# 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:** 5
**Author:** ![lobotomyboy63](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobotomyboy63/32/2900_2.png) [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/81 "2008-02-16T05:28:36Z")
One, really? Van Gogh/Starry Night. It seems to vibrate and draws me in, both primitive and sophisticated somehow, conveying his disturbed state of mind which is foreign yet beautiful. C’mon, one more… Picasso/Don Quixote. Playful yet earnest, childlike, stripped down, form follows function. ---
**Author:** ![PastAllReason](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@PastAllReason](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastAllReason)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 5:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/82 "2008-02-16T05:49:09Z")
My favourite painting is by Lawren S. Harris, one of the founding members of the Group of Seven artists. The Group of Seven artists took a revolutionary approach in Canada to art in moving representations of the country becoming prominent in the 1910s-1920s timeframe. Their paintings show wildnerness and rawness. Of the Group of Seven, Lawren Harris is my favourite artist, and [North Shore, Lake Superior](http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artwork_zoom_e.jsp?mkey=10055) is my favourite painting. I recall seeing it for the first time at the National Gallery and being stunned by the power of it in person. I have two prints of it. ---
**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 16, 2008, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/83 "2008-02-16T09:48:34Z")
[QUOTE=Mr. Rosewater] 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. [/QUOTE] Nifty to find other people who enjoy Magritte. I got to see an exhibit of his stuff for a field trip with my French class in High School, and I’ve been pretty taken with it since. ---
**Author:** ![Crafter\_Man](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crafter_man/32/458_2.png) [@Crafter\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crafter_Man)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/84 "2008-02-16T20:01:15Z")
[Rest in Harvest](http://a973.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/89/l_d78804684ab8a924a9174daf8aecdbfc.jpg) by William-Adolphe Bouguereau ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2008, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/85 "2008-02-16T20:08:57Z")
This [Picasso](http://artxchangenetwork.com/Picture.aspx?idPicture=10144), variously called "The Poet Sabartes or “The Glass of Beer.” I have it on my living room wall (no, not the original!). I love to sit on the sofa during early spring through late summer with the blinds to my very tall and light-filled windows letting in the changing light as the day goes into twilight, my favorite time of day. I sit there and, with the mood of peace and inner reflection (well, the tipsiness too) of the painting that Picasso captured, I fell the subject is sitting with me as I relax into night. ---
**Author:** ![hogarth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hogarth/32/1773_2.png) [@hogarth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hogarth)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/87 "2013-06-26T18:18:05Z")
I’m not sure why this zombie was reanimated, but I’ll say my favourite is [A Rake’s Progress 2: The Rake’s Levee](http://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/yourpaintings/paintings/a-rakes-progress-2-the-rakes-levee-123974) ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/88 "2013-06-26T18:29:27Z")
Monet’s _Houses of Parliament at Sunset_, particularly [this one](http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/claude-monet/houses-of-parliament-at-sunset). ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/89 "2013-06-26T19:30:32Z")
[The Milkmaid](http://www.codart.nl/exhibitions/details/1483/), by Vermeer. Almost nothing is happening, in a completely unexciting location. But my eyes just keep going back to that slim, white stream of milk. Roddy ---
**Author:** ![Evin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/59ef9b/32.png) [@Evin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Evin)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/90 "2013-06-26T20:21:42Z")
_La Primavera_ (c. 1478), Sandro Botticelli (though neither named nor signed by him). ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/91 "2013-06-26T21:41:02Z")
> [@Sitnam](#): > > [Sunset In Venice](http://www.allposters.com/-sp/Sunset-In-Venice-Posters_i1099867_.htm) by Monet. I have a massive poster of it in my room and it always reminds me what Venice felt like. This is my current favorite and I also have a poster of it in my room. ---
**Author:** ![Claverhouse](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/13edae/32.png) [@Claverhouse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Claverhouse)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/92 "2013-06-26T23:30:06Z")
Frederic Remington’s ‘Battle of War Bonnet Creek’. The purity of desolation. I cannot find a decent image on Google Images, **[nearest.](http://www.bierstadt.org/upload1/file-admin/images/new18/Frederic%20Remington-954594.jpg)** ---
**Author:** ![blondebear](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/blondebear/32/1022_2.png) [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2013, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/93 "2013-06-26T23:34:41Z")
I’m a fan of Hudson River School-type landscapes. I love stuff by artists ike Moran and Bierstadt, great stylized visions of the American West. I don’t really have an absolute, number-one favorite, but right now I wish I could be standing right here:[Angels Landing by Arlene Braithwaite](http://arlenebraithwaite.fineartstudioonline.com/workszoom/926352) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/94 "2013-06-27T01:29:51Z")
I am an artist, and my favorite painting is one of my own, called _Gustave Eiffel Meets Georgia O’Keeffe._ Unfortunately I don’t have it online yet, so I’ll mention my 2nd favorite painting: It’s Salvador Dalí’s [_Corpus Hypercubus._](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/0/09/Dali_Crucifixion_hypercube.jpg) I love how Dalí portrays torture without anything touching the body. There are no spikes, no blood, no real agony except in the hands. And wow, a hypercube! And if you look at it long enough, the figure seems to float of its own accord, coming out of (escaping from) the cross. And if you see it live (or a very good reproduction), you can see the “hidden images” in Jesus’ knees. I should mention that my favorite painter is [Gustav Klimt](https://www.google.com/search?q=gustav+klimt&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&channel=np&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=WpLLUZbCIOGSyAG9oYCwBQ&biw=1204&bih=1149&sei=YJLLUZjbNYaSyAHvzoH4CQ). I love the way he combines sensuality with geometry and playfulness. And his use of gold can best be appreciated when seeing his work live (the best reason, of many, to visit Vienna). ---
