10 Incredible Works of Art to Inspire Your Next Getaway
Is it just us, or does an afternoon strolling through a world-class museum give you the most amazing sense of place? Perhaps it’s the blend of historical significance, creative inspiration and quiet reflection. Traveling provides so many incredible opportunities to discover, to explore and to learn, and what better to immerse you in the heart and spirit of a destination than a trip to the museum. Today, we’re inviting you to think about your next travel destination through the lens of famous artists, sculptures, painters and thinkers. We’re breaking down 10 amazing and inspiring works of art to be found in cities around the world, artifacts and masterpieces alike that are “must-see” pieces worthy of planning any trip around. Each of these incredible pieces can be found in a different museum, meaning you’re getting a double dose of travel inspiration! As much as the art is a draw, each museum offers much, much more. So, when you’re thinking about planning your next adventure, consider folding in a trip to the museum and taking in that extra bit of culture, and perhaps even a souvenir print to remember that time you stood before an incredible and priceless Picasso. Let’s tour the curated selection!
1. Mona Lisa
The Louvre, France
Paris is perhaps best-known as one of the most romantic cities in the world, but the city of light has been a beacon for artists and art lovers for equally as long.
Located in Central Paris, and originally built as a fortress in the 12th Century, the Louvre is the largest museum in the world. It is also one of the oldest, opening its doors in 1793. The Louvre has over 38,000 artifacts in eight specific departments, with its most iconic being Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa.
Mona Lisa, also called Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo, by Leonardo da Vinci is probably the world’s most famous painting. It was painted sometime between 1503 and 1519, when Leonardo was living in Florence. The sitter’s mysterious smile and her unproven identity have made the painting a source of ongoing investigation and fascination. There are so many treasures in the Louvre, your visit will surely pay off ten-fold. But to see the most famous painting in the city of light is a moment you will never forget.
2. Le Bonheur de vivre, also called The Joy of Life
The Barnes Museum, Philadelphia
Home to the iconic Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Rodin Museum, and now the Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia’s Museum district deserves months to explore. But The Barnes is an incredible place to start. Philadelphia art collector Albert C. Barnes (1872–1951) chartered the Barnes Foundation in 1922 to teach people from all walks of life how to look at art. Over three decades, he collected some of the world’s most important impressionist, post-impressionist, and modern paintings, including works by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, and Picasso.
This monumental canvas, which once hung in the famous collection of Gertrude and Leo Stein, is one of the watershed paintings in the history of European modernism. When Matisse first exhibited Le Bonheur de vivre in Paris in 1906, audiences were shocked. The problem wasn't the subject; the theme of sensual arcadia, with figures dancing and making music in a natural setting, had been a standard for centuries. It was the execution—the bold colors, the jarring shifts in scale, and the distorted anatomies. As Gertrude Stein would later write, "Matisse painted Le Bonheur de vivre and created a new formula for color that would leave its mark on every painter of the period."
3. Sun Flowers
Van Gogh Museum, Netherlands
Colorful, quirky and charming, Amsterdam is truly an old-world city, lined with 17th century buildings, canals, and the constant sight of bicycles whizzing by. The city is also teeming with high culture and world-class art.
Dedicated solely to the work of Vincent Van Gogh, the Amsterdam-based museum attracts over 2 million visitors annually. Established in 1976, it has the largest collection of Van Gogh artwork worldwide, possessing 1,300 pieces, including his iconic paintings Sunflowers, Self-Portrait and The Potato Eaters.
Van Gogh’s paintings of Sunflowers are among his most famous. He did them in Arles, in the south of France, in 1888 and 1889. Vincent painted a total of five large canvases with sunflowers in a vase, with three shades of yellow ‘and nothing else’. In this way, he demonstrated that it was possible to create an image with numerous variations of a single color, without any loss of eloquence. Explore many more iconic paintings in this amazing city rich with artistic treasures.
4. Family of Saltimbanques
National Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.
When you visit Washington, DC, you experience so much more than a portal to the past or a glimpse at the flexing power of government. Here, museums rule the roost and the National Gallery is a treasure trove. Established in 1937 and opened to the public free of charge, it traces the development of Western Art from the Middle Ages to present day. The museum is one of the largest in North America, boasting 4.3 million visitors annually, ranking 2nd nationally and 7th globally for popularity. The Gallery’s collection includes pieces from artists such as Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso.
Picasso’s Family of Saltimbanques pays tribute to the circus stock players while also serving as autobiography. The dark, brooding silhouette of Harlequin—in diamond-printed costume, far left—is the dark, intense young artist himself. The original tonality of this painting was bluish. Scientific study has revealed three other states of this image under its final version. In them, Picasso altered figures and composition and switched from blue to rose, consciously allowing the darker paint to show through as he reworked his canvas. In this way, he created contour as well as a dusky, veiled atmosphere worthy of his waif-like figures.
5. The Rosetta Stone
British Museum, U.K.
Home to world-class museums and galleries, London is an art lover’s paradise. And though the city can be costly at times, this haven for art lovers is especially fitting as many of this city’s museums are free!
Possessing the largest collection of artifacts in the world (8 million), the London-based British Museum was established in 1759, originally as an homage to the research of physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. Now, with 6.8 million visitors annually, it is the 3rd most visited museum globally and the second oldest in the overall rankings. The British Museum is dedicated to human history, art and culture, not only hosting pieces from artists such as Michelangelo, Da Vinci and Van Gogh, but also housing famous historical artifacts such as the Rosetta Stone and the Mummy of Katebet.
