'Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog' is an iconic romantic artwork

Friedrich's paintings embody the romantic notion of 'the sublime'

Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich’s art uses vast, massive scale and masterful compositions to convey complex ideas of power, decay, permanence, and more. But his landscapes also present beautiful, overwhelming portraits of nature that perfectly embody philosopher Edmund Burke’s concept of “the sublime.”

Friedrich's perspective draws in viewers

Friedrich produced several works, including "Wanderer," portraying figures with their back to the viewer. The effect—called Rückenfigur, or ”figure from the back”—can create complex emotions of longing, immersion, or awe.

'Waiting for Godot' was inspired by a Friedrich painting

Samuel Beckett was an admirer of art and, while touring German art galleries in 1937, saw Caspar David Friedrich’s Two Men Contemplating the Moon. A directorial notebook for the original production of “Waiting for Godot” notes that the end of the play’s first act was inspired by the 19th-century work.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

JMW Turner inspired the impressionists

JMW Turner was a prominent member of the Romantic movement, known for his expressive, colorful, and threatening paintings of coastal and marine scenes. Later in his career, he pushed his style to more intense colors and abstract forms, inspiring and preceding the abstract art movements, like Impressionism.

How Monet’s paintings changed the way we see London

Between 1899 and 1901, legendary French Impressionist painter Claude Monet produced over 100 paintings of London consistently shrouded in fog. Art historians claim this series left a permanent mark on how we perceive the capital city, inevitably layered in obscuring and dramatic mist. See some of the paintings and read more here.

Japanese artwork often incorporates bold colors, clean lines, and natural subjects

While Japanese art is diverse and continues to adopt new styles and techniques, the Japanese approach to painting nature inspired Georgia O’Keeffe, who was known for depicting the environment in a detailed yet realistic manner. Below is "The Great Wave off Kanagawa," from 1931, by Hokusai.

Vincent Van Gogh's 'The Starry Night' accurately depicts turbulent flow

Analysis of the swirling patterns in the painting found an alignment with the mathematics used to describe turbulence, despite Van Gogh's unfamiliarity with the science. The depiction may indicate he possessed an uncanny ability to capture nature's details.

Nine Shakespeare paintings by pre-Raphaelite John Everett Millais

In the 19th century, pre-Raphaelites like Millais sought to showcase life and nature honestly, using common references like the Bible, ordinary people and Shakespeare. Explore some of Millais' better known paintings inspired by the Bard here, including his world-renowned "Ophelia."

Georgia O'Keeffe's flower paintings are often assumed to be sexual, though the artist claimed she was simply interested in highlighting the beauty of flowers that most people neglect

Peter Brueghel's 'Hunters in the Snow' depicts winter beauty and hardship

The Dutch painter and printmaker is known for centering ordinary subjects at a time when protestant iconoclasts protested religious images and reduced the Church's role as an arts patron. The famous painting is often viewed as a cozy winter scene, but reveals the difficulties of harsh winters during the Little Ice Age in Europe.

Meteorologists believe they know the weather that inspired the terror behind Munch's painting 'The Scream'

Helene Muri, a meteorologist at the University of Oslo, believes the clouds causing the man such terror are nacreous. "We do know that there were mother-of-pearl clouds in the Oslo area in the late 19th century," she said, though she was careful to note that it was still a hypothesis.

A quote from Van Gogh

"Find things beautiful as much as you can, most people find too little beautiful."

'If there is poetry in my book about the sea, it is not because I deliberately put it there, but because no one could write truthfully about the sea and leave out the poetry.'

- Marine biologist and author Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

The early art of Dalí represents peak surrealism

When it debuted in New York in 1932, "The Persistence of Memory" captured international audiences with its absurd, dream-like reflection on time. In his later works, Dalí's work evolved and became more of a self-parody. This video breaks down the great Spanish artist's works.

Riveting artwork from the battlefields during World War I

During World War I, the United States government commissioned eight artists to accompany American Expeditionary Forces to Europe to sketch and document what they saw. Drawing tanks, soldiers, shattered villages, and even German prisoners of war, the artists preserved much of the war as a matter of historical record and to rally support back home.

'Some painters transform the sun into a yellow spot, others transform a yellow spot into the sun.'

