Claude Monet

Painter · 1853 – 1890

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch Post-Impressionist painter whose intense color, expressive brushwork, and emotional depth made him one of the most influential artists in Western history, though he found little recognition in his own lifetime.

• The Starry Night
• Sunflowers

Why A Post-Impressionist who built on the color and light experiments Monet pioneered.

Painter · 1881 – 1973

Pablo Picasso was a Spanish painter and sculptor who co-founded Cubism and ranks among the most influential and prolific artists of the twentieth century, creating works such as Guernica and Les Demoiselles d'Avignon.

• Cubism
• Guernica

Why A later modernist whose break from tradition followed the path Impressionism opened.

Composer · 1840 – 1893

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was a Russian Romantic composer whose richly emotional music — including the ballets Swan Lake and The Nutcracker and the 1812 Overture — made him one of the most popular and widely performed composers in the world.

• Swan Lake
• The Nutcracker

Why A contemporary Romantic artist whose work, like Monet's, evoked mood and atmosphere.

Artist · 1452 – 1519

Leonardo da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath — painter, inventor, anatomist and engineer — whose curiosity and genius made him the archetype of the 'Renaissance man'.

• Mona Lisa
• The Last Supper

Why An earlier master of light and observation against whose tradition Impressionism reacted.

Painter · 1483 – 1520

Raphael was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance whose works, prized for their harmony and grace, include The School of Athens and a famous series of serene Madonnas.

• The School of Athens
• Sistine Madonna

Why Also a painter & artist · Comparable historical impact

Painter · 1606 – 1669

Rembrandt was a Dutch painter and etcher of the Golden Age, regarded as one of the greatest artists in history, celebrated for The Night Watch, his searching self-portraits, and his mastery of light and shadow.

• The Night Watch
• Self-portraits

Why Also a painter & artist · Comparable historical impact

Artist · 1475 – 1564

Michelangelo was an Italian Renaissance sculptor, painter and architect, one of the greatest artists in history, creator of the David, the Pietà and the Sistine Chapel ceiling.

• The David
• The Sistine Chapel ceiling

Why Also a artist & painter · Comparable historical impact

Mathematician · 1912 – 1954

Alan Turing was an English mathematician and computer scientist who founded theoretical computer science, helped break the German Enigma cipher in World War II, and pioneered the study of artificial intelligence.

• Turing machine
• Breaking the Enigma code

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Physicist · 1879 – 1955

Albert Einstein was a German-born theoretical physicist who developed the theory of relativity, one of the two pillars of modern physics, and won the 1921 Nobel Prize.

• Theory of relativity
• E=mc²

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Physicist · 1887 – 1961

Erwin Schrödinger was an Austrian physicist who formulated the wave equation governing quantum systems and devised the famous Schrödinger's cat thought experiment.

• Schrödinger equation
• Wave mechanics

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Composer · 1810 – 1849

Frédéric Chopin was a Polish-French Romantic composer and virtuoso pianist whose deeply expressive works for solo piano — nocturnes, études, polonaises and mazurkas — made him one of the most influential composers for the instrument.

• Nocturnes
• Études

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Philosopher · 1844 – 1900

Friedrich Nietzsche was a German philosopher whose radical critiques of morality, religion, and truth—including the proclamation that "God is dead" and the ideal of the Übermensch—made him one of the most influential and provocative thinkers of the modern era.

• "God is dead"
• The Übermensch

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Activist · 1869 – 1948

Mahatma Gandhi was the leader of India's independence movement, who pioneered the philosophy and practice of nonviolent civil disobedience and inspired movements for civil rights across the world.

• Leading Indian independence
• Nonviolent civil disobedience

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Physicist · 1867 – 1934

Marie Curie was a Polish-French physicist and chemist who pioneered research on radioactivity and became the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.

• Radioactivity research
• Discovery of polonium and radium

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Activist · 1929 – 1968

Martin Luther King Jr. was an American Baptist minister and civil rights leader who championed nonviolent resistance to racial injustice and became the most prominent voice of the movement for equality in the United States.

• I Have a Dream speech
• Civil rights leadership

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Physicist · 1858 – 1947

Max Planck was a German physicist who originated quantum theory by introducing the quantum of action, a discovery that launched modern physics and earned him the 1918 Nobel Prize.

• Quantum theory
• Planck's constant

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Statesman · 1918 – 2013

Nelson Mandela was a South African anti-apartheid revolutionary and statesman who, after 27 years in prison, became the country's first democratically elected president and a global symbol of reconciliation.

• Ending apartheid
• 27 years in prison

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Physicist · 1885 – 1962

Niels Bohr was a Danish physicist who created the first quantum model of the atom and became a leading architect of quantum mechanics through the Copenhagen interpretation.

• Bohr model of the atom
• Copenhagen interpretation

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Inventor · 1856 – 1943

Nikola Tesla was a Serbian-American inventor and electrical engineer whose pioneering work on alternating current and electromagnetism helped electrify the modern world.

• Alternating current (AC)
• The induction motor

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Chemist · 1920 – 1958

Rosalind Franklin was an English chemist and X-ray crystallographer whose images of DNA were crucial to discovering its double-helix structure, a contribution long under-recognized.

• X-ray image of DNA (Photo 51)
• DNA structure research

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Physicist · 1901 – 1976

Werner Heisenberg was a German physicist who founded matrix mechanics and formulated the uncertainty principle, two of the cornerstones of quantum mechanics.

• Uncertainty principle
• Matrix mechanics

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

President · 1809 – 1865

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, who led the nation through its Civil War, preserved the Union, and abolished slavery before his assassination in 1865.

• Leading the Union in the Civil War
• The Emancipation Proclamation

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Novelist · 1890 – 1976

Agatha Christie was an English writer, the best-selling novelist of all time, whose ingenious detective stories featuring Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple made her the undisputed "Queen of Crime".

• Hercule Poirot
• Miss Marple

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact

Writer · 1894 – 1963

Aldous Huxley was an English writer and philosopher whose dystopian novel Brave New World became one of the most influential warnings of the 20th century, imagining a future enslaved not by terror but by pleasure and conditioning.

• Brave New World
• The Doors of Perception

Why Active in the same era · Comparable historical impact