**Author:** ![Suburban\_Plankton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/suburban_plankton/32/219_2.png) [@Suburban\_Plankton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suburban_Plankton)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/95 "2013-06-27T02:17:05Z")
Mine is definitely from the ‘pictures don’t do it justice’ column…in large part because scale plays a vital part in the appreciation of the work. At 48’ x 44’, you simply have to see it in person to comprehend the enormity of the work. The Sistine Chapel ceiling is a magnificent work of art, but what blew me away when I was there was [The Last Judgement](http://www.italian-renaissance-art.com/Last-Judgement.html), spanning the entire wall behind the altar. ---
**Author:** ![SeaDragonTattoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@SeaDragonTattoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SeaDragonTattoo)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/96 "2013-06-27T03:52:53Z")
[“Chrysalis” by Debra Sievers](http://www.debrasievers.com/img/galleryAssets/11.jpg), and I always loved the pan over of [Ernie Barnes’ “Sugar Shack”](http://www.blackartdepot.com/gallery/erniebarnes/new/sugar-shack-ernie-barnes.jpg) during Good Times credits. ---
**Author:** ![banjoDavid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/3d9bf3/32.png) [@banjoDavid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/banjoDavid)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/97 "2013-06-27T04:17:06Z")
Picasso’s The Red Armchair. Ever since I saw it when I was a kid at the Art Institute of Chicago David > **[Discover Art & Artists | The Art Institute of Chicago](https://www.artic.edu/collection)** > > Discover art by Van Gogh, Picasso, Warhol & more in the Art Institute's collection spanning 5,000 years of creativity. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/98 "2013-06-27T04:31:09Z")
[Gotta be this one.](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=opalcat&qs=SC&sk=SC1&FORM=QBIR&pq=opalkat&sc=8-7&sp=2&qs=SC&sk=SC1#view=detail&id=066090806213628F78103A9EEEF0AEEB8CAFA647&selectedIndex=35) ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Disheavel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@Disheavel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Disheavel)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 5:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/99 "2013-06-27T05:19:16Z")
[The Solidity of Fog](http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/inglese/collections/artisti/dettagli/opere_dett.php?id_art=175&id_opera=404) by Luigi Russolo. The mystery, the coloring, the loneliness. I could stare at it all day. I find something new every time, but the circles and lines running through it are unlike anything I’ve seen elsewhere. They give it texture and depth and they are representing fog! ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/100 "2013-06-27T05:31:18Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > [Gotta be this one.](http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=opalcat&qs=SC&sk=SC1&FORM=QBIR&pq=opalkat&sc=8-7&sp=2&qs=SC&sk=SC1#view=detail&id=066090806213628F78103A9EEEF0AEEB8CAFA647&selectedIndex=35) > > ☹ Wow, I never noticed those razor blades before. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/les_espaces_du_sommeil/32/308_2.png) [@Les\_Espaces\_Du\_Sommeil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Les_Espaces_Du_Sommeil)\ **Post date:** [June 27, 2013, 10:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452/101 "2013-06-27T10:07:51Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > I love me some [Garden of Earthly Delights](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/80/GardenED.jpg), by Hieronymous Bosch. That’s the one I would choose also but since it’s already been mentioned 3-4 times, let’s try something different. Pick just one is impossible but I’ll do my best to come up with a minimal list: **Klee** : _Alter Klang_ [http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=24918](http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=24918) or _Vor dem Schnee_ ([http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=24919](http://www.museumsyndicate.com/item.php?item=24919)) **Tanguy** : _Jour de Lenteur_ ([http://mapage.noos.fr/momina/tanguy/tanguy.htm](http://mapage.noos.fr/momina/tanguy/tanguy.htm)) **Monet** : Meules, Milieu du Jour ([http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Claude\_Monet\_-\_Meules%2C\_milieu\_du\_jour.jpg](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Claude_Monet_-_Meules%2C_milieu_du_jour.jpg)) > [@Ludovic](#): > > Hands down: The triptych Garden of Earthly Delights by Hieronymous Bosch. As a matter of fact, he’s my favorite painter ever. I like that genre pretty well, too, but just compare all of his paintings to the ones of his best imitator, Bruegel. All of the same elements are there but there is no character in Bruegel’s paintings. Some say, including myself, that this is partially indicative of a more cynical, atheistic approach which personifies death as a mass of _unthinking_ skeletons rather than demons with an evil life force (and I even noticed that before I found critics who agreed,) but it is also indicative to me of a bad painter. I was with you until you started dissing **Bruegel** :D. Bosch’s probably my favourite painter but Bruegel is right behind. _Hunters in the Snow_ ([http://http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les\_chasseurs\_dans\_la\_neige\_Pieter\_Brueghel\_l%27Ancien.jpg](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Les_chasseurs_dans_la_neige_Pieter_Brueghel_l%27Ancien.jpg)) and _The Dutch Proverbs_ ([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter\_Bruegel\_the\_Elder\_-_The\_Dutch\_Proverbs_-\_Google\_Art\_Project.jpg](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Pieter_Bruegel_the_Elder_-_The_Dutch_Proverbs_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg)) > [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](#): > > As I did in the poetry thread, I’ll toss in something contemporary rather than one of the great masters: > > [“No One Wants to Play Sega with Harrison Ford” by Brandon Bird](http://www.brandonbird.com/sega_ford.html) > > Obviously it ain’t Michelangelo, but something about it is just right. Exactly. It’s the type of pseudo-witty, “ironic” thing that I dislike but I can’t help thinking this is actually good albeit in a silly way. No great art, definitely but fun. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-favorite-painting/437452.md?page=6)