# What's your favourite painting?



## skyscraper101 (Feb 21, 2009)

For me (at risk of being a bit cliché) it's probably John Constable's Hay Wain.  Something about this idyllic snapshot of rural England in a bygone time seems so naturally bought out by this painting. I don't think I know of another one I'm more fond of actually.

So people of urban, tell me which painting does it for you, and why?


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## Spymaster (Feb 21, 2009)

*Frans Haals - Laughing Cavalier*

For the incredible detail in the clothing and the photograpic quality of the face.






It's in the Wallace Collection in London where you can get up close for free.


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## marty21 (Feb 21, 2009)

this was the one that first came to mind 

by otto dix

she looks kinda scary  love the colours, I want to be in that cafe, but I wouldn't be brave enough to speak to her, she isn't attractive to me in a physical way, but memorable


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 21, 2009)

Got to be something like Guernica, or is that too obvious? Not as obvious as the haywain though, tbf 






Although, I don't think I've really got a favourite painting.


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## Belushi (Feb 21, 2009)

Da Vinci's Lady with an Ermine, because I wasnt expecting to bump into a masterpiece while looking around the Czarytorski Palace in Krakow and its just breathtaking in the flesh, a print of it is looking down on me as I type


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## Belushi (Feb 21, 2009)

Otherwise its Joseph Wright of Derby's Experiment with a Bird in an Air Pump, which lucky Londoners can see any day at the National Gallery


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## rubbershoes (Feb 21, 2009)

cheer up mate for fuck's sake


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## Vintage Paw (Feb 21, 2009)

That one on Jonathan Creek was a bit good.


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## scifisam (Feb 21, 2009)

Belushi said:


> Otherwise its Joseph Wright of Derby's Experiment with a Bird in an Air Pump, which lucky Londoners can see any day at the National Gallery



That's one of my favourites too. I love the way your eye is drawn to tiny ponts of light in the painting which change your perspective of what's going on. That's the same reason I love Girl With a Pearl Earring. It's a really conventional choice, but it's one of the first paintings that made me really interested in art. I could stare at it for ages. 






Is she about to speak, or has she just stopped speaking? Is she halfway smiling or halfway crying? Is she turning towards you or turning away? If you focus on different parts of the face, then each of these becomes likely in turn. It's a subtle optical illusion.


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## phildwyer (Feb 21, 2009)

Las Meninas.


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## nick h. (Feb 21, 2009)

Van Gogh's Starry Night for me. It's usually in New York but it's coming to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam from Feb to June.


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## Azrael (Feb 21, 2009)

_The Burning of the Houses of Lords and Commons_, by Joseph Mallord William Turner. 

This is another favourite. 






Bizarrely, the Turner, as English as it gets, is held in Philadelphia, while the Rothko is available in the Tate Modern. As our transatlantic friends say, go figure.


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## Santino (Feb 21, 2009)

Not my favourite, but I feel this is like the second part of a diptich with Starry Night:


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## isitme (Feb 21, 2009)

there is a massive picture of a dude and a wave in newcastle laing art gallery ande the picture is about 20ft tall


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## Sweaty Betty (Feb 21, 2009)

skyscraper101 said:


> For me (at risk of being a bit cliché) it's probably John Constable's Hay Wain.  Something about this idyllic snapshot of rural England in a bygone time seems so naturally bought out by this painting. I don't think I know of another one I'm more fond of actually.
> 
> So people of urban, tell me which painting does it for you, and why?



My nan had that in the spare bedroom


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## Azrael (Feb 21, 2009)

Belushi said:


> Otherwise its Joseph Wright of Derby's Experiment with a Bird in an Air Pump, which lucky Londoners can see any day at the National Gallery


Ah, a poster of taste and sophistication.  I once based a university essay on the British Enlightenment around that very picture. Amazing work. (The painting, not the essay.) It encapsulates everything you could want to know about the religion v. science debate, 

See that programme about the painting on BBC4 a few years back? Part of their Hanoverian season, and very good it was too. Particularly enjoyed the demonstration of a vacuum, with a few dozen beefy Austrian blokes trying to pull apart two half-spheres. I forget why.


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## Azrael (Feb 21, 2009)

Just have to add _The Bench_ to this bandwidth-hogging thread. It's only 15KB, and worth every pixel. 






Hats off to Mr. William Hogarth Esq.


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## strung out (Feb 21, 2009)

i loved this one by turner when i was younger...






but now i think probably something by kandinsky


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## plasticene (Feb 21, 2009)

*genius*


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## Santino (Feb 21, 2009)

strung_out said:


> i loved this one by turner when i was younger...


