[edmundsauto]

I do find it interesting that it is so famous, but I think it’s probably due more to a confluence of coincidental events than anything inherent to the painting. Rerun the universe simulator 1M times (adding a hard requirement that this paining gets painted every time) and I’d bet this level of popularity is an outlier.

I just don’t think popularity means much outside of a lot of people knowing about it in some vaguely positive light. Sometimes things are popular because they are incredible (the Beatles), sometimes they are popular just because of randomness or situational context (most pre-20th century American literature)