Artle

Artle is a daily art guessing game published by the National Gallery of Art. Each puzzle shows one artwork from the museum's own collection and asks you to name the artist who made it, usually starting with a lesser-known or early piece so the answer is not obvious. You get four tries, and each wrong guess reveals another work by the same artist as a new clue.

What is Artle?

Artle's core loop is simple: the National Gallery shows you a single piece from its collection of roughly 150,000 paintings, photographs, sculptures, and other works, and you type an artist's name into a search field. Guess wrong and a red X appears, but the game does not just tell you no. It shows a different work by the same artist, giving you another visual clue to work from. This continues for up to four guesses total, and the works tend to move from lesser-known pieces toward more famous ones, so a hard puzzle slowly turns into an easier one. When the game ends, the artwork titles and the artist's name appear with links to more information on the National Gallery's website, so even a loss teaches you who the artist was and what else they made.

What sets Artle apart from most daily guessing games is that the mystery is a person identified through images rather than a word typed out letter by letter. It takes the format that Wordle popularized and turns it into an art history exercise. Instead of narrowing down a five letter word, you are narrowing down a body of work, comparing brushwork, subject matter, and style across the works that get revealed. Because everything shown comes straight from the National Gallery's real collection, playing it doubles as a way to browse the museum without walking through it.

The game was built by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and launched in early May 2022. Senior product manager Steven Garbarino led the effort, which took the team about five weeks from idea to launch, with the museum's education department helping pick artworks that were challenging but accessible. It found an audience fast: around 3,500 people played on the first day, and within a week that had grown to about 35,000. Coverage of the launch appeared in Smithsonian Magazine, The Art Newspaper, Glasstire, and Open Culture, generally framing it as a low key, educational spin on a format that had exploded in popularity.

After you finish a puzzle, Artle gives you a share button so you can copy your results and post them, in the same spirit as sharing a Wordle grid. Beyond the daily puzzle, the National Gallery also runs a searchable archive of past games plus themed collections called Artle Playlists, so you can go back and play days you missed or work through a curated set. The overall feel of the game is unhurried and a little like a scavenger hunt through a museum: you are not racing a clock, you are looking closely at artworks and trying to recognize a hand.

How to play Artle

1. Open Artle at nga.gov/artle.
2. Look closely at the artwork shown for the day and think about who might have made it.
3. Type an artist's name into the search field and submit it.
4. If a red X appears, your guess was wrong. Study the new artwork by the same artist that gets revealed as a hint.
5. Keep guessing until you identify the artist or run out of your four attempts.
6. At the end, read the reveal of the works' titles and follow the links to learn more about the artist.

Tips and strategy

• Do not guess too fast on the first image. Artle tends to open with a lesser-known or early work, so an instant guess based on style alone can lead you astray.
• Use each revealed hint image to look for a consistent thread: a recurring subject, a signature color palette, or a period of art history the works seem to belong to.
• If the first work looks like a photograph, sculpture, or print rather than a painting, adjust your mental list of candidate artists accordingly, since the National Gallery's collection spans many mediums.
• Think in terms of movements and eras first, then narrow to individual names, especially if the artist is not a household name.
• Use the archive and the Artle Playlists to practice on past puzzles and fill in the artists you missed.
• Play the daily puzzle regularly rather than in bursts, since recognizing recurring artists across days builds up your feel for the museum's collection.

Good to know

Category

Daily art guessing game

Guesses

4 per puzzle

Resets

Daily, once per day

Cost

Free to play

Modes

Daily puzzle, archive of past games, themed Artle Playlists

Archive

Yes, past puzzles can be replayed

Creator

National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.)

Launched

May 2022

Artle FAQ

Is Artle free to play?

Yes. Artle is a free game published on the National Gallery of Art's own website.

How do you play Artle?

You are shown an artwork from the National Gallery's collection and have to guess the artist who made it. Each wrong guess reveals another work by that same artist as a hint, and you get four guesses total before the answer is revealed.

When does Artle reset?

Artle publishes a new artist puzzle once a day. The National Gallery also maintains an archive of past games and themed Artle Playlists you can play any time.

Is Artle like Wordle?

It follows the same daily puzzle format popularized by Wordle, including a share button for posting your result, but instead of guessing a word you are guessing an artist based on their artwork.

Who made Artle?

Artle was created by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. and launched in May 2022. Senior product manager Steven Garbarino led the roughly five week build, inspired by the popularity of daily guessing games like Wordle.