# What is your favorite painting? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 13, 2008, 4:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452 "2008-02-13T16:48:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/41 "2008-02-13T22:21:13Z")
[_The Sleeping Gypsy_](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.moma.org/images/collection/FullSizes/83813003.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php%3Fobject_id%3D80172&h=337&w=520&sz=21&hl=en&start=1&sig2=8xgVfytY4Uod23QcT6bEBQ&tbnid=e0c42RI-UOUARM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=131&ei=N2uzR4yqJp2UggKmh5i2BQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drousseau%2Bsleeping%2Bgypsy%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG) by Henri Rousseau. ---
**Author:** ![anu-la1979](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@anu-la1979](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anu-la1979)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/42 "2008-02-13T22:23:46Z")
_Horse and Train_ by Alexis Colville, followed closely by _The Kiss_ by Klimt and the nicely creepy bits of Hieronymous Bosch. ---
**Author:** ![AuntiePam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@AuntiePam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AuntiePam)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/43 "2008-02-13T22:37:51Z")
[QUOTE=TroubleAgain] I like [Master Bedroom](http://www.artselect.com/CMFS/artID~3D2858~26t~3Ds~26openct13274~3D8139/Andrew_Wyeth/Master_Bedroom.html) [/QUOTE] That’s my third favorite. Mom gave me a framed print of it years back, and it hangs in the bedroom. The bedroom in the painting is reminiscent of a room in a house we lived in – bare but functional and with good light – and we had one Very Good Dog who looked just like that dog. Another Wyeth favorite which I haven’t found a picture of is a tattered white curtain blowing in a window. I don’t know if it’s a detail or a whole painting. ---
**Author:** ![Leah\_M](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/57b2e6/32.png) [@Leah\_M](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leah_M)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/44 "2008-02-13T23:49:54Z")
I have a really difficult time picking a single painting, but if I had to choose, it would end up being one by [Rene Magritte](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ren%C3%A9_Magritte). Possibly the '[Empire of Light](http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&q=magritte+empire+of+light&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi) '. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2008, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/45 "2008-02-13T23:53:21Z")
I’ve liked [Sadak in Search of the Waters of Oblivion](http://www.southampton.gov.uk/leisure/arts/sotonartgallery/search/view-artwork.asp?acc_num=1367&show_page=interpretation) by John Martin for a very long time now. (it’s in the Southampton Gallery - near where I live) ---
**Author:** ![5\_time\_champ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/278dde/32.png) [@5\_time\_champ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5_time_champ)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/46 "2008-02-14T00:16:35Z")
No idea why, but [On the Terrace](http://www.artic.edu/artexplorer/search.php?tab=1&resource=14655) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir is my favorite. I am always disappointed when I visit the Art Institute of Chicago, and it is not displayed. ---
**Author:** ![eleanorigby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ee7513/32.png) [@eleanorigby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eleanorigby)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/47 "2008-02-14T00:20:25Z")
I like the Magritte pics a lot. I also have a Wyeth print that I really like. This is not it, but I found this online (and couldn’t find the one I have) and liked this as well. [AndrewWyeth](http://pavans.net/Musee/Wyeth_wind_from_the_sea.jpg) I also like this: [Delaunay](http://farm1.static.flickr.com/153/362287486_930a2fc2ba_o.jpg) I suppose I’m not really holding to the OP’s premise of ONE favorite art piece. (sorry) ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/48 "2008-02-14T00:47:07Z")
[QUOTE=Robot Arm] Reminds me a little of Pannini’s [Views of Modern Rome](http://www.batguano.com/bgma/LGPmrome.jpg); one of my favorites. It looks like someone had just discovered perspective and was having a field day with it, although there is one error. [/QUOTE] Yowza. That is one busy painting! What’s the error? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/41988e/32.png) [@El\_Cid\_Viscoso](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Cid_Viscoso)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/49 "2008-02-14T00:57:01Z")
