53 Biographical films about painters

100 Minutes of Glory is a 2004 Croatian biographical drama film directed by Dalibor Matanić.

The Adventures of Picasso is a 1978 Swedish surrealist comedy film directed by Tage Danielsson, starring Gösta Ekman, as the famous painter. The film had the tag-line Tusen kärleksfulla lögner av Hans Alfredson och Tage Danielsson. At the 14th Guldbagge Awards the film won the award for Best Film.

Afterimage is a 2016 Polish drama film directed by Andrzej Wajda. It was screened in the Masters section at the 2016 Toronto International Film Festival. It was selected as the Polish entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards but it was not nominated. It was the Opening film at Indian Film Festival. It is the final film by Wajda who died in October 2016.

The Agony and the Ecstasy is a 1965 American film directed by Carol Reed and starring Charlton Heston as Michelangelo and Rex Harrison as Pope Julius II. The film was partly based on Irving Stone's 1961 biographical novel The Agony and the Ecstasy. This film deals with the conflicts of Michelangelo and Pope Julius II during the painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. It also features a soundtrack co-written by prolific composers Alex North and Jerry Goldsmith.

Andrei Rublev is a 1966 Soviet biographical historical drama film directed by Andrei Tarkovsky and co-written with Andrei Konchalovsky. The film was remade and re-edited from the 1966 film titled The Passion According to Andrei by Tarkovsky which was censored during the first decade of the Brezhnev era in the Soviet Union. The film is loosely based on the life of Andrei Rublev, the 15th-century Russian icon painter. The film features Anatoly Solonitsyn, Nikolai Grinko, Ivan Lapikov, Nikolai Sergeyev, Nikolai Burlyayev and Tarkovsky's wife Irma Raush. Savva Yamshchikov, a famous Russian restorer and art historian, was a scientific consultant of the film.

Artemisia is a 1997 French-German-Italian biographical film about Artemisia Gentileschi, the female Italian Baroque painter. The film was directed by Agnès Merlet, and stars Valentina Cervi and Michel Serrault.

Basquiat is a 1996 American biographical drama film directed, co-written and co-composed by Julian Schnabel in his feature directorial debut. The film is based on the life of American postmodernist/neo expressionist artist Jean-Michel Basquiat. Basquiat, born in Brooklyn, used his graffiti roots as a foundation to create collage-style paintings on canvas.

Big Eyes is a 2014 American biographical comedy-drama film directed by Tim Burton, written by Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski and starring Amy Adams and Christoph Waltz. The film is about the life of American artist Margaret Keane—famous for painting and drawing portraits of people with big eyes. It follows the story of Margaret and her husband, Walter Keane, who took credit for Margaret's phenomenally successful and popular paintings in the 1950s and 1960s. It follows the lawsuit and trial between Margaret and Walter, after Margaret reveals she is the true artist behind the paintings.

Caravaggio is a 2007 Italian television movie directed by Angelo Longoni. The film is based on real life events of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.

Caravaggio is a 1986 British historical drama film directed by Derek Jarman. The film is a fictionalised re-telling of the life of Baroque painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. It is the film debut of Tilda Swinton and Sean Bean.

Carrington is a 1995 British biographical film written and directed by Christopher Hampton about the life of the English painter Dora Carrington (1893–1932), who was known simply as "Carrington". The screenplay is based on Lytton Strachey: A Critical Biography, the 1967-68 two-volume biography of writer and critic Lytton Strachey (1880–1932) by Michael Holroyd.

Cézanne and I is a 2016 French biographical drama film based on the friendship between 19th century novelist Émile Zola and painter Paul Cézanne. The film was written and directed by Danièle Thompson; it stars Guillaume Canet, Guillaume Gallienne, Alice Pol, Déborah François and Sabine Azéma. It was named as one of four films on the shortlist for the French submission for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film at the 89th Academy Awards.

Chi-hwa-seon or Chwi-hwa-seon,, is a 2002 South Korean drama film directed by Im Kwon-taek about Jang Seung-eop, a nineteenth-century Korean painter who changed the direction of Korean art.

Thomas Kinkade’s Christmas Cottage is one 2008 Christmas biopic directed by Michael Campus. It stars Jared Padalecki, as painter Thomas Kinkade, and features Peter O'Toole, Marcia Gay Harden, and Aaron Ashmore. The film, was originally intended, for having the theatrical release, in November 2007, but due to final edits and music rights, it was delayed until November 2008.

