LINE

ARTWORKS THAT SHOW LINE

The list of types of line in art includes implied lines, diagonal lines, gesture lines, outlines, contour lines,
expressive lines, and more!

ARTWORKS THAT SHOW LINE, GENERAL

 Richard Long, A Line Made by Walking, 1967

 Richard Long, Cornish Slate Line, 1990
 Frank Stella, Jarama II, 1982
 Roy Lichtenstein, Brushstroke, 1965
 Charles Sheeler, Classic Landscape, 1931
 Joan Miró, The Farm, 1921–1922
 Rembrandt van Rijn, Two Studies Of A Bird Of Paradise, 1630
 John Singer Sargent, El Jaleo, 1882

HORIZONTAL AND VERTICAL LINES IN ART

 Stonehenge, ca. 2600-2000 B.C.E.

 Ancient Greece, The Parthenon, 447-438 B.C.E.
 Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater, 1936-7
 Piet Mondrian, Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow, 1937-42
 Byzantine, Justinian and his Attendants, Basilica di San Vitale, 547 C.E
DIAGONAL LINES IN ARTWORKS

 Edgar Degas, Blue Dancers, c. 1899

 Théodore Géricault, The Raft of the Medusa, 1819
 Gustave Caillebotte, Le Pont de L’Europe, 1881-1882
 Artemisia Gentileschi, Judith Slaying Holofernes, 1614–20
 Franz Marc, Fate of the Animals, 1913
 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Crucifixion of Saint Peter, 1600-1601
 Francisco Goya, The Forge, c. 1817
 Rembrandt van Rijn, Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans
Banninck Cocq, known as the ‘Night Watch’, 1642

CONTOUR LINES AND/OR OUTLINES

 Leonardo da Vinci, Self-Portrait, c. 1512

 Paul Signac, Still Life with Pitcher, 1919
 Carl Krull, Olmec Drawings and Scroll Drawings
 Yoruba artist, Shrine Head, 12th-14th century
 Andy Warhol, Red Lenin, 1987
 Amedeo Modigliani, Jacques and Berthe Lipchitz, 1916

GESTURE LINES, LINES THAT SHOW MOVEMENT

 Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767
 Emile Nolde, Dance Around the Golden Calf, 1910
 Utagawa Hiroshige, The Whirlpools of Awa: Naruto Rapids, ca. 1853
 Giacomo Balla, Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash (Leash in Motion), 1912
 Natalia Goncharova, The Cyclist, 1913
 Henri Matisse, Dance (I), 1909
 Marino Marini, Miracle (Miracolo), 1952
 Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The Rape of Proserpina, 1621-22
 Hellenistic Greek, Laocoön and His Sons, early first century C.E.
 Jacob Lawrence, Harriet Tubman Series, No. 4, 1939-40
 Keith Haring, Untitled, 1985

LINES THAT HELP GUIDE THE VIEWER’S EYE THROUGH

THE PICTURE AND/OR IMPLIED LINES

 Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus, 1482-85

 Marc Chagall, I and the Village, 1911
 Georges de La Tour, The Cheat with the Ace of Clubs, late 1620s
 Frederic Remington, Dash for the Timber, 1889
 Suzanne Caporael, Seeing Things: Rain, 1990
 Fernando Botero, The Musicians, 1991
 Grant Wood, Parson Weems’ Fable, 1939
LINES THAT SHOW FEELING/EMOTION, EXPRESSIVE
LINES

 Vincent van Gogh, the Starry Night, 1889

 Mark Di Suvero, Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore), 1967
 Jean-Michel Basquiat, Untitled, 1984
 Egon Schiele, Portrait of Paris von Gütersloh, 1918
 Odilon Redon, Death: “My irony surpasses all others!”, 1889
 Jackson Pollock, Lavender Mist No. 1, 1950
 Hellenistic Greek, Laocoön and His Sons, early first century C.E.

REPETITION OF LINE, PATTERN USING LINE,

DECORATIVE LINE

 Henri Matisse, Purple Robe and Anemones, 1937

 Berenice Abbott, El, Second and Third Avenue Lines from the portfolio Retrospective,
1982
 Aubrey Beardsley, The Peacock Skirt, 1893
 Albrecht Dürer, The Rhinoceros, 1515
 Benin, Memorial head, 1550-1650
 Richard Anuszkiewicz, Deep Magenta Square, 1978
LINES IN ARCHITECTURE

 Frank Lloyd Wright, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NYC

 Frank O. Gehry, Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao, Spain
 Stonehenge, ca. 2600-2000 B.C.E.
 Ancient Greece, The Parthenon, 447-438 B.C.E.
 Frank Lloyd Wright, Fallingwater, 1936-1937

LINES IN SCULPTURE

 Gianlorenzo Bernini, The Rape of Proserpina, 1621-22

 Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Apollo and Daphne, 1622-25
 Hellenistic Greek, Laocoön and His Sons, early first century C.E.
 Kenneth Snelson, Needle Tower, 1968
 Songye, Mask (kifwebe), 19th century AD
 Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The Rape of Proserpina, 1621-22
 Mark Di Suvero, Are Years What? (for Marianne Moore), 1967
 Benin, Memorial head, 1550-1650
 Yoruba artist, Shrine Head, 12th-14th century
 Marino Marini, Miracle (Miracolo), 1952

LINES THAT SHOW TEXT URE AND/OR SHADING

 Vincent van Gogh, Garden of Flowers, 1888
 Rembrandt Van Rijn, The Three Crosses, 1653
 Käthe Kollwitz, Self Portrait, 1921
LINES THAT SHOW SPACE AND/OR LINEAR
PERSPECTIVE
 Gustave Caillebotte, The Floor Scrapers, 1875
 Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper, 1498
 Pietro Perugino, Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter, 1481–1482
 Dorothea Lange, The Road West, 1938

LINES THE SHOW EMPHASIS

 Grant Wood, Parson Weems’ Fable, 1939
 Francisco Goya, Third of May, 1808
 Jonathan Borofsky, Walking to the Sky, 2004
 Leonardo da Vinci, The Last Supper, 1494-99
 Richard Anuszkiewicz, Deep Magenta Square, 1978
 Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Apollo and Daphne, 1622-25
 Rembrandt van Rijn, Militia Company of District II under the Command of Captain Frans
Banninck Cocq, known as the ‘Night Watch’, 1642

RESOURCES:

 National Gallery of Art, The Elements of Art: Line

 The Artist’s Toolkit: Visual Elements and Principles, Encyclopedia: Line