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## strung out (Feb 21, 2009)

haha, thats awesome


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## Azrael (Feb 21, 2009)

strung_out said:


> i loved this one by turner when i was younger...


Ah, _The Fighting Temeraire_. Evokes our maritime traditions without over-playing it, and the sunset rippling across the sea adds a mournful quality. Turner, master of light. 

Not too familiar with Wassily Kandinsky, but that's interesting work. *Rorschach voice* Must investigate further.

And LOL *Alex B*!


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## Santino (Feb 21, 2009)

Does anyone else have the terrible feeling that Azrael is playing with himself?


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## Azrael (Feb 22, 2009)

I think that was investigated a good long while ago. 

Interesting thoughts you have!


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## Missez (Feb 22, 2009)

nick h. said:


> Van Gogh's Starry Night for me. It's usually in New York but it's coming to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam from Feb to June.



I love that one too. I went to the Van Gogh museum just before Christmas and there was this amazing painting there that he did in just two tones of yellow of the fruit. It was in the original painted frame and it just glowed.


This is an old favourite of my by John William Waterhouse. Probably because deep under my bitter, callous, witch like  exterior I'm a deep romantic at heart.

The Lady of Shalott:


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## AnnO'Neemus (Feb 22, 2009)

I like Shen Jingdong's works, the soldiers are cute from the Hero series, but I just like the kind of naive, childlike style of his work:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v642/taiwanesechick/artblog/ShenJingDongTearsolider.jpg
http://fayewangsartjournal.blogspot.com/2008/08/shen-jing-dong.html

http://www.artnet.com/Galleries/Exhibitions.asp?gid=424893143&cid=142580&source=2&type=2
http://www.artnet.com/Galleries/Art...41013&source=artist&rta=http://www.artnet.com


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## AnnO'Neemus (Feb 22, 2009)

Vintage Paw said:


> Got to be something like Guernica, or is that too obvious? Not as obvious as the haywain though, tbf
> 
> 
> 
> ...


It is an incredible work though.  And I remember years before I went to Madrid and actually saw it, I attended a random seminar about art, war painters or political painters or something like that Kandinsky and Roza Luxemburg ring bells with me as well, but the lecturer talked about the symbolism of the images in Guernica, which makes it more meaningful and interesting, to hear more about the historical and political context and so on, makes you appreciate it more.  I hadn't actually expected it to be as big as it is in real life.  It's a quite impressive and dominating painting.


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## plasticene (Feb 22, 2009)

*And then there's....*


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## AnnO'Neemus (Feb 22, 2009)

plasticene said:


>


Ooh, I like that one.  Tell us more...  I can picture something like this on my sitting room wall.


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## plasticene (Feb 22, 2009)

^^It's Interior II by Richard Hamilton and you can see it at Tate Britain


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## panpete (Feb 22, 2009)

*Zdzislaw Beksinski*






Apart from the beautifully crafted art itself, the thing that strikes me is the cold and hardened expression of a broken, breaker of souls.

I have thousands of favourites, and always discovering new ones, each awesome in their own way, the above is just one, which seems to be apt in these times of great global unrest, if your a miserable sod.


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## camouflage (Feb 22, 2009)

dunno why. wouldn't say 'favourite' though, just... struck me when I saw it in the NG.


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## AnnO'Neemus (Feb 22, 2009)

Dunno why?  Do you have a predilection for bondage or S&M perchance November?


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## AnnO'Neemus (Feb 22, 2009)

plasticene said:


> ^^It's Interior II by Richard Hamilton and you can see it at Tate Britain


Ah.  I guess I won't be able to afford one for my flat then!


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## TheHoodedClaw (Feb 22, 2009)

I suppose everyone has seen this montage, but I'll post it anyway


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## AnnO'Neemus (Feb 22, 2009)

TheHoodedClaw said:


> I suppose everyone has seen this montage, but I'll post it anyway


Yeah, seen it before but watched it again anyway.  

It's very well done, although I don't think the cubists some of the more modern works morph as well as the more traditional style ones.


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## camouflage (Feb 22, 2009)

AnnO'Neemus said:


> Dunno why?  Do you have a predilection for bondage or S&M perchance November?



No, but thanks for asking.


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## Red Faction (Feb 22, 2009)

and


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## AnnO'Neemus (Feb 22, 2009)

November said:


> No, but thanks for asking.


I was wondering about the blindfold and corsets...


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## N_igma (Feb 22, 2009)




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## Dandred (Feb 22, 2009)




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## Geri (Feb 22, 2009)

Maybe this one:






or this one:






or this:






or this:






I also like Guernica and Van Gogh's Starry Night.


