Don’t know the other painting you’re referring to but I am jealous of your seeing the Garden in the Prado. If I ever go to continental Europe that’s the one place I will go to, both to see all of the Bosches and also all of the Goyas (prolly my second favorite painter.)
This is so funny…that’s my favorite painting, too! I’m glad I clicked on the thread before I searched around looking for a link! 
I can’t add much to your reasons for loving this painting…mine are much the same. I would add that I love the composition of it, as well.
Love your comment about the Illini Union, as well! Now, I will always think of that when I see the painting.
Indeed - the Goyas were good - surprisingly funny, to me - and just five minutes away is the modern art gallery with Picasso’s Guernica. Great art, endless tapas and smoking allowed in bars - Madrid is a fine town.
Oh, well, clearly the artists-within-a-painting were thinking ahead about how their paintings would look in a larger painting. I mean, who doesn’t do that? 
Likewise with David’s amazing Coronation of Napoleon, which as I recall is not far away in that great large-canvas gallery at the Louvre.
Is it another Bosch in the Prado? Or someone else? Somewhere else?
Creation of Adam,The famous pull my finger painting. It has never been the same since I saw it.
I could only limit it to 4.
Bacon’s Screaming Pope (Based on a painting of Pope Innocent. I have always found this more haunting than The Scream. Screaming Pope
Pollock’s Lavender Mist. I know a lot of people really dislike Pollock and say “I could do better than that”. I would challenge them to try to do just that. Get a canvass this size, try to duplicate the work or come close to it. The magnitude of it, the texture, the chaos yet tranquility. Seeing pictures of his work don’t nearly capture the feeling of the work itself. Lavender Mist
This Mondrian picture (which I regretfully do not know the name of). Mondrian It may be my OCD but the lines and the placement of these bright colors just really speaks to me.
Mark Rydan’s The Birth of Venus. Mary Ryden is amazingly bizarre and beautiful at the same time. He maks oddly haunting images that are very surreal yet cartoonish and almost cuddly. The Birth of Venus
The Banjo Lesson by Henry Ossawa Tanner really speaks to me.
Beyond that, I’m a big fan of Goya. The Prado is an amazing place.
I have somehow never seen that painting before. It’s awesome.
Yeah, the Nunchuck Jerry Seinfeld is now my desktop wallpaper.
My favorite painting is Summer Breeze by Alice Dalton Brown. I have a print of it hanging on my living room wall and I never tire of looking at it – the light and shadows; the two views of the curtains; the motion of the curtian in the empty, still room; the glimpse of summer landscape through the window … all of which being said, I don’t think I’d love it so much if it didn’t remind me of the lakeside cottage where I spent many summer vacations as a child.
Maybe a bit conventional but I have to go with Turner’s Rain, Steam, and Speed. Seen in the National Gallery in all its glory the colours and the light are amazing.
Hard to say. But–limited to paintings I’ve seen in person–I’d have to pick Andre Derain’s The Turning Road. At Houston’s own Museum of Fine Arts. Click on the Artchive’s Image Viewer to get a close look. (It’s big–51 x 76 3/4 inches.)
Thanks to the de Menil family, I’ve seen a large number of Magrittes. (They sponsored exhibits in Houston before founding the Museum.) But I can’t pick just one.
I have to share some of my gavorite Goya stuff:
Hadn’t seen that one before. Very nice; thanks for sharing.
That’s a powerful piece, even just looking at it on screen. Thanks for sharing.
GingerOfTheNorth, thanks for your post about that painting. I knew you thought it was pretty, but I didn’t realize you liked it that much. Made my evening.
Another work of his, The Thankful Poor also has a quiet power to it, I think.
Since “The Starry Night” has already been mentioned (I love its composition and expressive content!), I’ll give a nod to another well-known favorite: Edward Hopper’s “Nighthawks.” There’s such a stark beauty to it, the use of light and shadow, the way he depicts interior and exterior space (and somewhat confounds the two in the viewer’s eye)–a wonderful painting.
For something I’ve seen in person, I really liked John Singleton Copley’s “Mrs. Thomas Gage.” A lot of the portraits of the time (1771) still insisted on a formal rigidity. This is a much more intriguing piece than a lot of earlier portraits because of the way Copley eschews rigidity and depicts his subject in that relaxed, dreamy pose. It’s quite striking when you see it in person. (A museum official there said it’s often called the “American Mona Lisa.” I don’t know if I’d go that far, but I did like it a lot.)
Hmm. Mr. Gage was a lucky man. Here’s a larger image. I see what they mean with the Mona Lisa comparison.
http://www.dia.org/the_collection/overview/full.asp?objectID=35573&image=1 This painting can keep you busy for a long time. Brugel the elders.Wedding Dance at the Detroit Museum of Art.