Famous artists By: Estefanía, Iván and Karin

Salvador Dalí X He was born in 1904 in Spain. X He was a painter, photographer, sculptor, writer and film director, focusing on painting. X Studied at San Fernando’s school of art in Madrid. X He is best known for the surrealism in his paintings.

X Some of his most famous paintings are: - The persistence of memory. - Ballerina in a death’s head. - Swans reflecting elephants. - Crucifixion corpus.

THE PERSISTENCE OF MEMORY X This is a typical surrealist painting, it shows reality, and imagination. Limp objects in a real, solid background, such as the ocean. X At the centre, we can observe a limp creature, almost dead. It is said to represent Dali. X The cliffs in the background are from California, where he grew up. This fact brings sentimentality to the painting.

Leonardo da Vinci One of the geniuses of mankind. Da Vinci, apart from being a paintor, was many other things, like a scientist, sculptor, musician, writer... Although he is known primarily for being a paintor, his most famous painting being the Mona Lisa. He was born in Florence, Italy; son to Piero da Vinci.

Some of his most famous paintings are: X The Mona Lisa. X The Last Supper. X Virgin of the rocks. Leonardo was a great painter, thanks to the many studies he had. One of the characteristics of most of his paintings is the subtle changing of tones, and the play of light and shadow.

Mona Lisa X The most important part of this painting is the smile of the mona lisa. Many people have tried to guess what her smile means. Some people even thought it meant that Da Vinci was in love with his mother. X When you look at the painting, it feels as though she is looking at you, which creates feeling between the observer and the mona lisa. X Da Vinci played with the light a lot in this painting, creating effects no other artist has been able to copy.

Pablo Ruiz Picasso A spanish painter, sculptor, ceramicist etc. He was one of the co-founders of the cubist movement. Born in Malaga, he spent most of his life in France.

Some of his most famous paintings are: X Demoiselles d’Avignon X La Vie X The old guitarist X Guernica

El niño con la paloma X In this painting Picasso uses very bright colours, which create a feeling of happiness and relaxation. X The dove represents peace. The fact that the child is holding the dove wants to show the innocence characteristic to children.

Claude Monet Frenchman, born in Paris, was one of the founders of the impressionist movement. The term impressionist comes from the title of one of his paintings, “Impression, sunrise” When he started painting, he sat by a window with his paints, and painted what he saw through the window.

Some of his most famous paintings are: X On the bank of the Seine. X Impression, sunrise. X The woman in the green.

Impression, Sunrise X It shows the river Havre, with mist surrounding a few boats. Again, it was a painting he painted while looking through a window. X It is painted with very loose strokes, and using blue, green and yellow tones. X The painting has a feeling of peace. XThe sun has EXACTLY THE SAME brightness as the real sun (it was measured with a photometer)

Diego Velázquez X Born in Spain, he was the principal painter who paid court to the king Philip IV. X He was a great baroque artist, and he painted portraits of many famous and royal people. X Many artists, such as Picasso, Dali and Bacon, have paid tribute to him by recreating his most famous paintings.

Some of his most famous paintings are: X Los borrachos. X Retrato de la infanta María Teresa. X Vieja friendo huevos.

Las Meninas X In this painting there are present 11 people, including Velázquez, who painted himself while doing the portrait. X The most interesting thing in the painting is the perspective, and the light which comes in from the window. X In this painting Velázquez manages to evoke silence and space, broken only by the man standing in the doorway.