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## mentalchik (Feb 22, 2009)

Have large prints of both in my flat..........and some other pre-raphelites....


also,













Just love the feel and colours of Klimt........


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## maldwyn (Feb 22, 2009)

It's a bit like being asked to name your favourite child. Other than the Turner's and Rothco's already posted, I'v always quite like 
Augustus Leopold Egg’s Past and Present Nos.1-3, (1858)


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## Cid (Feb 22, 2009)

Impossible to choose... If I could have any to hang on my wall it would probably be Guernica though (I might need bigger walls mind you).

The ambassadors is good, prob not my favourite, but deserves to be thrown into the mix.


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## spring-peeper (Feb 22, 2009)

My favourite one is done by my mother.  It's all in black and red and represents one of the major forest fires from BC.


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## Mrs Miggins (Feb 22, 2009)

I love loads of paintings for different reasons. I adore the bird in the air pump and the Lady Jane Gray pics that have already been posted and am a massive fan of Caravaggio - wouldn't want one in my house though! 

If I had to choose a couple: 

This because it's just mad - check out the holy spirit piercing the wall like laser beam from a flying saucer...





And this because it's just gorgeous and do want this in my house...(apologies for crap colour reproduction - it's not quite as garish in reality)


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## jimadore (Feb 22, 2009)

Dog in snow by franz marc  and most by pierre- auguste renoir except the japonese one it sucks, all mary cassatt she very good, winslow homer , albrectht durer, claude monet,  but the best one in all styles  The master,is vincent   of the  one ear he was the best.


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## ShiftyBagLady (Feb 22, 2009)

mentalchik said:


> Have large prints of both in my flat..........and some other pre-raphelites....
> 
> 
> also,
> ...



I loe the lady of shallot with my whole heart. I love it even more because of teh relaionship with teh Tennyson poem. They both move me in immeasurable ways.
Also love Klimt, especially that danae
The pre-raphelites also appeal to the egotist in me, i'm convinced i was destined to be somebody's muse....
There are so many paintings i love. will be back later


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## Paul Russell (Feb 22, 2009)

Missez said:


> This is an old favourite of my by John William Waterhouse. Probably because deep under my bitter, callous, witch like  exterior I'm a deep romantic at heart.
> 
> The Lady of Shalott



Yeah, I've got a soft spot for the onion lady. Don't tell anyone.

Last time I saw it (in Tate Britain?) it was hung really high up and hard to see properly, unfortunately.


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## isvicthere? (Feb 22, 2009)

skyscraper101 said:


> For me (at risk of being a bit cliché) it's probably John Constable's Hay Wain.  Something about this idyllic snapshot of rural England in a bygone time seems so naturally bought out by this painting. I don't think I know of another one I'm more fond of actually.
> 
> So people of urban, tell me which painting does it for you, and why?



When I was a little kid we had a biscuit tin with this on.


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## Pot-Bellied Pig (Feb 22, 2009)




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## ShiftyBagLady (Feb 22, 2009)

This one by Cris Brodahl is another one of my favourites


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## starfish (Feb 22, 2009)

Not really sure why, have just always really liked it.

edited coz i added link first not image


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## Cloo (Feb 22, 2009)

Main section of Van Eyck's 'Adoration of the Lamb' in Ghent






You can't really get it across at all like this, but the whole thing is breathtaking.

Stanley Spencer's 'Resurrection at Cookham' is fab as well.


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## the button (Feb 22, 2009)

Annoyingly, I can't find a picture of mine on the internet.* It's in the National Gallery, to the immediate right of _The Supper at Emmaus_. Just a small picture of three grieving women next to a dead body, but the most powerful evocation of a human emotion I've ever seen. I can't bear to look at it for any length of time, tbh, but it's still my favourite. 

* Not least because I don't know what it's called or who it's by.


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## Clair De Lune (Feb 22, 2009)

I adore Klimt, would be hard pushed to find anything of his I didn't like.




Nude decending staircase, Marcel Duchamp





Modigliani - I love his eerie portraits.

I could go on all day


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## Sasaferrato (Feb 22, 2009)




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## camouflage (Feb 22, 2009)

Pot-Bellied Pig said:


>



Hehe, well if we're talking Banksy stencils...


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## butterfly child (Feb 23, 2009)

Love Caravaggio - went to Amstrerdam to see this, then found out it lives in London


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## butterfly child (Feb 23, 2009)

I love so many artists work though.

Kubin, anyone?


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## butterfly child (Feb 23, 2009)

Lempicka?


