# Paintings That You Cannot Forget **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 6, 2003, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintings-that-you-cannot-forget/205874 "2003-10-06T15:35:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintings-that-you-cannot-forget/205874/61 "2003-10-09T03:13:57Z")
Painting that have made a big impression on me as a kid. Anything by Bosch or Bruegel. Anything by Dali. Especially “Persistance of Memory” [Christinas World](http://www.artchive.com/artchive/W/wyeth/christinas_world.jpg.html) by Andrew Wyeth. It helps to know the story behind the painting, but it stands alone as powerful. ---
**Author:** ![Salieri2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c67d28/32.png) [@Salieri2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Salieri2)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintings-that-you-cannot-forget/205874/62 "2003-10-09T04:13:46Z")
Oh, there are so many. Skipping those already mentioned, and reserving the right to bring up more as they occur to me later… Alfred-Pierre Agache’s [The Sword](http://www.illusionsgallery.com/Sword-Agache.html) , which I saw at the Art Gallery of Ontario some years back, is large and difficult to part from. The web image does not quite do justice to the warmth of the colors and the arresting gaze of the subject. I bought a small reproduction (which is how I know about the color). It got wrinkly from humidity. I still can’t throw it away. Never seen the originals, but even in postcard size these images from Quint Buchholz charm me, particularly [Flight](http://www.cs.berkeley.edu/~efros/images/postcards/), which strikes me as joyous, desperate, or wistful depending on mood. Georgia O’Keeffe’s southwestern landscapes (not typically the bony ones) like [The Red Hills, Grey Sky](http://monetartprints.artselect.com/perl/frMagnify?artID=4585&matID=1536&frameID=276) Kawase Hasui’s [Night At Shinkawa](http://www.hanga.com/viewimage.cfm?ID=1094) there are far too many more I can’t bring to mind right now… ---
**Author:** ![eenerms](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@eenerms](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eenerms)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintings-that-you-cannot-forget/205874/63 "2003-10-09T06:37:07Z")
The Potato Eaters by Van Gogh is the first painting that came to my mind when I read the OP. Dark-depressing. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 7:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintings-that-you-cannot-forget/205874/64 "2003-10-09T07:07:52Z")
Henri Rousseau’s [Sleeping Gypsy](http://www.artchive.com/artchive/R/rousseau/gypsy.jpg.html). What was the gypsy dreaming of at that moment? ---
**Author:** ![Gotterfunken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/58956e/32.png) [@Gotterfunken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gotterfunken)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintings-that-you-cannot-forget/205874/65 "2003-10-09T12:53:45Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by supervenusfreak \* > \*\*There is one painting in the British National Gallery that I cannot forget. I do not know the title or the artist, but it is of a colonial (1700s) family being entertained by an old man who is suffocating a bird in a vacuum tube to the horror and delight of various family members. \*\* That would be [An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump](http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/work?workNumber=NG725) by Joseph Wright of Derby. It’s good, but nobody beats [Caravaggio](http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/c/caravagg/index.html) when it comes to tenebristic night scenes. Though [Honthorst](http://gallery.euroweb.hu/html/h/honthors/index.html) comes pretty close. ---
**Author:** ![Humble\_Servant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/47e85d/32.png) [@Humble\_Servant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humble_Servant)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintings-that-you-cannot-forget/205874/66 "2003-10-09T14:38:48Z")
Oh wow, **Skopo** , that Bird in the Air Pump picture is fabulous. **Salieri** –your choices are all great too–love The Sword picture–the slender youth (male? female?) with the tiny long blade, how can he have any power for justice? Except I think he does, after all. The Bucholz postcards are great too. _Please_ post links to specific pictures, people. I love seeing new things, but I’m not gonna track an artist down if you just give a name. You care about art, you link. Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintings-that-you-cannot-forget/205874/67 "2003-10-09T14:48:49Z")
Thanks for all the suggestions - keep them coming. We did not manage to see “Guernica” this time but we may be back in Madrid next year. We did make a trip to Teledo and the most memorable sight was the ten El Grecos , together with assorted works by Titian , Van Dyck and Goya all together in the small sacristy of the cathedral . Talk about concentrated art !. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/paintings-that-you-cannot-forget/205874.md?page=3)