Favorite Painting of All Time

One of my faves; simply amazing.

 

The Card Players, Paul Cézanne, 1894-1895.
Musée d'Orsay, Paris, France.
The most expensive work of art ever sold. It was sold in 2011 for a price variously estimated at between $250 million and $300 million.
http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2012/02/qatar-buys-cezanne-card-players-201202

 

L. S. Lowry - Seascape

 

I'm surprised there's not much love for what is arguably the masterpiece of the Fauvist movement (I would argue that Fauvism's masterwork is really Matisse's "The Open Window (Collioure)). What's not to love about the "Joy"?

 

Jeanne Hébuterne, Amedeo Modigliani, 1919.

 

I saw this many years ago. Just an awesome work. Thousands of little things to notice.

 

I like this one in Cardiff Museum. Don't know who painted it as its on a balcony and you cant get close to it:



This is a more well known favourite. The museum has a great collection of Impressionist work and is a very relaxing place to visit and admire the art in silence.
I love the expression on the model - always cheers me up if I feel stressed

 

Lucky you. I haven't seen it live yet.

 

There is a tragic story associated with this lady. She was Modigliani's lover and (from Wiki.)...." On 24 January 1920 Amedeo Modigliani died. Jeanne Hébuterne's family brought her to their home but Jeanne, totally distraught, threw herself out of the fifth-floor apartment window the day after Modigliani's death, killing herself and her unborn child...."

 

You are right, my friend, I knew this.
That's because Modigliani was afflicted by tubercular meningitis.
From Wiki, her epitaph reads: "Devoted companion to the extreme sacrifice."

 

Huh hah, so that's why the long face!

 

You know this is terrible, right?

 

Another Australian one - Frederick McCubbin, The Pioneer 1904.
A large triptych that tells the story of an early settler and his family over a number of years...

 

I like the painting, don't think it's terrible at all

 

Argh!

 

Van Gogh - Pollard Birches

 

This is my favorite painting from last year. It hangs at the Minneapolis Institute of the Arts. I neglected to get the artist's name and a Google image search wasn't helpful. It's large, maybe 8 X6, and what I like about it is that the bottom half is totally abstract, it is just flat black monochrome, pieced by the yellow stripe, and it fades seamlessly into the realistic rustic scene above.

 

Woman with Folded Arms, Pablo Picasso, 1901-1902.

 

William Holman-Hunt - Isabella and the Pot of Basil

 

The Seven Works of Mercy, Caravaggio, 1607.
Pio Monte della Misericordia, Naples, Italy.

 

The Taking of Christ, Caravaggio, 1602.
National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin.

 

In the Conservatory - 1878-79
Édouard Manet
Alte Nationalgalerie, Berlin

 

Joseph Wright of Derby - A Philosopher giving that Lecture on the Orrery, in which a lamp is put in place of the Sun

 

Waterhouse's Lady of Shallot is one of my very faves. Standing in front of it at the Tate was a minor religious experience for me. I also got to see Alma Tadema's work there, which I had never seen before. Another genius. And I haven't seen much of John Singer Sargeant's work here, either. So...

 

That Waterhouse is o-u-t-s-t-a-n-d-i-n-g.