A Brush With History Trivia Quiz

Answer: Rembrandt van Rijn

Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1669) was a Dutch painter who belonged to the Dutch Golden Age. He was very popular during his lifetime and people appreciated his art and talent, mostly for his self-portraits, paintings of biblical scenes and for the portraits of his contemporaries.

His works shows a richness of variety in subject, size and style and his 'signature' has to be the use of light and shadow combined in powerful contrasts.

Answer: Eugene Delacroix

Eugene Delacroix (1789-1863) was a French painter and lithographer belonging to Romanticism and is regarded as the leader of the French Romantic school. His paintings are mostly inspired from history and literature. He illustrated "Faust" by Goethe, Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and many romantic works of Byron, Sir Walter Scott and others.

Answer: Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali (1904-1989) was Spanish (Catalan) painter, famous for his surrealist works which show hallucinating, bizarre and sometimes morbid scenes. He had an eccentric behaviour which draw as much attention upon himself as did his paintings. Dali also worked in photography, sculpture and film making, in collaboration with other artists of the time.

Answer: Thomas Gainsborough

Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) was an English painter considered to be among the best portrait and landscape painters of the 18th century. His works are famous for honestly and exactly depicting the physical and psychological traits of the person, for their elegant attitudes and also for the bright, luminous colours that Gainsborough used.

Answer: Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was an Italian painter, sculptor, engineer, inventor, architect, and scientist whose genius perfectly reflected the Renaissance humanist ideal. His constant scientific inquiry, research and mechanical inventiveness were centuries ahead of his time and anticipated many modern-day inventions.
His paintings are famous and works like "The Last Supper" and "Mona Lisa" ("La Gioconda") probably are the most well known around the world. His influence on Italian culture lasted for more than a century after his death.

Answer: Wassily Kandinsky

Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) was an avant-garde Russian painter and art theorist. His style is abstract art and he belonged to the Expressionism movement. He expressed the idea that art, through use of colours and abstract forms, should suggest a transcendental world. His paintings look "happy" with very bright colours put together.

Answer: Frida Kahlo

Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was a very original Mexican painter who endured polio, a broken spine, and chronic pain for decades. Her paintings consist mainly of self-portraits but she did capture her family and friends on canvas on several occasions.
Her works are a reflection of her personal history, her damaged physical condition, her stormy relationship with her husband, Diego Rivera, her personal philosophy and view of life.

Answer: Jackson Pollock

Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) was an American painter whose works are unique for the technique in which they were made. His 'drip and splash' style consists of fixing his canvas to the floor or on the wall (instead of using the traditional easel) and pouring and dripping wet paint directly from the can. Sometimes he also added a mixture of broken glass, sand, or other unusual textures.

This method of "action painting" was supposed to result in a revelation of the unconscious moods of the artist.

Answer: Pablo Picasso

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) was a Spanish painter and sculptor, one of the most important artists of the modern art and, together with Georges Braque, founder of the Cubism movement. His works cover different styles and periods - Blue Period, Rose Period, African-influenced Period and then Cubism.

He was a child prodigy, a very prolific artist (it is said he could finish three paintings in one day) and remains influential to young painters even nowadays.

Answer: Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter. His early works were characterised by realism, sad and somber colours and depicting scenes from the hard life of Dutch peasants and working men. Later, after moving to South France, Van Gogh's paintings started to be much brighter and colourful and using a brush stroke that makes the landscapes look like flames.

In all of his work one can easily notice the tension, the strife with everyday life and its constant obstacles.