# What's your favorite painting?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-painting/14003>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [February 18, 2000, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-painting/14003 "2000-02-18T16:43:00Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 4

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**Author:** ![NickyLarson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b2d939/32.png) [@NickyLarson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NickyLarson)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2000, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-painting/14003/61 "2000-02-20T21:29:00Z")

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Anything by Hopper.  
Anything by Dali.  
“The Chess Game” by J. S. Sargent. Saw it at the Whitney Museum in a show of his stuff. The only time I seriously thought about putting a painting under my coat and leaving.

Obviously, I didn’t.

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**Author:** ![NickyLarson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b2d939/32.png) [@NickyLarson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NickyLarson)\
**Post date:** [February 20, 2000, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-painting/14003/62 "2000-02-20T21:32:00Z")

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Anything by Hopper.  
Anything by Dali.  
“The Chess Game” by John Singer Sargent. Saw a show of his work at the Whitney in NYC in '84 or '85. The only painting I thought about putting under my coat and walking out of the building with.

Obviously, I didn’t.

* * *

I drive way too fast to worry about my cholesterol.

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**Author:** ![sorrel554](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/91b2a8/32.png) [@sorrel554](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sorrel554)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2000, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-painting/14003/63 "2000-02-21T01:02:00Z")

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Vermeer’s “Woman Holding a Balance.”

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**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\
**Post date:** [February 21, 2000, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-your-favorite-painting/14003/64 "2000-02-21T01:13:00Z")

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Can’t believe no one has mentioned either **Rembrandt** or **Goya**. Rembrandt is the most technically brilliant painter the world has yet seen. What he did to mimic lighting variants is amazing. I love all of his work, but am partial to his self-potraits, wherein he always seems to have a little mischief in his eyes.

Goya’s stuff is great because it is so vibrant and full of life. My favorite is actually one of his less-celebrated works, a painting of two cats squaring off, backs arched. The title, if memory serves me, is simply _Los Gatos_.

No offense to those who have listed him as a favorite, but I don’t understand the appeal of El Greco. How many different ways can you show characters from the Bible in various states of weeping or lamentation. Not many, judging by this guy’s stuff. El Greco elicits a big yawn from me.

I agree with, gosh, I guess just about everybody, in their admiration of **Van Gogh** , though my current favorite of his works is (I have trouble with titles) _Crows in a Field_ (or something like that?). I believe it may have been his last piece.

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