Why Are They Iconic? The Stories Behind the Art from DailyArt Shop

1. Swaying Dancer (Dancer in Green) by Edgar Degas—Elegance and Movement

Edgar Degas’s lifelong fascination with ballet dancers is legendary (and unparalleled in the art world of the time). The artist created over 1,500 paintings, drawings, pastels, prints, and sculptures on the subject throughout his career (which makes ballet one of the most prominent themes in his oeuvre).

But why is Swaying Dancer so special? It stands out for its dynamic composition and striking use of color. The painting captures a moment of elegance and movement, as dancers perform under the soft glow of stage lights. Although Degas was considered one of the Impressionists (and exhibited his works with the group), he preferred to be called a Realist. Why? He was a keen observer of human form and posture, the raw, often unglamorous aspects of modern life such as backstage of the opera. Only a small number of his works depict dancers actually performing on the stage, like the Swaying Dancer.

Also, his technique was very academic—unlike the Impressionists who painted en plein air, he wasn’t bringing his easel to the Palais Garnier. Instead, he preferred to paint in his studio, relying on memory and sketches he took while roaming Paris.

This painting shows us one more aspect of the influence of modern life—cropped, off-centered pictorial space. His use of cropping and unusual angles (here, we can see the dancers on stage from above, as if we were spectators watching them from a lodge) hints at the influence of photography and Japanese prints, which were incredibly popular in Europe at the time.

This beautiful depiction of the dancers is featured on the cover of DailyArt’s The Impressionists Notebook.

2. Irises by Vincent van Gogh—Symbol of a Life Without Tragedy

You may have heard about Vincent van Gogh’s tragic history. In the year preceding his death, Van Gogh voluntarily entered the asylum of Saint Paul-de-Mausole in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. As a form of therapy, he started to paint… irises! For him, painting was a “lightning conductor for illness,”—the Irises meant a life without tragedy. Nowadays, it is considered one of the most therapeutic works created by Van Gogh. Each iris has a distinct wavy silhouette, reflecting his observation and understanding of nature.

Fun fact: Irises was one of the most expensive paintings ever sold in the 1980s at Sotheby’s, fetching $53.9 million (which now would be around $100 million)! But in DailyArt Shop, you can order the premium-quality print of this masterpiece that shows every stroke of the master’s brush for only a small fraction of that price.

3. Pablo Picasso’s Evolution from Classical Mastery to Revolutionary Abstraction

This artist needs no introduction—everyone knows Pablo Picasso, who changed the trajectory of modern art with Cubism. But do you know that the artist himself was a master of realistic depiction and was admitted to the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona as a 14-year-old boy?

His very first word was “pencil” (lápiz, in Spanish). Even as a toddler, he showed an unusual interest in drawing, and it was clear he was no ordinary child. A family story claims Picasso began drawing before he could speak properly. As a baby, he would spend hours scribbling on anything he could find—walls, paper, and even the floor.

If you’d like to have something that will remind you of his genius, I couldn’t recommend you enough super-comfy DailyArt’s mismatched Picassoocks.

4. Cats Suggested as the Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō by Utagawa Kuniyoshi—Can You Count ’em All?

Utagawa Kuniyoshi, a celebrated ukiyo-e artist, was known for his playful creativity and humor. He created this print as a pun and twist on Hiroshige’s more serious depictions of the same stations of the Tōkaidō road—the coastal route that ran from Edo to Kyoto. In Cats Suggested as the Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō, Kuniyoshi reimagines the famous stations along the Tōkaidō Road as cats with delightful quirks and personalities. Each feline pun represents a station name or characteristic, showing Kuniyoshi’s knack for wordplay and cultural satire.

This print is a total must-have for all cat lovers! And its amazing-quality reproduction is available in the DailyArt Shop.

5. The Location of the Little Street of Delft by Johannes Vermeer

The Little Street by Vermeer is featured in the DailyArt’s Monthly Wall Calendar for 2026. It depicts one of only three known landscapes created by Vermeer. The painting became even more fascinating when its exact setting—long debated by scholars—was finally identified in 2015.

Historian Frans Grijzenhout discovered that the quiet scene depicts Vlamingstraat 40–42 in Delft, the street where Vermeer’s aunt, Ariaentgen Claes van der Minne, lived and ran a small inn. Archival tax records and 17th-century cadastral documents matched the dimensions of the houses and alleyway seen in the painting, revealing that Vermeer had painted a real, personal corner of his hometown, not an imagined composition.

This discovery adds a deeply human layer to the work: The Little Street is not merely a charming urban view but a portrait of Vermeer’s own neighborhood, a place woven into his family’s daily life.

6. Stanisław Witkiewicz’s Forest—More Than Just a Landscape

As you may already know, DailyArt is based in Poland, and here, I want to show you one of the Polish winter landscape paintings, but not just an ordinary one.

At first glance, you may think that this is just a beautiful depiction of a dense, wild forest, probably inspired by the Tatra region or Polish woodlands; trees dominate the composition with vertical trunks and scattered light filtering through foliage, creating a rhythmic, almost meditative visual effect. But this quiet landscape is more than just decorative scenery. Witkiewicz’s forest carries a symbolic dimension—the forest evokes national identity, as Poland at that time was partitioned and under foreign rule. Nature became a subtle expression of the Polish spirit. The painting bridges Realism and early Symbolism, showing a poetic rather than literal approach to landscape.

This painting is a part of this year’s Christmas & Holiday Season Postcard Set—a selection of 10 masterpieces ready to be sent to your loved ones with holiday greetings.

These are only a few examples of the fascinating artworks we carefully selected to present in our products. In the DailyArt online Shop, you can find the full offer of our art-inspired goods that tell art stories: from calendars, notebooks, and postcards, to prints and socks. 🙂