7 Stunning Color Palettes from Famous Paintings (And How to Mix Them)

The greatest painters in history were also the greatest colorists. Their palette choices were not accidental — they were deliberate, obsessive, and deeply intentional. Here are 7 of the most iconic color palettes in art history, broken down into exact colors you can mix today.

1. Van Gogh — The Starry Night (1889)

Van Gogh built Starry Night almost entirely on the tension between deep Prussian blues and brilliant yellows — a split-complementary scheme that creates maximum vibration. The swirling whites are pure Titanium White applied thickly with a palette knife. To recreate: Ultramarine Blue + Prussian Blue for the sky, Cadmium Yellow for the star halos. Apply paint in confident, directional strokes — never blend flat.

2. Monet — Water Lilies Series (1906)

Monet’s Water Lilies are a masterclass in analogous color harmony. His palette ranged from cool blue-greens through warm rose pinks — colors that sit adjacently on the wheel. The genius lies in using water reflections to introduce the sky’s pink and purple into the green water, creating a palette that feels simultaneously unified and endlessly complex.

Key pigments: Viridian, Sap Green, Cerulean Blue, Rose Madder, Cobalt Violet, and heavy use of Titanium White to push tones into pastels.

3. Rembrandt — Self Portrait (1659)

Rembrandt’s palette was deliberately restricted — largely Ivory Black, Lead White, Raw Umber, and Burnt Sienna. His genius was in how he used these near-neutral earth tones to describe light emerging from darkness. The skin tones are built on glazed layers of warm ochre over cool, dark underpaintings.

To recreate this palette: Ivory Black, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, Raw Umber, and Titanium White. Mix your skin tones from warm ochre + red + white. Add glazes of Burnt Sienna over dry layers for depth.

4. Klimt — The Kiss (1907-08)

Klimt’s The Kiss is defined by its extraordinary gold palette. Using actual gold leaf alongside deep warm yellows, amber, and near-black backgrounds, Klimt created a mosaic-like effect where the figures almost dissolve into decoration. The skin tones — pale and cool — are the only respite from the golden warmth.

5. Frida Kahlo — Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace (1940)

Kahlo used rich, saturated complementary colors — deep greens and vivid reds — that are rooted in traditional Mexican folk art. Her backgrounds are almost always dense jungle greens, making the warm skin tones and bright flowers pop with maximum force. This is the complementary palette at its most powerful.

6. Hokusai — The Great Wave (1831)

The Great Wave is famously almost monochromatic — built almost entirely on Prussian Blue (Bero Ai), which had just arrived in Japan from Europe. Hokusai used this single cool blue across its full value range, from deep navy in the deep water to pale blue-white in the wave foam, creating extraordinary depth with minimal means.

7. Turner — Rain, Steam and Speed (1844)

Turner’s late work pushed color toward pure atmosphere — warm yellows, oranges and whites dissolving into cool silver-grey mists. His palette anticipated Impressionism by decades. The key is the tension between warm luminous yellows at the center and cool, desaturated greys at the edges — the light source radiating outward into atmospheric haze.