Monet’s La Japonaise. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 1:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/50 "2008-02-14T01:10:37Z")
[QUOTE=twickster] [_The Sleeping Gypsy_](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.moma.org/images/collection/FullSizes/83813003.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.moma.org/collection/browse_results.php%3Fobject_id%3D80172&h=337&w=520&sz=21&hl=en&start=1&sig2=8xgVfytY4Uod23QcT6bEBQ&tbnid=e0c42RI-UOUARM:&tbnh=85&tbnw=131&ei=N2uzR4yqJp2UggKmh5i2BQ&prev=/images%3Fq%3Drousseau%2Bsleeping%2Bgypsy%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG) by Henri Rousseau. [/QUOTE] Ooh, I love that one! ---
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/51 "2008-02-14T02:33:08Z")
[QUOTE=BlueKangaroo] [Hour of Silver, by Betsy Greenlee](http://www.flickr.com/photos/21691644@N04/2262691987/) is the first picture I was ever blown away by. [/QUOTE] I’ve seen this hanging in BlueKangaroo’s home (or rather, seen it propped against a wall, and then I wrapped it up for moving day). It is stunning. It’s absolutely stunningly beautiful, there’s really no other way to describe it. One of my favourites is Monet’s [Irises](http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/EUR/2300-2034~Irises-Posters.jpg). I have a watch with it on the face. I am also quite partial to the work of the Group of Seven, showcasing Canadian landscapes which I miss so dearly. [Link to Stormy Weather, Georgian Bay by F. H. Varley.](http://dropd.com/issue/21/GroupOfSeven/storm-big.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Staggerlee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/staggerlee/32/3134_2.png) [@Staggerlee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Staggerlee)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/52 "2008-02-14T11:28:58Z")
[QUOTE=Ludovic] Hands down: The triptych Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch. As a matter of fact, he’s my favorite painter ever. [/QUOTE] This was always my favourite too, ever since I saw the book of details as a little grim child. I had the pleasure of seeing it in the flesh at the Prado gallery in Madrid last summer, and found another painting there which I loved - a depraved nativity scene with the creepiest Christ conceivable, and various examples of human frailty on show. But I can’t find out online what it’s called, or get an image. It isn’t The Adoration of the Child or the Epiphany triptych, though it’s similar… anybody know which I’m on about? ---
**Author:** ![Jolly\_Roger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/91b2a8/32.png) [@Jolly\_Roger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jolly_Roger)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 12:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/53 "2008-02-14T12:31:18Z")
[QUOTE=Freddy the Pig] We’ve all had the chance to weigh in on our [favorite poem](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=454852). What about the visual arts? My favorite painting is \*[The School of Athens\*](http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.abcgallery.com/R/raphael/raphael30.JPG&imgrefurl=http://www.abcgallery.com/R/raphael/raphael30.html&h=587&w=786&sz=62&tbnid=pIaxEfAKveBZfM:&tbnh=107&tbnw=143&prev=/images%3Fq%3D%2522school%2Bof%2Bathens%2522%26um%3D1&start=2&sa=X&oi=images&ct=image&cd=2) by Raphael–a fresco which originally decorated the walls of the pope’s library and is now part of the Vatican Museum. I love the interplay between two of the richest cultures in human history–the ancient Greek and the high Renaissance. The painting depicts a number of contemporary Renaissance artists (Michelangelo, Leonardo, Bramante, and Raphael himself) as Greek thinkers, and transposes them back into what was then the open-air setting of a partially completed St. Peter’s. I especially like the depiction of the life of the mind, which takes me back to long-ago university days. The argumentative professors flanked by students, the solitary thinkers engrossed in their work, the clusters of observers bent over group projects, and even the hairstyles and beards could have been painted on the portico of the Illini Union in 1978. Only the togas would have to go! What is your favorite, and why? [/QUOTE] I was fortunate to be one of the first ten or so folks in line at the Rijksmuseum on my visit to Amsterdam this past August. Thus it was uncrowded and I could look at the artwork undisturbed for a long period. Picking a favorite painting would be hard, but I have to say that the [Night Watch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Watch_%28painting%29) was awesome. You really can’t see the sheer beauty of it from a photograph. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 2:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/54 "2008-02-14T14:28:50Z")