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## butterfly child (Feb 23, 2009)

Quite possibly my husband's favourite:


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## butterfly child (Feb 23, 2009)

And one of my old favourites, JW Waterhouse:


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## QueenOfGoths (Feb 23, 2009)

There have been some wonderful pics on here and it is very hard to chose a favourite so I have gone for two, both of which I have been lucky enough 
to see in situ

Jan Matejko 






Hieronymous Bosch


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## paulhackett (Feb 23, 2009)

A favourite of mine is _Seated Demon _by Mikhail Vrubel - I can't find an image that shows the glossiness of the oil though, or its size..


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## Yetman (Feb 23, 2009)

Belushi said:


> Otherwise its Joseph Wright of Derby's Experiment with a Bird in an Air Pump, which lucky Londoners can see any day at the National Gallery



Fucking hell I knew stringfellow was old but he looks the same now as he did in 1768! The old bastard hasnt aged a jot!

For me, its Ophelia by Millais


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## trashpony (Feb 23, 2009)

Cecily Brown's Bacchanal.

She's my favourite living artist. Would be impossible to choose one single painting


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## Santino (Feb 23, 2009)

the button said:


> Annoyingly, I can't find a picture of mine on the internet.* It's in the National Gallery, to the immediate right of _The Supper at Emmaus_. Just a small picture of three grieving women next to a dead body, but the most powerful evocation of a human emotion I've ever seen. I can't bear to look at it for any length of time, tbh, but it's still my favourite.
> 
> * Not least because I don't know what it's called or who it's by.


Is it Jesus? It's usually Jesus.


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## Donna Ferentes (Mar 4, 2009)

QueenOfGoths said:


> Hieronymous Bosch



This is probablymy favourite of all the paintings I've ever actually seen in person. It's in the Prado in Madrid: if you go, be prepared for the scrum, it can take half-an-hour before you find yourself at the front. You'll then need another hour just to start looking at it.


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## QueenOfGoths (Mar 4, 2009)

Donna Ferentes said:


> This is probablymy favourite of all the paintings I've ever actually seen in person. It's in the Prado in Madrid: if you go, be prepared for the scrum, it can take half-an-hour before you find yourself at the front. You'll then need another hour just to start looking at it.



That was exactly our experience! It did mean sadly that our visit to the Prado really consisted of this painting and Goya's "Black" paintings ... though to be honest while I regretted not seeing more what we did see was just wonderful


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## DotCommunist (Mar 4, 2009)

Always liked this for some reason






it was the inspiration for a bad pome.


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## Orang Utan (Mar 4, 2009)

butterfly child said:


> And one of my old favourites, JW Waterhouse:



Looks like she's filming with a digicam!


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## Orang Utan (Mar 4, 2009)




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## Orang Utan (Mar 4, 2009)




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## Barking_Mad (Mar 4, 2009)

Ilya Repin - Cossacks

The letter being written was supposedly this, although it was shown to be false......



> Zaporozhian Cossacks to the Turkish Sultan!
> 
> You, turkish devil and damned devil's brother and friend, secretary to Lucifer himself. What the devil kind of knight are you, that can't slay a hedgehog with your naked arse? The devil shits, and your army eats. You will not, you son of a bitch, make subjects of Christian sons; we've no fear of your army, by land and by sea we will battle with thee, fuck your mother.
> 
> ...


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## dessiato (Mar 4, 2009)

Lempicka and two by Hopper:


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## prunus (Mar 4, 2009)

Impossible task really, but here're a few:






"The Raft of the Medusa" by Gericault, just because I'm a sucker for melodrama really.






Turner's "Snowstorm" - but you have to see it in real life really, just sucks you in.






Munch's "Madonna" - just wow.


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## bouncer_the_dog (Mar 4, 2009)

Gimme some Bruegel any day...


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## Yetman (Mar 4, 2009)

Orang Utan said:


>



You know when you get a flash of 'SHIT AM I DEAD?' for a quick second?

I just had that when I looked at that picture. Fucking hell. Good work OU.


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## Orang Utan (Mar 4, 2009)

It's horrible isn't it?


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## Dillinger4 (Mar 4, 2009)

Some excellent pictures here, quite a few of my favourites have already been posted.

I like the ones by Edward Hopper, Munch, and Velazquez, Bosch, Klimt, and loads more. I forget.


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## Winston Legthigh (Mar 4, 2009)

Group of Connoisseurs - Richard Cosway

Perhaps appropriately for this thread, it depicts a man masturbating over some great art


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## Yetman (Mar 4, 2009)

Orang Utan said:


> It's horrible isn't it?



