head around on everything you think you know of him. Paintings and painters run in fads like everything else. 50 years ago I’d have said the answer was Starry Night, because every college student had a print of it. Or maybe one of Escher’s prints, which were equally ubiquitous. And I guarantee that everybody is familiar with [Ad Reinhardt’s Abstract Painting No. 5 (19620](https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/reinhardt-abstract-painting-no-5-t01582) and [Robert Ryman’s Twin (1965)](https://www.wikiart.org/en/robert-ryman/twin-1966). You see them every single day without realizing it. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-second-most-famous-painting/818822.md?page=4)