Art Guide
Styles
Genres of painting, from landscape to portrait, and their finest examples.
Landscape
Nature, sky and water
Landscape painting takes nature and the open air as its main subject. It grew into an independent genre in the 17th century and peaked with the Romantics and Impressionists in the 19th.
Portrait
Faces and gazes
Portraiture depicts a person’s face, character and status. From the Mona Lisa to Girl with a Pearl Earring, many of the best-known works in art history are portraits.
Still life and flowers
Vases, fruit and branches
Still life is the genre of arranged inanimate objects such as fruit, flowers and vases. It rose in the 17th-century Netherlands and, with Van Gogh’s Sunflowers and Cézanne’s apples, became a testing ground for modern painting.
Everyday life
Streets, rooms and crowds
Everyday-life or genre painting shows ordinary people at home, in the street and at leisure. It stretches from Vermeer’s kitchens to Renoir’s dances and Hopper’s diner.
Figure and allegory
Myth, symbol and feeling
Figure and allegory paintings tell myths, religious stories or ideas through the human figure. The Birth of Venus, The Kiss and The Scream are examples from different centuries.
Abstract
Colour, form and rhythm
Abstract painting is built from colour, form and line without imitating the visible world. It was born in the 1910s with Kandinsky, Mondrian and Klee, and before them Hilma af Klint.
Botanicals and animals
Flowers, birds and sea life
Botanical and animal art takes flowers, birds, sea life and animals as its subject, ranging from scientific illustration to decorative pattern. It is one of the most popular subjects for wall decoration.