I cant look at it.....nor stop looking at it.....baallocks


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## nuffsaid (Mar 4, 2009)

Et in Arcadia Ego






Love the pessimism of death even in paradise - also can't help feeling there's a lot more going on here than we're being told...


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## nuffsaid (Mar 4, 2009)

Another Turner I love - Slave ship....grim


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## hipipol (Mar 4, 2009)

*Georges Seurat*






Dotty as you like

Wonderful to stand it front of....


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## hipipol (Mar 4, 2009)

*Klimt*






Big fav of Suzees


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## nuffsaid (Mar 4, 2009)

Another Poussin - Landscape with a man killed by a snake






More eerie stuff....


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## nuffsaid (Mar 4, 2009)

Loving this thread, by the way...good call.


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## Stanley Edwards (Mar 4, 2009)

Nice to see Turner getting so many mentions here. I couldn't name a single painting as a favourite, but he is by far the painter I respect mostest 

My favourite (as in MY favourite) to date:







Bollocks. Won't work. A failed attempt at self-promotion. Nevermind!


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## Sweet FA (Mar 4, 2009)

He cheered up a bit later though.


QueenOfGoths said:


>









My current favourite;


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## dynamicbaddog (Mar 4, 2009)

dessiato said:


> Lempicka and two by Hopper:



Hopper's Summertime is my favourite too


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## IC3D (Mar 4, 2009)

This is my fave too, If anyones interested you can go to the Prado gallery in Madrid on Google earth and view amazing scans of lots of great paintings at awesomely high resolution heres an article about it


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## Donna Ferentes (Mar 4, 2009)

QueenOfGoths said:


> That was exactly our experience! It did mean sadly that our visit to the Prado really consisted of this painting and Goya's "Black" paintings ... though to be honest while I regretted not seeing more what we did see was just wonderful



Of course the "Goya" should also be in inverted commas....


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## Donna Ferentes (Mar 4, 2009)

bouncer_the_dog said:


> Gimme some Bruegel any day...



In the same Prado room as the Bosch, if I recall. It's not a bad room.


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## Stobart Stopper (Mar 4, 2009)




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## skyscraper101 (Jul 26, 2013)

Bump because I was just reminded of this one: _His Masters Voice_

Loooook at the little doggggy!!!


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## JimW (Jul 26, 2013)

Li Cheng, Solitary Temple Amid Clearing Peaks:


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## quimcunx (Jul 26, 2013)

Dunno but this is my least favourite painting.


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## trashpony (Jul 26, 2013)

I love this.


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## RoyReed (Jul 26, 2013)

The Wilton Diptych




Hokusai - _The Great Wave off Kanagawa_




Miro - _Bleu II_
 

Rembrandt - _A Woman Bathing in a Stream (Hendrickje Stoffels)_



Couldn't separate these four.


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## little_legs (Jul 26, 2013)

I love the fact that trashpony has posted the same painting twice, first in February of 2009 on page 3 of this thread and today. Some conviction right there.


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## Hocus Eye. (Jul 26, 2013)

My favourite image is Hokusai's Wave but it is not a painting but a print so probably not permitted on this thread. 

I will need to think long and hard to settle on one single painting though it will probably be a Hockney. Hockney is the Picasso of our age.

Maybe I should choose a Picasso.


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## pinkmonkey (Jul 26, 2013)

Eine Kleine Nachtmusic by Dorotea Tanning. And I've just realised it's now at the Tate Modern after being bought in the late nineties. I had no idea. Will have to go and see it.


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## trashpony (Jul 26, 2013)

little_legs said:


> I love the fact that trashpony has posted the same painting twice, first in February of 2009 on page 3 of this thread and today. Some conviction right there.


 I couldn't see that I'd posted on the thread (my avatar wasn't showing) although I was pretty sure I had. At least I'm faithful to my painting


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## little_legs (Jul 26, 2013)

trashpony said:


> I couldn't see that I'd posted on the thread (my avatar wasn't showing) although I was pretty sure I had. At least I'm faithful to my painting


 
I think it's awesome.


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## heinous seamus (Sep 19, 2013)

quimcunx said:


> Dunno but this is my least favourite painting.



seen worse


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## heinous seamus (Sep 19, 2013)

trashpony said:


> I love this.



Who's that by?


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## quimcunx (Sep 19, 2013)

heinous seamus said:


> seen worse



Possibly but then have you had to see it again and again and again and again and again for years and years and years and years. 

It grinds on my brain every time.


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## trashpony (Sep 19, 2013)

heinous seamus said:


> Who's that by?


Cecily Brown.


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