Famous artists, review [Images]

Famous artists such as Da Vinci, Monet, Picasso and Warhol are common household names. Art & Design takes a look at a four of the most influential and famous artists to have shaped the world of art.

Leonardo da Vinci, perhaps one of the most famous names to grace the art world, was born in 1452 in a town called Vinci. During the Renaissance time period, Italian surnames typically arose from geographic location, or trade; thus, Leonardo da Vinci translates into Leonardo of Vinci, Italy.

Da Vinci was not only skilled in the art of painting, he was also a talented sculpture, inventor, and a mathematician, amongst others trades.

Amongst his most famous works were the Mona Lisa, the Last Supper, Madonna and Child, and The Virgin of the Rocks.

Claude Monet was born in 1840 in France. He was best known for his Impressionist paintings, Water Lilies and Impression Sunrise.

The triptych Water Lilies is Monet's most notable piece of artwork and is roughly 62 feet long. Though Monet studied art in Paris, he later moved to Giverny, a small town near Paris where he painted many of his famous works.

In 1926, Monet died, and having been famous before his death, many people attended the funeral. His home in Giverny is now a museum.

Pablo Picasso was best known for Cubism and Expressionism. He was born in the late 1800s in Malaga, Spain.

Some of Picasso's early works are characterized by a blue period and a rose period, however he always used striking colors. For a period of time he used mostly light blue colors, followed by the rose color period.

His best known painting was Guernica, inspired by his outrage at the destruction of a small Basque town during the Spanish civil war.

He passed away in 1973 after a heart-attack at his chateau in France.

Andy Warhol, unlike the aforementioned artists, was an American painter born in 1928 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is most recognized for his Campbell's Soup Can, Superman and Marilyn Monroe paintings.

Warhol studies at the Carnegie Institute of Technology, and later got a job in New York City as an artist working for magazine illustrations.

Warhol created a name for himself by drawing simple everyday items with bright colors, known as Pop Art.

When he passed away in 1987 he was already famous.