25 Paintings You Should Know Before You Turn 25

Why 25? It is a fateful year in your life because it is when you turn a quarter of a century. Life is mercurial and you shift from side to side, one moment you may love something with a passion, and the next second you grow tired and bored. What changes the most is taste, and as the years progress, you become more reserved and hesitant to try out new things. When you turn 25 it is the perfect time to experiment, learn new things, and take a chance to find the things you will love and cherish for the rest of your life.

1. The Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (1426-1428)
Tommaso Masaccio

In History of Art 101, we all learnt about the titans of art and we brushed up on the terminology like Dadaism or Surrealism. We’ve all heard and admired Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night and marveled at the extravagant paintings of Salvador Dalí where clocks seem to melt into a puddle of immortality. Countless theories float around the mysterious smile of The Mona Lisa and whether the key to the meaning of life lies locked in her alluring smile. Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel continues to hold droves of spellbound tourists, and Picasso is not far behind, with an entourage of fans who maintain that it was only he who revolutionized the world of art.

Yes, these titans were important, and we will never forget their legacy. The artists that followed stood on their shoulders to seek out new sources of inspiration and artistic movements. They are but a small glimmer of the vast universe that makes up the world of western art.

2. The Arnolfini Portrait (1434)
Jan van Eyck

3. Death of the Virgin (1606)
Michelangelo da Caravaggio

4. Self-Portrait (1655)
Rembrandt van Rijn

Maybe you’ve heard of the madness and the genius of Caravaggio, whose use of chiaroscuro brought unparalleled realism into the art world. Surely you identify Velázquez’s Las Meninas, which continues to surprise the world with the intricate play of a painting inside a painting, inside another painting.

5. Las Meninas (1656)
Diego Velázquez

6. The Milkmaid (1658)
Johannes Vermeer

7. The Ancient of Days (1794)
William Blake

8. The Valpinçon Bather (1808)
Dominique Ingres

Where would we be without the dark brushstrokes and terrifying works of Goya or Bacon? A century separates these two artists, but their supernatural and dramatic works make us question the importance of life and the inevitability of death.

9. El gran Cabrón (1823)
Francisco de Goya

10. Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth (1842)
Joseph Mallord Turner

11. Olympia (1863)
Édouard Manet

12. Arrangement in Grey and Black No.1 (1871)
James Abbott McNeill Whistler

13. Impression, soleil levant (1872)
Claude Monet

14. Bal du moulin de la Galette (1876)
Pierre Auguste Renoir

15. Mont Sainte-Victoire (1885)
Paul Cézanne

Each artist speaks to us through their work, and their legacy is a springboard for other artists. Just like van Gogh was inspired by Rembrandt, you too can be inspired by this journey through the annals of the Western history of art.

16. A Wheatfield with Cypresses (1889)
Vincent van Gogh