"Lust for Life," directed by Vincente Minnelli, showed how the life of the famous Dutch painter combined creative genius with a mysterious mental illness. Kirk Douglas offered a critically acclaimed performance as van Gogh, and Anthony Quinn (right) won the Oscar for best supporting actor in the role of Paul Gauguin.

Nearly a decade later, Charlton Heston took on the role of Michelangelo in British director Carol Reed's equally dramatic artist film "The Agony and the Ecstasy." The actor portrayed the artist's struggle for his likely most famous work: the ceiling painting in the Vatican's Sistine Chapel. Heston's performance was entirely typical for him — full of pathos and drama.

Andrei Tarkovsky's the three-hour epic "Andrei Rublev" portrays episodes in the life of Rublev, the famous medieval Russian icon painter born in the 1360s. The film offers a meditation on religion and creative expression; making art under a repressive regime is another one of its themes. Tarkovsky's own work as a director was restricted by Soviet authorities.

Julian Schnabel was already a star of the art world in the mid-1990s when he released his acclaimed film debut. "Basquiat" tells the story of the life and suffering of Jean-Michel Basquiat, an American artist of Haitian and Puerto Rican descent born in 1960. Jeffrey Wright portrayed the young graffiti and neo-expressionist artist who died of a heroin overdose at his art studio at the age of 27.

Filmmaker Mike Leigh's take on the English Romantic painter William Turner (1775–1851) is a brilliant portrayal of the radical, revolutionary artist. Timothy Spall's performance in the title role deservedly won the best actor award at the Cannes Film Festival; the work also obtained several nominations at the Oscars and the British Academy Film Awards.

Art history has always been dominated by male artists. By conquering the art world in the 1920s, Mexican painter Frida Kahlo significantly contributed to a shift of perspective, allowing more female artists' careers to take off. Salma Hayek brilliantly portrayed the iconic artist in the film "Frida" from 2002.

The life of French painter Séraphine Louis (1864–1942) was portrayed in this biopic directed by Martin Provost. Working as a cleaning lady, Séraphine (portrayed by Yolande Moreau) was discovered and promoted by German art collector Wilhelm Ude (Ulrich Tukur) and later became a famous representative of the Naïve art movement with her works featuring intensely repeated floral arrangements.

The Canadian-Irish feature film "Maudie" portrays another artist who lived most of her life in poverty, but whose work finally obtained recognition. Maud Lewis (1903-1970), like Séraphine, also made history as a master of naive art. In the biopic directed by Aisling Walsh, Sally Hawkins played the role of the charismatic folk art painter who started suffering from arthritis at a young age.

French filmmaker Jacques Rivette directed one of the most beautiful and intense films about art ever made. Based on the short story "The Unknown Masterpiece" by Honoré de Balzac, it portrays the relationship between a (fictive) painter and his nude model. Michel Piccoli and Emmanuelle Béart's performances show in more than one way how a work of art is created.

Another Vincent van Gogh movie to complete this list: In "Loving Vincent," the director duo Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman used real actors but turned them into animated figures. The animation reproduced the style of the Dutch painter, a first of its kind. The technique literally gave life to van Gogh's paintings.