Talk about history! The key to the decipherment of hieroglyphs, the inscription on the Rosetta Stone is a decree passed by a council of priests. The decree is inscribed on the stone three times, in hieroglyphic (suitable for a priestly decree), demotic (the native script used for daily purposes), and Greek (the language of the administration). The importance of this to the study of Egyptology was immense.
6. Washington Crossing the delaware
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City
New York! Where to begin. The most dynamic and ever-changing city in the world is home to masterpieces and cultural artifacts found nowhere else on the planet. No matter how many times you go, there’s always something new to see.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is home to over 2 million artifacts, housed in seventeen specific curatorial departments. The Met is one of the most popular museums globally, and with over 7 million visitors annually it is the most visited art museum in America and 2nd globally. The museum hosts a vast collection of artifacts including work from the likes of Picasso, Matisse and Van Gogh.
Emanuel Leutze's depiction of Washington's attack on the Hessians at Trenton on December 25, 1776, was a great success in America and in Germany. Leutze began his first version of this subject in 1849. It was damaged in his studio by fire in 1850 and, although restored and acquired by the Bremen Kunsthalle, was again destroyed in a bombing raid in 1942. In 1850, Leutze began this version of the subject, which was placed on exhibition in New York during October of 1851.
7. Las Meninas
The Museo del Prado
Madrid is just as beautiful as the Prado's beautiful works of art. It’s impossible to see the whole place in a weekend, but two days exploring the many great museums is a good introduction to the Spanish Capital.
Located in Madrid, The Museo del Prado is Spain’s national art museum, boasting over 3 million visitors annually. It is one of the oldest national museums, opening its doors in 1819 and housing Spanish paintings from the 11th-18th centuries, as well as numerous masterpieces from foreign artists such as Van Dyck and Rembrandt.
Las Meninas is Velazquez at his most imperious. At first appearing to be a portrait of the Princess Margarita and her handmaidens, on closer inspection it reveals a complex scene involving Velazquez himself, the King and Queen, and a mirror. We won’t give away too much: working out for yourself what’s going on is part of what has fascinated visitors to the Prado for centuries!
8. One: Number 31, 1950
Museum of Modern Art, New York
New York’s Museum of Modern Art holds the largest collection of contemporary art, making it one of the most influential museums in the world. The museum was developed and established by Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, the wife of John D. Rockefeller Jr, along with two of her friends, and now possesses an array of art with over 150,000 pieces of work. Artists represented within this collection include Picasso, Warhol and Dali, whilst the museum also holds Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night painting.
One: Number 31, 1950 exemplifies at a grand scale the radical “drip” technique that defined Jackson Pollock’s Abstract Expressionist style. Moving around an expanse of canvas laid on the floor, Pollock flung and poured ropes of paint across the surface. One is among the largest of his works that bear evidence of these dynamic gestures. The canvas pulses with energy: strings and skeins of enamel—some matte, some glossy—weave and run, an intricate web of tans, blues, and grays lashed through with black and white. The way the paint lies on the canvas suggests speed and force, and the image as a whole is dense and lush—yet its details have a delicacy and lyricism.
9. Le déjeuner sur l’herbe
Musee d’Orsay, Paris
The city so full of amazing art that we had to list it twice! Besides, who would skip out on the change to see the largest collection of impressionist and post-impressionist masterpieces in the world?
The Musee d’Orsay boasts 3 million annual visitors. Located in Paris and opened in 1986 on the grounds of an old railway station, it is one of the largest art museums within Europe. It possesses a vast collection of pieces featuring artists such as Monet, Van Gogh and Munch.
Rejected by the jury of the 1863 Salon, Manet exhibited Le déjeuner sur l’herbe under the title Le Bain at the Salon des Refusés (initiated the same year by Napoléon III) where it became the principal attraction, generating both laughter and scandal. Yet in Le déjeuner sur l'herbe, Manet was paying tribute to Europe's artistic heritage, borrowing his subject from Titian and taking his inspiration for the composition from Raphael. But the classical references were counterbalanced by Manet's boldness. Manet's refusal to conform to convention and his initiation of a new freedom from traditional subjects and modes of representation can perhaps be considered as the departure point for Modern Art.
10. South Wind, Clear Dawn (Red Fuji)
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Los Angeles is a mecca for travelers of all kinds, and the year-round near perfect weather means you’ll probably want to spend a good deal of time outside. But if museums are your thing (they’re ours) then you’ll find just as much to discover inside as well.
Located on the Pacific Rim, LACMA is the largest art museum in the western United States, with a collection of more than 142,000 objects that illuminate 6,000 years of artistic expression across the globe. Committed to showcasing a multitude of art histories, LACMA exhibits and interprets works of art from new and unexpected points of view that are informed by the region’s rich cultural heritage and diverse population.
This print, often called Red Fuji, is the greatest design in Hokusai's most famous series of prints, Thirty-six Views of Mt. Fuji. It is also one of the most successful works in the history of printmaking. Red Fuji epitomizes the phrase "economy of means": it uses only three colors and a single outline that pulls the weight of the composition into tense asymmetry. The perfection of this composition grew from Hokusai's long study and analysis of form, and his use of line, circles, triangles, and squares to create balanced and monumental images. The resulting impression is one of massive weight and power.
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