The Danish Girl is a 2015 biographical romantic drama film directed by Tom Hooper, based on the 2000 novel of the same name by David Ebershoff, and loosely inspired by the lives of Danish painters Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. The film stars Eddie Redmayne as Elbe, one of the first known recipients of sex reassignment surgery, Alicia Vikander as Wegener, and Sebastian Koch as Kurt Warnekros, with Ben Whishaw, Amber Heard, and Matthias Schoenaerts in supporting roles.

Dante's Inferno: The Private Life of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Poet and Painter (1967) is a feature-length 35mm film directed by Ken Russell and first screened on the BBC on 22 December 1967 as part of Omnibus. It quickly became a staple in cinemas in retrospectives of Russell's work. Using nonlinear narrative technique, it tells of the relationship between the 19th-century artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his model, Elizabeth Siddal.

The Death of Salvador Dalí is a 2005 American fantasy short film written and directed by Delaney Bishop. The plot concerns Salvador Dalí consulting Sigmund Freud on how to depict madness in his artwork.

Edvard Munch is a 1974 biographical film about the Norwegian Expressionist painter Edvard Munch, written and directed by English filmmaker Peter Watkins. It was originally created as a three-part miniseries co-produced by the Norwegian and Swedish state television networks NRK and SVT, but subsequently gained an American theatrical release in a three-hour version in 1976. The film covers about thirty years of Munch's life, focusing on the influences that shaped his art, particularly the prevalence of disease and death in his family and his youthful affair with a married woman. The film was screened at the 1976 Cannes Film Festival, but wasn't entered into the main competition.

Egon Schiele: Death and the Maiden is a 2016 Austrian / Luxembourgish biographical film directed by Dieter Berner.

Final Portrait is a 2017 British-American drama film written and directed by Stanley Tucci. The film stars Geoffrey Rush, Armie Hammer, Clémence Poésy, Tony Shalhoub, James Faulkner and Sylvie Testud.

La Fornarina is a 1944 Italian historical drama film directed by Enrico Guazzoni and starring Lída Baarová. It is loosely based on real life events of Raphael's model Margarita Luti.

Frida is a 2002 American biographical drama film directed by Julie Taymor which depicts the professional and private life of the surrealist Mexican artist Frida Kahlo.

Georgia O'Keeffe is a 2009 American television biographical film, produced by City Entertainment in association with Sony Television, about noted American painter Georgia O'Keeffe and her husband, photographer Alfred Stieglitz. The film was directed by Bob Balaban, executive-produced by Joshua D. Maurer, Alixandre Witlin and Joan Allen, and line-produced by Tony Mark. Shown on Lifetime Television, it starred Joan Allen and Jeremy Irons in lead roles.

Girl with a Pearl Earring is a 2003 drama film directed by Peter Webber. The screenplay was adapted by screenwriter Olivia Hetreed from the 1999 novel of the same name by Tracy Chevalier. Scarlett Johansson stars as Griet, a young 17th-century servant in the household of the Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer at the time he painted Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665) in the city of Delft in Holland. Other cast members include Tom Wilkinson, Cillian Murphy, and Judy Parfitt.

Goya en Burdeos is a 1999 Spanish historical drama film written and directed by Carlos Saura about the life of Francisco de Goya, the influential 19th-century Spanish painter.

Goya or the Hard Way to Enlightenment is a 1971 East German drama film directed by Konrad Wolf. It was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival where it won a Special Prize. It is based on a novel with the same title by Lion Feuchtwanger.

El Greco is a 1966 Italian drama film and biography of the master painter El Greco directed by Luciano Salce and starring Mel Ferrer and Rosanna Schiaffino.

El Greco is a Greek biographical film about the life of the Greek painter of the Spanish Renaissance, Domenicos Theotokopoulos, known worldwide as El Greco. Based on the fictionalized biographical novel, El Greco: o Zografos tou Theou, by Dimitris Siatopoulos, it was released in 2007, directed by Yannis Smaragdis and written by Jackie Pavlenko. The main cast features prominent contemporary Greek actors like Lakis Lazopoulos, Dimitra Matsouka and Dina Konsta, and includes popular actors of the Greek cinema of the 1960s such as Sotiris Moustakas and Katerina Helmi, who, along with Juan Diego Botto, Laia Marull and others, surround the leading actor, Nick Ashdon, who portrays El Greco.

Hidden Away is a 2020 Italian biographical drama film co-written, directed and co-edited by Giorgio Diritti. It stars Elio Germano as Italian painter Antonio Ligabue, who lived a notoriously reclusive life, troubled with physical problems and mental illness.

Klimt is a 2006 Austrian art-house biographical film about the life of the Austrian Symbolist painter Gustav Klimt (1862–1918). It was written and directed by Chilean filmmaker Raúl Ruiz, with an English screenplay adaptation by Gilbert Adair. The director of photography was Ricardo Aronovich, and the music was composed by Jorge Arriagada. The title role was played by John Malkovich and the cast included Stephen Dillane. Both a 130-minute-long director's cut and a shortened producer's cut of 96 minutes were shown at the 2006 Berlin Film Festival. A few months later the film was shown at the 28th Moscow International Film Festival where it was nominated for two awards, winning the Russian Film Clubs Federation Award.

Ligabue is a 1978 Italian biographical drama film directed by Salvatore Nocita. It depicts real life events of painter Antonio Ligabue. For this film Nocita was awarded Nastro d'Argento for Best New Director, while Flavio Bucci won the Nastro d'Argento for Best Actor.

Little Ashes is a 2008 Spanish-British drama film set against the backdrop of Spain during the 1920s and 1930s, as three of the era's most creative young talents meet at university and set off on a course to change their world. Luis Buñuel watches helplessly as the friendship between surrealist painter Salvador Dalí and the poet Federico García Lorca develops into a love affair.

Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon is a 1998 film made for television by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). It was written and directed by John Maybury and stars Derek Jacobi, Daniel Craig and Tilda Swinton.

Maudie is a 2016 biographical drama film directed by Aisling Walsh and starring Sally Hawkins and Ethan Hawke. A co-production of Ireland and Canada, the film is about the life of folk artist Maud Lewis, who painted in Nova Scotia. In the story, Maud (Hawkins) struggles with arthritis, memory of a lost child, and a family that doubts her ability, before moving in with a surly fish peddler (Hawke) as a housekeeper. Despite their differing personalities, they marry as her art gains in popularity. The film was shot in Newfoundland and Labrador, requiring a re-creation of Lewis's famously small house.

The Mill and the Cross is a 2011 drama film directed by Lech Majewski and starring Rutger Hauer, Charlotte Rampling and Michael York. It is inspired by Pieter Bruegel the Elder's 1564 painting The Procession to Calvary, and based on Michael Francis Gibson's book The Mill and the Cross. The film was a Polish-Swedish co-production. Filming on the project wrapped in August 2009. It premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 23, 2011.

Modigliani is a 2004 drama biographical film written and directed by Mick Davis and starring Andy García, Elsa Zylberstein, Omid Djalili, Hippolyte Girardot, Eva Herzigova and Udo Kier. It is based on the life of the Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani.

Montparnasse 19 is a 1958 French-Italian drama film directed and co-written by Jacques Becker, partially based on the last years of the life of Italian artist Amedeo Modigliani, who worked and died in abject poverty in the Montparnasse area of Paris. Some of his most famous paintings done then were of his last two lovers, Beatrice Hastings and Jeanne Hébuterne.

Moulin Rouge is a 1952 British drama film directed by John Huston, produced by John and James Woolf for their Romulus Films company and released by United Artists. The film is set in Paris in the late 19th century, following artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec in the city's bohemian subculture in and around the burlesque palace the Moulin Rouge. The screenplay is by Huston, based on the 1950 novel by Pierre La Mure. The cinematography was by Oswald Morris. This film was screened at the 14th Venice International Film Festival where it won the Silver Lion.

Mr. Turner is a 2014 biographical drama film based on the last 25 years of the life of artist J. M. W. Turner (1775–1851). Written and directed by Mike Leigh, the film stars Timothy Spall in the title role, with Dorothy Atkinson, Paul Jesson, Marion Bailey, Lesley Manville, and Martin Savage. It premiered in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, where Spall won the award for Best Actor and Dick Pope received a special jury prize for the film's cinematography.

Mrs Lowry & Son is a biographical drama film set in Pendlebury Greater Manchester, chronicling the life of the renowned artist L. S. Lowry. It was directed by Adrian Noble from a screenplay written by Martyn Hesford who also wrote the original play, and considers the relationship between Lowry and his mother Elizabeth, who has reservations over her son's career in painting. It stars Vanessa Redgrave and Timothy Spall in the title roles, with Stephen Lord, David Schaal and Wendy Morgan in supporting roles.

My Left Foot: The Story of Christy Brown, also known simply as My Left Foot, is a 1989 biographical comedy-drama film directed by Jim Sheridan adapted by Sheridan and Shane Connaughton from the 1954 memoir of the same name by Christy Brown. Its stars Daniel Day-Lewis, Brenda Fricker, Ray McAnally, Hugh O'Conor, Fiona Shaw, and Cyril Cusack. The film tells the story of Brown, an Irish man born with cerebral palsy, who could control only his left foot. Brown grew up in a poor working-class family, and became a writer and artist.

Nainsukh is a 2010 film directed by Amit Dutta based on the life and works of Nainsukh, an 18th-century Indian miniature painter. The film contains meticulous recreations of Nainsukh's paintings through compositions set amidst the ruins and environs of Jasrota palace. where the artist was retained.

The Naked Maja is a 1958 Italian-French-American co-production made by S.G.C., Titanus Films, and United Artists. This historical film recounting of the romance between the painter Francisco Goya and the Duchess of Alba was directed by Henry Koster, and produced by Silvio Clementelli and Goffredo Lombardo. The screenplay was by Norman Corwin, Giorgio Prosperi and Albert Lewin based on a story by Oscar Saul and Talbot Jennings. The music score was by Angelo Lavagnino and the cinematography by Giuseppe Rotunno.

Paradise Found is a 2003 biographical film based on the life of Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin. Starring Kiefer Sutherland as the title character, alongside Nastassja Kinski and Alun Armstrong.

The Passion of Marie is a 2012 biographical drama film directed by Bille August, starring Birgitte Hjort Sørensen and Søren Sætter-Lassen. The film's Danish working title, Balladen om Marie, means The Ballad of Marie. It tells the story of the stormy relationship between Marie Krøyer and Peder Severin Krøyer, two of the Skagen Painters, in the late 19th century.

Paula is a 2016 German biographical film directed by Christian Schwochow. The film depicts pioneering female painter Paula Modersohn-Becker.

Pollock is a 2000 American biographical film that tells the life story of American painter Jackson Pollock. It stars Ed Harris, Marcia Gay Harden, Jennifer Connelly, Robert Knott, Bud Cort, Molly Regan and Sada Thompson, and was directed by Harris.

Portrait of a Beauty is a 2008 South Korean film directed by Jeon Yun-su. Adapted from the bestselling novel Painter of the Wind by Lee Jung-myung, the film portrays Joseon-era painter Shin Yun-bok as being a woman disguised as a man.

Renoir is a 2012 French drama film based on the last years of Pierre-Auguste Renoir at Cagnes-sur-Mer during World War I. The film was directed by Gilles Bourdos and competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival. The film is set in the south of France during World War I and stars Michel Bouquet, Christa Theret, Thomas Doret and Vincent Rottiers. Renoir achieved critical and commercial success both in France and abroad, most notably in the United States where it is on the Critic's Pick list of The New York Times. The film was selected as the French entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 86th Academy Awards, but was not nominated. In January 2014, the film received four nominations at the 39th César Awards, winning for Best Costume Design.

Séraphine is a 2008 French-Belgian film directed by Martin Provost and written by Marc Abdelnour and Provost. It stars Yolande Moreau as the French painter Séraphine Louis and Ulrich Tukur as Wilhelm Uhde. It won the 2009 César Award for Best Film.

The Strait Story (南方紀事之浮世光影) is a 2005 Taiwanese film directed by Huang Yu-shan.

Surviving Picasso is a 1996 Merchant Ivory film directed by James Ivory and starring Anthony Hopkins as the famous painter Pablo Picasso. It was produced by Ismail Merchant and David L. Wolper. Ruth Prawer Jhabvala's screenplay was loosely based on the biography Picasso: Creator and Destroyer by Arianna Stassinopoulos Huffington.

The Wolf at the Door is a 1986 Danish-French biographical drama film written and directed by Henning Carlsen. It is based on real life events of French artist Paul Gauguin, who was married to a Danish woman and lived in Copenhagen in the 1880s.