[A Friend In Need](http://gaming.unlv.edu/gallery/a_friend_in_need.htm) by Cassius Marcellus Coolidge c. 1870 ---
**Author:** ![Terraplane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/74df32/32.png) [@Terraplane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terraplane)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2008, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/55 "2008-02-14T15:20:48Z")
Van Gogh’s [Night Cafe with Pool Table](http://www.globalgallery.com/prod_images/sw-70097.jpg). ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2008, 6:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/56 "2008-02-15T06:43:54Z")
> [@Robot Arm](#): > > Reminds me a little of Pannini’s [Views of Modern Rome](http://www.batguano.com/bgma/LGPmrome.jpg); one of my favorites. It looks like someone had just discovered perspective and was having a field day with it, although there is one error. [QUOTE=Freddy the Pig] Yowza. That is one busy painting! [/quote] The original is huge; it’s still busy, but it’s not microscopically so. And I have a very large jigsaw puzzle with that picture. I’ve read that Pannini created four paintings on that theme, very much alike, but with differences in the room details and the paintings-within-the-painting. I’ve seen two of them. > [@](#): > > What’s the error? Hard to describe, but I’ll try. Imagine someone is holding a Rubik’s Cube in front of you so that the blue face is directly toward you. Take a picture of it. No matter how you twist, turn, or bend that picture, you’re only ever going to see the blue side. Now bring up the painting again, and look at the pictures along the far right side. They’re on a wall that faces into the center of the room, and the tops and bottoms of the frames converge toward a vanishing point in the distance. But look at the contents of those pictures. We see the building facades, square with the borders of the paintings, but we can see a side of the buildings, too. Pannini gives the viewer a perspective on the paintings, but also on their contents; as if the subject was in three dimensions and changed as we saw the painting from a new angle. You know how you sometimes read job descriptions where they say they want someone “detail oriented”; you think this is what they mean? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Rosewater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/898d66/32.png) [@Mr.Rosewater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Rosewater)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2008, 10:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/57 "2008-02-15T10:01:52Z")
I would have to second **Leah M** ’s vote of _Empire of Lights_. I have always had a fondness for Magrite’s playfulness. And he always uses the best blues in his work. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2008, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/58 "2008-02-15T10:14:58Z")
The first time I actually saw [The raft of the Medusa](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Th%C3%A9odore_G%C3%A9ricault_-_Le_Radeau_de_la_M%C3%A9duse.jpg) I was completely blown away. The only way to appreciate it is to visit the Louvre as there is no way to convey the _scale_ of the thing in a reproduction. The original is 20 feet wide and 15 feet tall. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![percussion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@percussion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percussion)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2008, 12:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/59 "2008-02-15T12:44:37Z")
[Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the sky](http://www.artchive.com/artchive/C/carr/carr_scorned.jpg.html) by Emily Carr ---
**Author:** ![percussion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/43a26b/32.png) [@percussion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/percussion)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2008, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/60 "2008-02-15T12:47:11Z")
[QUOTE=Jolly Roger] I was fortunate to be one of the first ten or so folks in line at the Rijksmuseum on my visit to Amsterdam this past August. Thus it was uncrowded and I could look at the artwork undisturbed for a long period. Picking a favorite painting would be hard, but I have to say that the [Night Watch](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Night_Watch_%28painting%29) was awesome. You really can’t see the sheer beauty of it from a photograph. [/QUOTE] Sure you can, I mean, The drum is right there out in the open plain sight!! I can see it clear as a bell (this is also one of my favorites, but im a little biased :P) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452.md?page=4)