- Legendary artist Picasso (1881–1973)

'Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone,' a work by American painter Thomas Moran, inspired Congress to establish Yellowstone National Park.

'All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost.'

- "The Lord of the Rings" author JRR Tolkien (1892-1973)

The 'overview effect' heightens one's sense of unity and connectedness

Coined by space philosopher Frank White in 1987, the term refers to the paradigm-shifting experience a person undergoes upon viewing Earth from space. Commercial spaceflights aim to bring this perspective to a broader audience, inspiring changes in behavior and worldview among participants.

One Mary Cassatt painting features a sly political message

Critics had long been puzzled by the unrealistic flower pinned to the woman's chest in the 1905 painting "Mother and Child." In exploring the painting's history, researcher Nikki Georgopulos discovered that the flower alluded to a women's suffrage badge popular at the time, something Cassatt emphasized in the painting's original title, "Woman With a Sunflower."

Explore our favorite visualization of the immense scale of space, from an astronaut to the size of the observable universe

The art of 'undiscovering' phantom islands

Centuries of maps include islands and isles that appear to only exist on atlases. This article explores the discovery and "undiscovery" of such landscapes, which still persist despite modern technology. As recently as 2012, Google Maps showed an...

An existentialist reading list

If you’re looking for a starting point for diving into existentialist thought, this is a great resource. Its titles are not exactly obscure—Albert Camus’ “The Stranger,” Franz Kafka’s “The Trial,” and Søren Kierkegaard’s “Either/Or” are among the most famous works in Western literature—but the list provides some digestible context for each text, which will help you decide the best place to begin your journey.

John Steinbeck's 'Sea of Cortez,' a travelogue through the Gulf of California, is still used by ecologists today.

Photographer catches stunning shot of an aurora over an Icelandic waterfall

Photographer Cari Letelier captured a stunning shot of the aurora borealis over the Godafoss waterfall in Iceland, a composite image pulled from nearly three dozen exposures. The aurora phenomenon is typically visible in Earth's northern latitudes...

Fallingwater is one of the world’s most famous houses

Fallingwater, a country house set atop a waterfall, is arguably Frank Lloyd Wright’s most celebrated work. Legend has it that the initial drawings of the house were hurriedly sketched in just three hours after Wright’s client surprised him with a phone call and announced he wanted to see the plan’s progress.

William HH Murray spurred American interest in rustic retreats

Murray's 1869 self-help book, "Adventures in the Wilderness; or, Camp-Life in the Adirondacks," encouraged urban residents to embrace outdoor activities, depicting upstate New York as an unsullied paradise free from the chaos of city life.

The Mona Lisa's celebrity status and repeated restorations have obscured what made the painting so revolutionary for its time

Before writing 'Walden,' transcendentalist Henry David Thoreau nearly burned down his hometown with a campfire that grew out of control.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

See these 16 pieces of art evoking phobias of snakes, flying, spiders, and more. 

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

In 1915, workers recovered a submarine-like vessel from the Chicago River, prompting fears of German espionage

Existentialist writer Jean-Paul Sartre coined the famous phrase 'Hell is—other people' in his play 'No Exit'

Walt Disney's early film 'Alice's Wonderland' was a groundbreaking innovation in the silent film era

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

All rainbows are 'raincircles' caused by water droplets separating white sunlight into a spectrum of colors, but Earth's surface blocks the bottom half of the circle from our line of sight.

Salvador Dalí believed he was his own dead brother, who had died nine months before he was born

American dance legend Martha Graham, sometimes called 'the Picasso of dance,' refused to perform at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and conceived the piece 'Chronicle' in response to the experience.

Famed poet TS Eliot rejected the manuscript for George Orwell's political fable 'Animal Farm,' writing that its criticism of authoritarianism was not 'the right point of view.'

Explore a list of the 100 best novels of all time, compiled by some of the world's best living writers, including Salman Rushdie, Stephen King, and Jennifer Egan.

Poison ivy was sent to Europe in the 1600s as an exotic, ornamental oddity, where it was purposefully grown in the English royal gardens at Kew, the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and a few other locations.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

Explore the archaeological treasures of Pompeii, the city buried under volcanic ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted in 79 CE.

Brian Wilson wrote the Beach Boys' 'Don't Worry Baby' for the Ronettes, but the legendary girl group rejected it.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth