Art might be hundreds of years old, but sometimes it feels surprisingly modern. From paintings that look like movie stills to portraits that could easily pass as memes today, people online have been sharing artworks that seem way ahead of their time. And honestly, some of them might just make you do a double take.
A recent Reddit thread on r/ArtHistory invited people to share old paintings that feel modern or ahead of their time. It didn’t take long for the discussion to go viral, with history and art enthusiasts flooding the comments with mind-blowing examples from different centuries. Some of these pieces really make you feel like you’re looking at something created today.
You might be surprised too, so don’t waste any more time – scroll down to check out some of the most fascinating finds from the thread we picked just for you.
#1 The Ambassadors By Hans Holbein The Younger, 1533
Namely for the skull.
Image source: anglostura
#2 “Portrait Of Mr Moyes, M.d.” By John Russell, 1792
I’m obsessed with this painting I saw at a gallery in Hull, UK.
Image source: reddit.com
#3 “Family And Rainstorm” By Alex Colville, 1955
This was made in 1955! A lot of his work looks like early computer graphics, like this one does.
Image source: lambsinthenight
#4 “Dog And Bridge” By Alex Colville, 1976
Alex Colville painted this in 1976, but it looks like a low-poly PS1 game render.
Image source: anacardier
#5 “The Ugly Duchess” By Quentin Matsys, 1513
Image source: __G_G__
#6 “Portrait Of Vsevolod Garshin” By Ilia Repin, 1884
Image source: reddit.com
#7 “Nathaniel Olds” By Jeptha Homer Wade, 1837
Image source: sonnysehra
#8 “There, Motion Has Not Yet Ceased” By Yves Tanguy, 1945
Image source: anacardier
#9 “Girl With The Bent Knee” By Egon Schiele, 1917
She looks like she just came back from the gym.
Image source: Scoginsbitch
#10 “In A Roman Osteria” By Carl Bloch, 1866
Image source: Ok-Tonight-806
#11 “Horse And Train” By Alex Colville, 1954
Alex Colville is one of my favourites – most of his work has an uncanny photo-realism feel to it, almost like it’s a digital painting or something, even though most of his work was done in the mid-20th century, well before digital images. I’m not experienced with talking about art, so I hope that makes sense. Here is one of his most famous works, ‘Horse and Train’ from 1954. Considered to be one of the most recognizable pieces of Canadian art.
Image source: jrose125
#12 “Self-Portrait” By Otto Dix, 1912
Image source: saturninesorbet
#13 “Marcella” By Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, 1910
Image source: tzara77
#14 “Allegorical Painting Of Two Ladies, English School,” A Rare 17th-Century Artwork From Around 1650-1655
1655, artist unknown. Two women wearing fun shaped beauty patches, very similar to the pimple patches worn today. The patches were meant to cover blemishes and scars.
Image source: Korsorer
#15 “Resting Chimney Sweep” By Pyke Koch, 1936
Image source: Meatyhelicopter
#16 Frantisek Kupka, The Yellow Scale, 1907
Image source: RomaniRye
#17 “Portrait Of Guillaume Apollinaire” By Giorgio De Chirico, 1914
He would become the main inspiration for Magritte’s early works
Image source: MijanHRD
#18 The Artwork Of Mary Blair Done In The 1940s And ’50s For Disney Feels So Contemporary
Image source: Total_Succotash2478
#19 “Portrait Of Gunhild Gude” By Marie Gratz, 1877
Something about her face felt so modern to me that I saved this photo to my phone. How serendipitous to see this post!
Image source: cloudpulp
#20 “Le Docteur François-Olivier Boucher” By Roy-Audy, Jean-Baptiste, 1826-1831
Image source: reddit.com
#21 “The Swimming Race” By Alex Colville, 1958
Image source: wormglow
#22 “Self-Portrait In A Convex Mirror” By Parmigianino, Painted Around 1524
I don’t know much about art history, but this one always struck me as too modern (Parmigianino’s “Self Portrait in a Convex Mirror”).
Image source: motheroflittleneb
#23 A Drawing By Onfim, A Seven-Year-Old Boy Who Lived In The City Of Novgorod, Russia, In The Mid-13th Century (C. 1240–1260)
These are drawings rather than paintings, but they’re from the 13th century by a 7-year-old boy named Onfim and look very similar to the drawings kids make today. I don’t think that’s necessarily surprising, but they’re amazing little artifacts that pierce the veil of time and let us see something that feels really human in just how mundane they are. Kids’ drawings are so disposable, it’s wild to see any preserved. And moreover, to recognize 900-year-old doodles as familiar feels incredible to me. I can imagine this kid being so proud of his drawings, showing his family, friends, and neighbors on some regular afternoon in a world so different from ours.
Image source: huxtiblejones
#24 “Siegfried” By Thomas Theodor Heine, 1921
Image source: Commercial_Hold_9434
#25 “Young Hare (Feldhase)” By Albrecht Dürer, 1502
Dürer’s “Hare” has always looked extremly 18-19th century to me, like Rosa Bonheur’s or George Stubbs’ works, for instance, but no, as you can very much see on the painting, it is actually from the Renaissance.
