Paintings Finished by Someone Else: 12 Cases
Some of the most famous paintings in the world were finished by someone else. Leonardo left the Mona Lisa undelivered, Van Eyck died mid altarpiece, and Raphael’s last work was completed by his workshop in time to hang above his coffin. Twelve pictures with more than one hand in them.
Who actually held the brush
One altarpiece was begun by one brother and finished by another, and scholars still argue about the split.
One painter died at 37 and his workshop completed the commission within months.
One famous portrait was never delivered, and the painter kept reworking it for sixteen years.
One masterwork was sawn down by carpenters to fit a smaller wall.
And one beloved Rembrandt turned out not to be a Rembrandt at all.
1 | The Ghent Altarpiece, Hubert and Jan van Eyck (1432)
An inscription says Hubert began it and Jan, second in art, completed it. Hubert died in 1426 and almost nothing else by him is identified.
Six centuries later specialists still cannot agree which passages belong to whom. More on the surviving brother in Jan van Eyck.
2 | The Transfiguration, Raphael (1520)
Raphael died at 37 with the lower half of this altarpiece incomplete. His workshop, led by Giulio Romano, finished it in time for it to hang above his coffin.
It was the last thing he painted. More on him in Raphael.
3 | The Mona Lisa, never delivered
Leonardo carried the portrait for sixteen years and never handed it to the man who commissioned it. He kept working on it, and still had it in France when he died.
Unfinished is not quite right, but finished is not either. More in why the Mona Lisa is so famous.
4 | Gustav Klimt and the studio at his death (1918)
Klimt died of a stroke and influenza in February 1918 leaving several canvases on easels, some with faces finished and bodies only sketched.
Those unfinished works show exactly how he built a painting, from the head outward. More on him in Gustav Klimt.
5 | The Last Judgment and the breeches maker (1565)
Michelangelo finished the wall in 1541. Daniele da Volterra then added painted drapery in 1565 on Church orders, and his additions are still there today.
A second painter completed the picture against the first painter’s intention. The whole affair is in censored art.
6 | The Night Watch, cut down by carpenters (1715)
Rembrandt finished it, but the city later moved it and sawed strips off all four sides to fit a wall, losing two figures on the left.
A small early copy records what was cut. In 2021 the museum reconstructed the missing edges. More on him in Rembrandt.
7 | Vermeer’s estate and the baker’s bill (1675)
Vermeer died in debt leaving eleven children. His widow Catharina handed paintings to the baker to settle a bread bill, and the estate was administered by a scientist neighbour.
Nothing was completed for him, but everything about his afterlife was decided by other people. More on him in Vermeer.
8 | The Entombment, Michelangelo (abandoned, about 1500)
A panel in the National Gallery with whole areas left as bare ground, including a figure that exists only as an outline.
Michelangelo abandoned it and left Rome. It is one of the best places to see how a painting was built.
9 | The Adoration of the Magi, Leonardo (abandoned 1482)
Leonardo worked on it for months, laid in an enormous brown underdrawing full of rearing horses, then left Florence for Milan and never came back to it.
It hangs unfinished in the Uffizi. More on him in Leonardo da Vinci.
10 | What a signature actually meant
For most of art history a signed painting meant made in this workshop under this name, not painted alone by this person. Rubens ran a studio of specialists and priced pictures by how much he had touched.
The idea of a single author is largely a nineteenth century invention.
11 | The Man with the Golden Helmet, reattributed (1985)
Berlin’s best loved Rembrandt turned out, after scientific study, to be by someone in his circle. Visitor numbers dropped after the announcement.
The painting did not change. Only the name did. More of that in hats in art.
12 | Finished by a widow, a pupil or a dealer
Plenty of nineteenth century canvases were completed after a death by a spouse, a student or a dealer keen to sell, and the practice was rarely recorded.
X ray and infrared now catch these second hands routinely, which is why attributions keep moving.
More than one hand, quick questions
Was the Mona Lisa finished? Leonardo never delivered it and kept reworking it for years. He still had it in France at his death.
Who finished Raphael’s Transfiguration? His workshop, led by Giulio Romano, completing the lower portion after Raphael died at 37 in 1520.
Did anyone paint over Michelangelo? Yes. Daniele da Volterra added drapery in 1565 on Church orders, and most of it was kept in the modern restoration.
Why was The Night Watch cut? It was moved to a smaller wall in 1715 and trimmed on all four sides, removing two figures.
Where can these be seen? Ghent for the altarpiece, the Vatican for the Transfiguration, the Uffizi for the unfinished Leonardo, the Rijksmuseum for the Night Watch.
The fact that reframes the rest: when the Rijksmuseum reconstructed the cut edges of The Night Watch in 2021, it used a small painted copy made before the trimming, plus software trained on Rembrandt’s own brushwork. The painting was finished, cut, and then finished again by a machine, three centuries apart.
Unfinished works are catalogued in depth at the Met and the Rijksmuseum.