13 Great Works of Art That Were Never Finished

Ah, the stories of unfinished works. From the grandest of masterpieces to the most ambitious of dreams, these works have captivated the imaginations of generations, inspiring us to strive for greatness and never give up on our dreams... or to just kind of dabble at art, collect plaudits from everyone, and never actually bother to deliver the finished product at all.
This list is a tribute to these unfinished works, and the often gifted and famous people who created them. From the unfinished masterpiece of Leonardo da Vinci, to the never-realized movie dreams of Stanley Kubrick, to JRR Tolkien and his bet with CS Lewis, these works are a reminder that even the greatest of minds can leave us with something incomplete... frustratingly so, in some cases.
So, without further ado, let us take a journey through the world of unfinished works, and the often absolutely exasperating stories behind them.
Famous, unfinished sculpture.

Tolkien’s unfinished bet: Númenor, time-travel, and 'The Lord of the Rings.'

Amazon Studios,
Wiki Commons
Napoleon’s movie dreams were never realized.

Taschen (via The Independent),
Warner Bros. Inc
‘The Last Tycoon’

British representatives: too proud to be painted.

Benjamin West
Leonardo’s only Italian masterpiece.

Leonardo da Vinci
Decades in the making, never finished.

Richard Williams Productions
Unfinished masterpiece.

Biggest masonry structure in the western hemisphere.

‘Foundation’: Asimov’s ideas, plus some new ones.

Apple TV+
140 years later, still unfinished.

Charlie in the White House

Paramount Pictures,
Carl Van Vechten/Shutterstock
Unfinished.
