The Old Guitarist
1904 · Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago
The guitar is the only warm note in the picture. Picasso painted it in his Blue Period, poor himself and living on very little.
★ 7.8
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.
An Old Man and His Grandson
1490 · Louvre, Paris
The old man's nose is swollen and ruined by disease, and the boy looks up at him without noticing it at all.
★ 7.3
The Ancient of Days
1794 · Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester, England
Blake's Urizen leans out of the sun with a golden compass to measure the void, and Blake was not sure whether to admire him.
★ 7.2
Saint Jerome Writing
1606 · Galleria Borghese, Rome
Jerome reaches across the table for the inkpot with a skull holding down his papers. Scholarship as physical labor, in a single hard light.
★ 5.7
I Am Still Learning
1828 · El Prado, Madrid
An old man on two sticks, with Aun aprendo written underneath. Goya drew it in exile and failing health, near the end.
★ 5.2
Portrait of a Man, Aged 93
1521 · Albertina, Vienna
An inscription gives his age as ninety-three. Dürer drew him in Antwerp and used the head soon after for a Saint Jerome.
★ 4.8