Favorite Painting of All Time

Discussion in 'Visual Arts' started by Gallileo, Jul 20, 2013.

  1. Gallileo

    Gallileo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Europe
    Reading The Story of Art by Ernst Gombrich - a wondrous 1950 book widely regarded as a seminal work of criticism and that I wholeheartedly recommend to anyone - I found myself wondering, after all these years, what is my very favorite painting of all time.
    Try to choose one and only one is a nearly impossible mission, isn't it?
    So I ask help to you: post an image of your favorite picture and explain - briefly - what are the feelings that it sends to you. In other words, why it is your Favorite Painting of All Time. :)


    "There is, really, no such thing as art. There are only artists."
    (Ernst Gombrich)
     
  2. fluffskul

    fluffskul Would rather be at a concert

    Location:
    albany, ny
    [​IMG]

    Pure trippiness awesomeness. I've always felt it means something about the foolishness of the idea we call "time." Sorry I'm not that good at this. But hands down my favorite picture. Seeing it at MOMA was an experience I'll never forget.
     
  3. Gallileo

    Gallileo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Europe
    Boom! Haha! You almost immediately hit the target, my friend, because DalĂ­ is one of my very favorite artists and The Persistence of Memory is in my absolute Top Ten. I've even a reproduction of it in my living room. I simply love it. Thank you. :)
     
    Andy Smith and dkmonroe like this.
  4. marke

    marke Forum Resident

    Michelangelo- Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. I was awestruck when I saw this in 1998. Magnificent, a monumental achievement.

    [​IMG]
     
  5. auburn278

    auburn278 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore, MD, USA
    This may be trite, but its true...

    TheStarryNight.jpg
     
  6. Karnak

    Karnak "81, 82, 83, 84..."

    This is a good question but it's so hard! I've liked JW Waterhouse's stuff since my teenage years, there's Godward's "Tambourine Girl" and Frederick Alma Tadema's bright white and blue classic Greek scenes also come to mind. For my favorite though, it's Caspar David Friedrich's "Wanderer Above The Sea Of Fog". Hard for me to describe why-isolation, but also arrival and exaltation above the lower elements. Beyond that, well, words fail.
    Caspar_David_Friedrich_032_(The_wanderer_above_the_sea_of_fog).jpg
     
  7. Gallileo

    Gallileo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Europe
    What else it's possible to say about it? :)
    My only regret - although I live relatively near to it - I saw it only once, and many years ago.

    Beauty is never trite. :)
     
  8. Gallileo

    Gallileo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Europe
    Oh, you are right. It simply is an astonishing, breathtaking painting.
     
  9. rburly

    rburly Sitting comfortably with Item 9

    Location:
    Orlando
    The Japanese Bridge - Claude Monet
    The_Japanese_Bridge - Claude Monet.jpeg
     
  10. auburn278

    auburn278 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore, MD, USA
    I'm glad to know someone else sees it this way. I often get the response that it is very unoriginal to name The Starry Night as a favorite painting. I have several different prints that I've picked up through the years.

    Another personal favorite...

    starry_night_over_the_rhone_300px.jpg
     
  11. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I have so many I cannot pick one! no way no how.:)
     
    G E, timind, joy stinson and 4 others like this.
  12. Solaris

    Solaris a bullet in flight

    Location:
    New Orleans, LA
    Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez. I have an 8x1o pinned to the wall immediately to my left where I can see it every single day while I'm working. Neapolitan painter Luca Giordano called it the "theology of painting," and its complex structure and composition are, I think, valuable lessons for any visual artist.

    More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Las_Meninas

    meninas.jpg
     
  13. Gallileo

    Gallileo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Europe
    Oh, well, I always hated the "fake revolutionaries" or "the original ones at all costs" and, after all these years, I am getting closer and closer to zero tolerance. It's too easy. My older brother thought to be smart saying "the Mona Lisa is not, after all, that great masterpiece that is considered." Oh, yes...
    The Starry Night is - needless to say - wonderful. Perhaps - and I underline perhaps - my favorite Van Gogh is Wheatfield with Crows, which is believed as his last painting.
    [​IMG]
     
  14. JerolW

    JerolW Senior Member

    Starry Night for me as well.

    jerol
     
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  15. Gallileo

    Gallileo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Europe
    Do not be shy, bro, try to name one! :winkgrin:

    A-m-a-z-i-n-g-.
     
    Antmanbee likes this.
  16. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I'll have to ponder that thought!:)
     
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  17. Gallileo

    Gallileo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Europe
    Oh, that's what I wanted to hear from you. ;)
    I'll wait for your favorite one. :)
     
    auburn278 likes this.
  18. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    OK...
     
  19. auburn278

    auburn278 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore, MD, USA
    You can do it... everyone has that one painting that speaks to them...
     
  20. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I have many that speak to me...:)
     
    Ignatius, Tuco and auburn278 like this.
  21. auburn278

    auburn278 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Baltimore, MD, USA
    Then start naming! :)
     
  22. Karnak

    Karnak "81, 82, 83, 84..."

    It's not my favorite but does anyone else like The Arnolfini Wedding?
    The centre and for me focus of it seems to lie not just in the people but in the mirror.
     
    Ignatius, roverb, caracallac and 6 others like this.
  23. Michael

    Michael I LOVE WIDE S-T-E-R-E-O!

    I'm processing!:D
    The files are huge.
     
    auburn278 likes this.
  24. jsayers

    jsayers Just Drifting....

    Location:
    Horse Shoe, NC
    One of my many favorites :

    "L'Absinthe" by Edgar Degas 1876

    rsz__labsinthe__par_edgar_degas_1876.jpg
     
  25. Gallileo

    Gallileo Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    Europe
    Here I am. Some time ago I even wrote an article for a local newspaper about Jan van Eyck, because there was an exhibition in town. Yes, The Arnolfini Wedding is one of his most famous work and it has a mysterious reputation, that numerous studies and unresolved questions fed.
    The mirror, for the first time, as far as we know, show the background of the painting.
     
    roverb, recklessczar, edski and 2 others like this.

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