The Last of the Buffalo
1888 · Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, District of Columbia
Bierstadt painted this vast hunt as the herds were nearing extinction, with skulls and bones already lying across the foreground.
★ 5.4
The Art canon
Sourced and hung.
Every work chosen by hand and annotated for why it matters.
Browse all 704 works or filter by movement, subject, place, and artist.
Browse all 704 works or filter by movement, subject, place, and artist.
Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia
1682 · Ashmolean, Oxford, England
Ascanius draws his bow on a tame stag, the shot that starts a war in the Aeneid, and Claude paints it as a calm golden evening.
★ 5.7
Lion Hunt
1621 · Alte Pinakothek, Munich
Horses, lions, spears and men knotted into one turning mass, with a rider already thrown and about to be mauled.
★ 6.7
The Hunt in the Forest
1470 · Ashmolean, Oxford, England
Red-clad hunters and dogs funnel into a black wood toward a single vanishing point. One of the earliest night scenes on an Italian panel.
★ 7.2
The Lion Hunt of Ashurbanipal
Artist unknown
645 BC · British Museum, London
The king kills lions released into an arena to prove he can protect his people, and the dying animals are carved with startling tenderness.
★ 8.7
Hunters in the Snow
1565 · Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna
Three hunters come home over the hill with one thin catch while villagers skate below. Bruegel painted it for a series on the months.
★ 9.4