THE PAINTING CODE

A daily art puzzle

How little
do you need
to see?

A masterpiece, hidden in its colors. Name the painting, find where it hangs, and discover its story.

Play in your browser How it works

Free to play. No account needed.

Art, decoded.
An artistic reinterpretation of Vermeer's Girl with a Pearl Earring emerging from vertical ribbons of color
From color to canvasInspired by Vermeer, 1665

05Paintings in each daily puzzle

500Masterpieces to discover

74Museums & collections

01 / How it works

See less. Score more.

Start with the colors. Need a hint? Reveal a little more. The less you see, the more you score.

  1. Color code clue for The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

    Clue 1

    Color code

    100 points

    The painting averaged into 120 vertical stripes of color. Name it now for full points.

  2. Composition clue for The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

    Clue 2

    Composition

    70 points

    Tap “Reveal more” for a blocky mosaic of the composition.

  3. Soft focus clue for The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

    Clue 3

    Soft focus

    40 points

    One last reveal: a soft-focus version of the whole picture.

  4. The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

    The answer

    The original

    The Starry Night, Vincent van Gogh, 1889. Pick from four choices and lock in. A wrong answer scores 0.

Daily

5 paintings

The same five for everyone, every day. A new set arrives at your local midnight.

Per painting

150 points

Up to 100 for naming it, plus 50 for knowing where it hangs.

Per day

750 points

A perfect daily: five paintings named from the color code and five museums found.

In the collection

Centuries of art.
Fresh discoveries.

500 masterpieces by 182 artists, across centuries of painting. Discover familiar favorites and the paintings you haven’t met yet.

Explore all 500 paintings & sources

Mobile Pro · coming soon

Follow your curiosity.

20 themed packs, organized around artists, eras and museums. Here’s a preview.

  • The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh16 paintings

    IMPRESSIONIST LIGHT

    Impressionist and Post-Impressionist experiments with light and color.

  • Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci16 paintings

    RENAISSANCE MASTERS

    Renaissance and Mannerist visions of people, faith and myth.

  • Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer15 paintings

    THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE

    Portraits and everyday scenes from the Dutch Golden Age.

  • Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet12 paintings

    MONET & RENOIR

    Two Impressionist painters, two ways to see the world.

  • Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci12 paintings

    LEONARDO & RAPHAEL

    Compare two masters of the Italian Renaissance.

  • Las Meninas by Diego Velázquez12 paintings

    GOYA & VELÁZQUEZ

    Discover paintings by two masters of Spanish art.

02 / The bonus round

Where does it hang?

Name the painting, then find its home. Choose from four museums for another 50 points, and explore 74 museums and collections across 17 countries.

Example: The Starry Night

  1. Kröller-Müller MuseumOtterlo, Netherlands
  2. MoMANew York, United States+50 ✓
  3. Musée d'OrsayParis, France
  4. Van Gogh MuseumAmsterdam, Netherlands

03 / Beyond the answer

Every painting
has a story.

A correct guess is just the beginning. Meet the artist, explore the details, and learn what makes each masterpiece unforgettable.

Discover The Starry Night
The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh · 1889

The Starry Night

Artist
Vincent van Gogh
Date
1889
Medium
Oil paint on canvas
Movement
Post-impressionism
Size
73.7 × 92.1 cm
Museum
MoMA, New York

The Starry Night is an oil-on-canvas painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh. Painted in June 1889, it depicts the view from the east-facing window of his asylum room at Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, just before sunrise, with the addition of an imaginary village.

Text from the Wikipedia article “The Starry Night”, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

Read on Wikipedia

Free to play

A little art, every day.

Play the daily puzzle and unlimited practice free in your browser. A one-time Pro unlock is planned for the mobile app, with more ways to explore. It isn’t available to buy yet.

Free

Available now

  • The daily fiveSame paintings for everyone, new at local midnight.
  • Unlimited practicePlay as many extra rounds as you like.
  • Streaks and statsTrack your run and your scores over time.
  • Spoiler-free sharingShare your result without giving the answers away.
  • Every storyEach painting's facts and story, right after you play it.

Pro

Mobile app · coming soon · one-time

  • Your galleryEvery painting you discover, with its story, to revisit any time.
  • 20 themed collectionsExplore by artist, era or museum. Preview a few in the collection above.
  • Hard ModeColors only: the color code is all you get.
  • ArchivePlay previous dailies you missed.
  • No ads and themesOriginal, Blue Hour and Rose Salon looks.

Make art your daily ritual

A fresh perspective.
Every day.

Five paintings, a fresh challenge every day. Follow the colors, discover the masterpieces, and see how much you recognize.

Play in your browser