Image source: Skeledenn
#26 The Fayum Portraits From The 1st Century BC Egypt
They were attached to the mummies of the people depicted. EDIT: What I like best is that these weren’t post-death portraits; many of the mummies died in old age, and the portraits are all of younger people. These were likely the family portraits they had when younger, like for marriage / a special ceremony. I like that these were how people chose to remember them and grieve. Maybe these portraits being entombed with their subjects was part of that process.
Image source: reddit.com
#27 “Water” By Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1566
Image source: wormglow
#28 “A Study Of A Head (Saint Ambrose)” By Peter Paul Rubens, Painted Around 1618
This post got me looking into other studies done by Rubens, and several of them look like modern everyday people. For example, this man just looks like some guy trying not to fall asleep while waiting for his number to be called at the DMV.
Image source: strawb9
#29 “The Goldfinch” By Carel Fabritius, 1654
Image source: Comprehensive_Tea577
#30 “At The Dressing Table” By Zinaida Serebriakova, 1908
Image source: Ocefeur
#31 “A Young Breton” By Glyn Warren Philpot, 1917
Image source: sonnysehra
#32 “Four Studies Of The Head Of A Moor” By Peter Paul Rubens, Painted Between 1614 And 1616
Image source: sonnysehra
#33 “The Woman With The Parrot” By Angelo Jank, 1898
Image source: sonnysehra
#34 “Smiling Girl, A Courtesan, Holding An Obscene Image” By Gerard Van Honthorst, 1625
This is a painting of a young woman pointing to a smaller painting of a butt and giggling. Apparently we’ve always been juvenile.
Image source: admiralsponge1980
#35 This Piece Of Paleoart By William D. Berry Made Around The 60s
This painting was made in a time in which we still thought about dinosaurs as slow, dumb animals that dragged their tails on the ground btw.
Image source: Significant-Spot2596
#36 “Summer” By Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1572
Image source: NineteenthJester
#37 Nice Little Japanese Cat, 19th Century
Image source: hdufort
#38 “Mother” By Joaquin Sorolla, 1895
Image source: cliptemnestra
#39 “The Head Of A Youth,” Attributed To The Bolognese Artist Pietro Faccini, 1590
I saw this in an exhibition recently and it blew me away. Looks so contemporary but it’s Renaissance. Attributed to Pietro Faccini, The head of a youth, c.1590. Royal Collection Trust.
Image source: RhubarbandCustard12
#40 “Hunters In The Snow” By Peter Bruegel The Elder, 1565
Image source: sphinxyhiggins
#41 “Portrait Of The Journalist Sylvia Von Harden” By Otto Dix, 1926
Image source: droopsofwoe
#42 “Portrait Of Bianca Degli Utili Maselli And Her Children” By Lavinia Fontana, Painted Around 1604–1605
“Portrait of Bianca degli Utili Maselli and Her Children” by Lavinia Fontana, circa 1604-5. It looks like a modern-day children’s book cover or illustration to me; kinda Brett Helquist-y
Image source: reddit.com
#43 “The Great Red Dragon And The Woman Clothed In Sun,” CA. 1803–1805
Image source: Comprehensive_Tea577
#44 “The Ancient Of Days” By William Blake, 1794
Anything by William Blake. All of it looks like it should be from the 20th century. This is from 1794, somehow.
Image source: Shoddy_Blacksmith480
#45 “View Of Toledo” By El Greco, Created Around 1599–1600
Yeah, it’s quite insane how modern it feels.
Image source: Comprehensive_Tea577
#46 “The Little Street” By Johannes Vermeer, 1658
The way Vermeer rendered the buildings in ‘The Little Street’ always made me feel like it’s some real place that exists right now, not 1657. Like one of the many little streets you can still find in European towns today.
Image source: kehal12
#47 “Three Children With Dog” By Anna Maria Anguissola, 1580
Anguissola’s sibling painting. Late 16th century. Besides their clothes, this looks so contemporary, and I don’t really know why.
Image source: aliummilk
#48 “Self-Portrait (Inn Of The Dawn Horse),” A Surrealist Painting By Leonora Carrington, Executed Between 1937 And 1938
Image source: reddit.com
#49 “Daruma (Bodhidharma)” By Kawanabe KYösai (1831-1889), Japan, Meiji Period, 1888
When I saw this in the LA Museum of Art, I could not stop admiring it. And then I read the description: 1888!
Image source: EffectiveResponse496
#50 “Nemesis” By William Kurelek, 1965
Image source: Old_Entrepreneur9439
#51 “Vivo, Aut Non Vivo” By Natalie Mei, 1918
Image source: BishonenPrincess
#52 “Ahasuerus At The End Of The World” By Adolf Hirémy-Hirschl, 1888
Image source: morbid_rabbit
#53 “Still Life With Peaches And A Glass Jar” From The 1st Century CE
1st century CE. The very first time I saw this fresco from Pompeii in a book when I was a kid, three main things impressed me: 1- there were realistic paintings in the remote time when “Jesus was on earth”, 2- there were still life paintings in that time, and 3- there were glass utensils, and they were represented in art! Plus, the colours and composition looked quite modern to my child eyes. Something similar to Cezanne, but even in his famous paintings combining peaches + pitchers, the pitchers used to be depicted as clay jars (something we used to associate more with Christ period).
