Top 10 paint­ings facts

Paul Cézanne. The Card Players is a series of five oil paintings by Paul Cézanne. One version of The Card Players was sold in 2011 to the Royal Family of Qatar for a price variously estimated at between $250 million and $300 million, making it (then) the most expensive work of art ever sold.

Rembrandt painted about 100 self-portraits, and among these 20 were drawings. He started in 1627 as a juvenile, and ended in 1669.

Her mysterious smile. Mona Lisa is famous for an optical illusion aka 'the mysterious smile'. The illusion is caused due to peripheral vision as the focus of the viewer shifts from the eyes of the portrait to the lips of the portrait.

Jackson Pollock. No. 5, 1948 is a painting by Jackson Pollock, which was sold for $140M in 2006, making it (then) the most expensive piece of art ever sold. In 1949, right after the painting was sold by Pollock to Alfonso Ossorio, the painting became damaged during the moving process. Pollock patched the painting before it went to Ossorio saying “He’ll never know, never know”.

Cassius Marcellus Coolidge. Dogs Playing Poker, by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge, refers collectively to an 1894 painting, a 1903 series of sixteen oil paintings commissioned by Brown & Bigelow to advertise cigars, and a 1910 painting. All eighteen paintings in the overall series feature anthropomorphized dogs, but the eleven in which dogs are seated around a card table have become well known in the United States as examples of kitsch art in home decoration.

Jan van Eyck. The painting is rich in symbolism. The mirror in the centre of the painting reveals numerous interesting details: in the reflection the table is empty, and the two figures are not holding their hands anymore.

She has no eyebrows. Shaved eyebrows were considered very fashionable at that time in Florence.

Paul Cézanne. Beautiful still life with peaches, pears and vases. This is a very elegant and the same time bright composition has amazing combination of colors, light, shadow and reflection on the wall. Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th century conception of artistic endeavour to a new and radically different world of art in the 20th century.

Caravaggio. Boy with a Basket of Fruit, c.1593, is a painting generally ascribed to Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, currently in the Galleria Borghese, Rome. The painting dates from the time when Caravaggio, newly arrived in Rome from his native Milan, was making his way in the competitive Roman art world. The model was his friend and companion, the Sicilian painter Mario Minniti, at about 16 years old.

To Rome. The Creation of Adam is a fresco painting by Michelangelo, forming part of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. The image of the near-touching hands of God and Adam has become iconic of humanity.