13 Iconic and Famous Paintings You Can See Without Leaving New York City

There's a good reason New York City is considered the art capital of the United States. It's the home to countless iconic art museums, which house some of the world's most inspiring, beautifully painted and historically significant works. Essentially, if you're an art lover, a trip to the city must include a visit to a significant museum or two.

While you can't go wrong visiting any of NYC's celebrated museums, there are a few where you're most likely to encounter familiar, must-see works. We've broken some down for you below to help you figure out where to stop first during your travels.

Museum of Modern Art 

Vincent van Gogh, The Starry Night

The Museum of Modern Art highlights a critical period in art from about the 1860s to the 1970s, and there's no doubt that one of its highlights is Vincent van Gogh's The Starry Night. It's instantly recognizable, with its colorful post-impressionist strokes, inspiring countless imitations.

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Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair

Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is most famous for her self-portraits, giving a glimpse into her psyche and story of survival throughout the years. This portrait, featuring her wearing short hair, was painted shortly after her divorce from fellow artist Diego Rivera, with the cut hair reflecting the cutting of old baggage and taking on a new sense of independence.

(Photo credit: Jean-Pierre Dalbéra)

 

Salvador Dalí, The Persistence of Memory

Salvador Dalí's persistence of memory is one of his most famous works, recognized for its oozy melting clocks. It's surreal and uncanny, capturing the concept of time and the way it can seem to distort, shrink and stretch throughout life.

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 Piet Mondrian, Broadway Boogie Woogie

Piet Mondrian's abstract pieces are famous for their geometric and rectangular shapes, but Broadway Boogie Woogie is one of our favorites for being more representative than most. It was painted in the '40s, shortly after the artist moved to New York City, and takes inspiration from both the city grid of Brooklyn and the colorful movement of boogie-woogie music.

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Also read about: Not Into Drawing and Painting? Here Are 6 More Ways to Feel Artistic on World Art Day

 

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Edgar Degas, The Dance Class

Now, for a broader range of art styles and genres, you can't go wrong with a trip to the world-famous Metropolitan Museum of Art. Among its paintings you're find Edgar Degas's The Dance Class, depicting a realistic slice of life as young women train under ballet master Jules Perrot of the Paris Opera.

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Emanuel Leutzem, Washington Crossing The Delaware

Few depictions of the early American history and the Revolutionary War are more famous or recognized than Emanuel Leutzem's Washington Crossing The Delaware. It shows a historic Washington taking command, crossing the frigid Delaware River on a winter's night to lead a surprise attack.

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Jacques Louis David, The Death Of Socrates

French Jacques Louis David was known best for his neoclassical style, depicting historical moments and deeply inspired by Greek and Roman art. The Death Of Socrates is among his best-known works, showing Socrates cooly taking his chalice of poison and spending his last living moments imparting a final lessons to his somber students.

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Odilon Redon, Pandora

The genius of Odilon Redon's Pandora is that its beauty is such a poignant reflection of its subject matter. It illustrates Pandora, an innocent and alluring woman who was created by the gods, and who carried a jar that contained all of the world's evils. The painting shows the pureness and wonder of the world, just before she opens it, out of curiosity, and unleashes everything bad into existence.

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Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum

Édouard Manet, Before the Mirror

The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has a fabulously eclectic collection of impressionist, post-impressionist, modern and contemporary art, including Édouard Manet's Before the Mirror. The painting has a dreamy quality with soft strokes that create a delicate image of a woman gazing at her reflection in the mirror. It feels intimate, as we're not let in on the reflection itself, left only to guess what she sees.

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Also read about: The Most Creative Museums Around the United States

 

Brooklyn Museum

Gilbert Stuart, George Washington (Replica)

The Brooklyn Museum is one of America's oldest art museums with a bold mission to offer an encyclopedic approach to art, boasting a little bit of everything. For a touch of U.S. history, check out William Kerin Constable's replica of Gilbert Stuart's George Washington, a life-size portrait painted when the first president was 64 years old during his last year in office.

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Edward Hicks, The Peaceable Kingdom

American folk painter Edward Hicks technically painted more than 60 different versions of The Peaceable Kingdom, inspired by his beliefs as a Quaker. It's a captivating rendition of a bible verse telling of perfect harmony between predators and prey, with the young Jesus Christ leading the way.

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Albert Bierstadt, A Storm in the Rocky Mountains

Albert Bierstadt's A Storm in the Rocky Mountains is a staggering work you have to see in person. With a height of nearly seven feet and a width or almost 12 feet, it's majestically beautiful and slightly haunting in the way it showcases dark weather brewing over the Rockies, inspired by his own travels to the region.

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Neue Galerie

Gustav Klimt, Adele Bloch-Bauer I

Finally, there's the Neue Galerie New York, featuring primarily 20th century Austrian and German. Among their many lovely works is Gustav Klimt's Adele Bloch-Bauer I, a portrait commissioned by the subject's husband. It's an oil painting layered with gorgeous gold leaf, depicting not just her wealth but her elegant beauty. Additionally, the painting itself has a storied history, as it was stolen by the Nazis in 1941 and was the subject of a Supreme Court hearing before finding its current home.

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