Image source: Renato19702019
#54 “The Torment Of Saint Anthony” By Michelangelo, 1487
“The Torment of Saint Anthony” by Michelangelo in 1487 (when he was 12 years old, apparently!). I saw this a few months ago and thought the monsters looked like they could be from some Dungeons and Dragons quest book from the early ’80s or something.
Image source: nbc0326
#55 “Aerostatic Cabriolet Of Tomorrow” By Harry Grant Dart, 1908
Image source: Comprehensive_Tea577
#56 A Caricature From A 1780 Japanese Art Book Titled “Ehon Mizu Ya Sora”
‘Ehon mizu ya sora’ (“Picture Book of Water and Sky”), published in 1780 and illustrated by the Osaka artist known as Nichōsai. The book caricatures famous kabuki actors from Osaka, Kyoto, and Edo (Tokyo), depicting them on stage in a minimalist and humorous manner exemplary of the ‘toba-e’ style.
Image source: chris_alf
#57 Fra Angelico’s “Christ Crowned With Thorns” Looks Like A Weird Metal Album Cover From The ’70s But It’s From 1420
Image source: godzillainaneckbrace
#58 “The Jester” By Marx Reichlich, 1519–1520
This guy from c. 1520 (Marx Reichlich). He looks like David from my high school Spanish class.
Image source: reddit.com
#59 Portrait Of Bernardo De Galvez, Circa 1790
Image source: themehboat
#60 “Self-Portrait” By Johannes Gumpp, 1646
Johannes Gumpp’s self-portrait from 1646 just seemed like such a meta piece for its time.
Image source: baesoonist
#61 “Adrienne” By Amedeo Modigliani, Created Around 1909
Modigliani. This is from 1909. Looks like something from the 1980s to me.
Image source: bigscientist
#62 “The Demon Seated” By Mikhail Vrubel, 1890
Image source: HRH_MQ
#63 “Virgin Annunciate” By Antonello Da Messina, Created Around 1475
Image source: Uno_zanni
#64 “Ramon Casas On A Bicycle” By Santiago Rusiñol, 1889
Image source: Spooky_Donkey
#65 “Interior” By Edwin Dickinson, 1916
Image source: Whyte_Dynamyte
#66 “The Annunciation” By Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1898
I find that a lot of Henry Ossawa Tanner’s works read like this to me (here ‘The Annunciation’ (1898) at the Philadelphia Museum of Art). His religious scenes often depict non-traditional relationships between the human and divine. In ‘The Annunciation,’ Gabriel is a bolt of light rather than a fully formed angel. His ‘Mary’ and ‘La Sainte Marie’ also seem very modern. As a Philadelphian, it always makes me proud to think of Tanner and see his works in collections worldwide. Unfortunately, he left Philly for Paris due to antebellum racism, but became the first black artist to medal at the Salon and was elected Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1923!
Image source: catullusallust
#67 “Self-Portrait As A Nude” By Albrecht Dürer, 1500
Okay, it’s Dürer, but his radical approach to painting his own nude body is what makes him modern. To me, it has a lot of expressionistic vibes.
Image source: Call_me_Maurice71
#68 “Portrait Of A Youth” By Sandro Botticelli, Painted Around 1482-1485
Image source: Western-Special6416
#69 “Group IV, The Ten Largest, No. 3, Youth,” From 1907
Hilma Af Klint was way ahead of her time!
Image source: BeefQueef_69
#70 “Stormtroopers Advancing Under Gas,” 1924, By Otto Dix, Who Himself Served In WW1
Image source: Aelinith
#71 “The Swan, No. 10” By Hilma Af Klint, 1915
Image source: Pawneewafflesarelife
#72 “The Peacock Skirt” By Aubrey Beardsley, Created In 1893-1894
I always think Aubrey Beardsley’s illustrations look so 1920s and art deco and they’re about 60 years older than that.
Image source: electricalgloom
#73 “Girl At The Piano: Recording Sound” By Theodore Roszak, 1935
“Girl at the Piano: Recording Sound,” 1935, by Theodore Roszak always struck me as futuristic for the ’30s. Something about the line work? What do you think?
Image source: mwelch21
#74 Kangxi Emperor Of China, The Fourth Emperor Of The Qing Dynasty, Depicted At Approximately 45 Years Old
The use of colour in this portrait of the Kangxi emperor from 1699 always felt so modern to me somehow.
Image source: melymn
#75 The “Veil Of Saint Veronica (Or The Holy Face)” By El Greco, Created In The Early 1580s
Image source: therealsteelydan
#76 “The Seven-Pointed Star, No. 1” By Hilma Af Klint, 1908
Everything by Hilma af Klint. Like this 1908 painting.
Image source: Molu93
#77 “The Lovers’ Whirlwind” By William Blake
Image source: Comprehensive_Tea577
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