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Quizzes > Society & Culture

Famous Painters Quiz: Name the Artist

Quick, free quiz to identify artists. Instant results.

Editorial: Review CompletedCreated By: Helen WilliamsonUpdated Aug 23, 2025
Difficulty: Moderate
2-5mins
Learning OutcomesCheat Sheet
Paper art illustration with paintbrush palette canvas icons on dark blue background promoting a free famous painters quiz

This famous painters quiz helps you name the artist behind each artwork while spotting clues in brushwork, color, and era to sharpen your eye. Keep exploring with our famous paintings quiz, try a focused identify artists quiz, or build context in the art history knowledge quiz.

Who painted the Mona Lisa?
Donatello
Michelangelo
Raphael
Leonardo da Vinci
The Mona Lisa is a portrait painted by Leonardo da Vinci between 1503 and 1506. It is one of the most famous works of the Italian High Renaissance and is housed at the Louvre Museum in Paris. Leonardo's mastery of sfumato gives the painting its realistic, soft edges. .
Which artist is known for painting The Starry Night?
Vincent van Gogh
Henri Matisse
Paul Cézanne
Claude Monet
The Starry Night was painted by Vincent van Gogh in 1889 while he was at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. The painting depicts a swirling night sky over a small town and is celebrated for its expressive brushwork and color. It is one of Van Gogh's best-known works and resides in MoMA, New York. .
Which painter is famous for his Water Lilies series?
Edgar Degas
Pierre-Auguste Renoir
Claude Monet
Édouard Manet
Claude Monet created the Water Lilies series over the last three decades of his life, painting his garden pond at Giverny. These large-scale works focus on the play of light and reflection on the water's surface. Monet's loose brushwork and vibrant palette helped define Impressionism. .
Who painted The Persistence of Memory?
Joan Miró
Pablo Picasso
Salvador Dalí
René Magritte
The Persistence of Memory is a 1931 surrealist painting by Salvador Dalí, famous for its melting clocks in a dreamlike landscape. It exemplifies Dalí's interest in time, memory, and the subconscious. The artwork hangs in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. .
Which artist is a pioneer of Cubism?
Jackson Pollock
Wassily Kandinsky
Pablo Picasso
Henri Matisse
Pablo Picasso, alongside Georges Braque, developed Cubism in the early 20th century. This movement broke subjects into geometric forms viewed from multiple perspectives. Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907) is often cited as the catalyst for Cubism. .
Who painted Girl with a Pearl Earring?
Diego Velázquez
Rembrandt van Rijn
Peter Paul Rubens
Johannes Vermeer
Girl with a Pearl Earring is a 1665 painting by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. The work is celebrated for its use of light, color, and the enigmatic expression of the subject. It's housed in the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague. .
Who painted The Garden of Earthly Delights?
Jan van Eyck
Hieronymus Bosch
Albrecht Dürer
Pieter Bruegel the Elder
The Garden of Earthly Delights is a triptych painted by Hieronymus Bosch around 1500. It's known for its fantastical imagery and moral themes, depicting paradise, earthly pleasures, and hell. Bosch's intricate detail and imagination made this one of the most famous works of the Northern Renaissance. .
Which painter developed the drip technique, revolutionizing Abstract Expressionism?
Willem de Kooning
Mark Rothko
Franz Kline
Jackson Pollock
Jackson Pollock pioneered the drip painting technique in the late 1940s, laying canvases on the floor and pouring or dripping paint from above. This approach emphasized the physical act of painting and became a hallmark of Abstract Expressionism. Pollock's work transformed modern art's understanding of process and gesture. .
Who painted The Scream?
Gustav Klimt
Edvard Munch
Paul Gauguin
Egon Schiele
The Scream is an iconic expressionist work by Norwegian artist Edvard Munch, created in 1893. The composition features a figure with an agonized expression against a blood-red sky, symbolizing modern existential angst. Several versions exist in different media, and the most famous resides in the National Gallery, Oslo. .
Which artist painted Black Square, a groundbreaking work marking the birth of Suprematism?
Wassily Kandinsky
Kazimir Malevich
Marc Chagall
Piet Mondrian
Black Square is a 1915 painting by Kazimir Malevich and is considered the defining work of Suprematism, an abstract art movement focused on basic geometric forms. Malevich exhibited it at The Last Futurist Exhibition 0.10 in Petrograd. The painting's radical simplicity challenged traditional art and influenced modern abstraction. .
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Study Outcomes

  1. Identify Iconic Painters -

    After completing the Famous Painters Quiz, you will be able to match celebrated artworks to artists like Van Gogh and Picasso by recognizing their signature styles.

  2. Recall Biographical Highlights -

    You will recall key life events and contributions of renowned painters to appreciate their impact on art history.

  3. Analyze Artistic Styles -

    You will analyze visual elements and stylistic cues to differentiate between art movements and pinpoint the creators of each masterpiece.

  4. Enhance Art Trivia Skills -

    You will sharpen your art quiz online performance, building confidence to ace challenging questions in any painters trivia quiz.

  5. Utilize Word Search Answers -

    You will leverage famous painters word search answers to reinforce your knowledge of artist names and spellings for future reference.

Cheat Sheet

  1. Van Gogh's Emotive Impasto Technique -

    Vincent van Gogh's signature thick, textural brushstrokes are best seen in works like Starry Night (Van Gogh Museum). He applied paint in rhythmic swirls, creating a tactile surface - use the mnemonic "SUN swirl" (Swirls Unite Night) to spot his style in an art quiz online. Identifying this impasto technique can boost your score on a famous painters quiz.

  2. Picasso's Blue, Rose, and Cubist Eras -

    Pablo Picasso's career is divided into distinct periods: the melancholic Blue Period, the warm Rose Period, and the pioneering Cubist phase (MoMA). Remember the phrase "Blue Past, Rose Play, Cube Day" to recall the sequence and key visual cues. Recognizing these color palettes and fractured forms can help with painters trivia quizzes and famous painters word search answers.

  3. Leonardo da Vinci's Sfumato Soft Transitions -

    Leonardo's sfumato blends tones seamlessly, eliminating harsh outlines in paintings like the Mona Lisa (Louvre). Practice spotting those subtle gradients around eyes and mouths - think "smoke" to remember sfumato means "to evaporate like smoke." This delicate shading is a telltale clue in can you identify famous painters challenges.

  4. Golden Ratio in High Renaissance Composition -

    High Renaissance masters such as Raphael and Michelangelo often used the golden ratio (approximately 1:1.618) to structure harmonious compositions, evident in The School of Athens (Vatican Museums). Overlay a Fibonacci spiral to check if key focal points align - a quick trick for art quiz online success. Understanding these mathematical principles anchors your knowledge of classical masterpieces.

  5. Impressionism's Light & Color Breakthrough -

    Impressionists like Monet and Renoir captured fleeting light with short, broken strokes on plein-air canvases, as showcased in Impression, Sunrise (Musée d'Orsay). Use the "Sun Flash" mnemonic (Short Unmixed Strokes) to identify their luminous scenes in any art quiz online. Spotting this emphasis on natural light will help you ace a famous painters trivia quiz.

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