Ten Most Disturbing Paintings in Art History
A recent listicle showcases ten unsettling artworks, featuring Francisco de Goya's 'Saturn Devouring His Son' (c. 1820-1823) and Guillermo Lorca's 'The English Bed' (2010s). Other significant pieces include Salvador Dalí's 'The Face of War' (1940), Andrew Wyeth's 'Christina's World' (1948), Francis Bacon's 'Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X' (1953), Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' (1893), Frida Kahlo's 'Girl with Death Mask' (1938), Johann Heinrich Füssli's 'The Nightmare' (1781), Vincent van Gogh's 'Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette' (1886), and Zdzisław Beksiński's 'Untitled' (1975). Each artwork is examined for its disturbing elements, artistic techniques, and underlying themes.
Key facts
- Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son belongs to his Black Paintings series.
- Dalí painted The Face of War in 1940 during his European exile.
- Wyeth's Christina's World inspired a scene in Almodóvar's Parallel Mothers.
- Bacon created around fifty similar scenes to Study after Velázquez's Portrait of Pope Innocent X.
- Munch's The Scream was inspired by a sunset near Oslo.
- Kahlo's Girl with Death Mask is subtitled She Plays Alone.
- Füssli's The Nightmare is also known as The Incubus.
- Van Gogh's Skull of a Skeleton with Burning Cigarette satirizes anatomy studies at the Antwerp Academy.
- Beksiński's Untitled (1975) features a faceless arachnoid figure.
- Lorca's The English Bed was used as cover for Mariana Enríquez's book.
Entities
Artists
- Francisco de Goya
- Salvador Dalí
- Andrew Wyeth
- Francis Bacon
- Edvard Munch
- Frida Kahlo
- Johann Heinrich Füssli
- Vincent van Gogh
- Zdzisław Beksiński
- Guillermo Lorca
- Diego Velázquez
- Pedro Almodóvar
- Anna Christina Olson
- Mariana Enríquez
Institutions
- Antwerp Academy of Fine Arts
Locations
- Fuendetodos
- Spain
- Oslo
- Norway
- Maine
- United States
- Mexico
- Chile
- Argentina
- Antwerp
- Belgium