Favorite art work

The Last Judgement in the Sistine Chapel. Can’t explain why, I’m just mesmerized by it.

If we're talking Italian masters, I'll just stick with Michaelangelo and the Pieta in St Peters.

But as a group, I prefer the Dutch and Flemish masters. And while I would have a hard time explaining exactly why, I've always enjoyed the works of Breughel the elder, especially the genre paintings. I have a copy of the Peasant Wedding on my gallery wall.

I love that Bernini David. I was mesmerized by his work in the Borghese but you could feel the intensity on David’s face.

I guess if I had to narrow it down, I’d pick Vermeer’s View of Delft. I’d never noticed it until the Rijksmuseum exhibition of the Vermeers and they had it displayed so well that it just wow’d me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/View_of_Delft

Favorite object: Vase of Alienor d’Aquitaine in the Louvre. It’s the only object we know she held so it’s more about that for me than how beautiful it is.

https://collections.louvre.fr/en/ark:/53355/cl010096614

Fun thread, Lane!

I can't really decide between Carl Bloch's In a Roman Osteria and Rosa Bonheur's Ploughing in Nevers. Both are brilliant works, and neither artist is sufficiently appreciated.

Hieronymus Bosch, The Garden of Earthly Delights. In the Prado, Madrid.

I could stare at the details in this masterpiece for hours and hours (and have).

1 Rembrandt’s Nightwatch
2 Michelangelo’s David
3 Da Vinci’s The Last Supper

This is an impossible task. If I were to pick one during this year's travel, it would have to be Vermeer's 'Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window' in Dresden.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_Reading_a_Letter_at_an_Open_Window#/media/File:Jan_Vermeer_van_Delft_-_Brieflezend_meisje_bij_het_venster_(ca._1657-59).jpg

Reason? I am a cinematographer, and ever since my film school days, I have sought inspiration from paintings. How different artists from different periods and regions represent light is of utmost interest to me. I wanted to see the skylight illuminating this scene, the reflection in the glass pane, and the impeccable mise-en-scène. From the green drapes on the right to the window on the left, and the delineation caused by the shadows and the highlights, gives this image a quality that is something to behold in person. Of course, her expression and the way she holds the letter speak eloquently about her state of mind. For me, this is one of the artist's greatest achievements. No wonder Ann Hollander claimed that 17th-century Dutch art was proto-cinema.

I was surprised at how affected I was with Monet's Water Lilys in Paris. Hadn't expected it.

But the first time I took a back staircase in the Louvre and came across the "Winged Victory of Samothrace", on a Mezzanine floor, no one around. Gut punch.

Came back later and a crowd was sitting around the floor taking a break. Not the same.

Loved the Minoan jewelry on display at the Archaeological Museum in Heraklion, Crete. Much of it could easily be worn today and not look out of place. But my favourite was a small gold pendant of two bees or maybe hornets with outstretched wings and holding a ball between them. Exquisite workmanship on a small item produced around 4,000 years ago.

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat.

When I was in college it was on the cover of one of my psychology textbooks so I saw it every day and just fell in love with it. Eventually I was able to see it in person at the Art Institute of Chicago and it just blew my mind. Seeing a painting printed in a book is nothing like seeing it up close in person.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Sunday_Afternoon_on_the_Island_of_La_Grande_Jatte#/media/File%3AA_Sunday_on_La_Grande_Jatte%2C_Georges_Seurat%2C_1884.jpg

Three-way tie between the starry blue ceiling of Santa Maria sopra Minerva church in Rome, Pablo Picasso's 1921 version of Three Musicians which is often interpreted as Picasso himself (Harlequin), his friend and poet Guillaume Apollinaire (Pierrot), and writer Max Jacob (the monk), and Mark Rothko's No. 14 of 1960.

At least in my mood this moment!

https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/97.524/

https://philamuseum.org/learn/educational-resources/three-musicians

https://roaminghistorian.com/2020/05/10/rome-attractions-church-of-santa-maria-sopra-minerva/#jp-carousel-142153

Going against the grain slightly, my least favourite artwork (and artist for that matter) might be Jordan Wolfson's Colored Sculpture. I hate the name, the violence it represents and its ugliness. For those same reasons, I like it a lot.

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/may/03/jordan-wolfson-puppet-violence-colored-sculpture-tate-modern

https://youtu.be/w1PxJatd9LE?si=3ZvqyrCZyh7IWxEz

Caillebotte's Raboteurs de Parquet in the Musee D'Orsay.

The mundane turned elegant. Stopped me in my tracks the first time I saw it. Major influence to this day in my photography.

I am not so much busy with categorizing art as the best or the most impressive. But the paintings of Emile Claus, a Flemish impressionist, often strikes me. It’s the combination with Naturalism that makes his work so special.

Most of his works are to find in Belgian Museums and also one in Musee d'Orsay.

See. I’m not sure I really appreciate art the way all y’all do. Its beauty, how it moves you, and so on. I wish I did. I am more about a work of art being interesting or having details that I find funny or unusual.

My favorite is Giotto’s Scrovegni Chapel in Padua — kind of a cheating choice because it is many, many paintings and not just one. I first saw it as a young teenager in 1971, in the days when you could just walk right in and spend all the time you wanted to. My art teacher at school, Miss Dickey, passed on her love and knowledge of late medieval and early Renaissance art to my school friends and me, so I was well primed to enjoy what I was looking at.

I still, after all the many art history classes I’ve taken since then, and all the art books I’ve read, and all the art I've seen, and having visited the chapel again in 2019, can’t understand how Giotto’s art seemed to spring out of nowhere — it’s like a whole different world. So, OK, I did tear up seeing it all for the second time, but I think that was mostly nostalgia and just happiness that I could be there again in person.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Arena-Chapel

El Jaleo by John Singer Sargent at the Isabella Stewart Gardner museum in Boston. The movement is amazing, doesn't help that I was stationed in Spain for 2 years, and lived for a year next door to a Flamenco studio.

Also, in the Carnavalet, there's a painting by Alexei-Petrovitch Bogoliouboff, La tour Eiffel, la nuit. Gorgeous.

Michelangelo's Pieta in St. Peters
Las Meninas in the Prado in Madrid

My favorites when traveling tend to be sculpture, large scale paintings, or very painterly works because reproductions in books don't do them justice.

Some of them are popular crowd pleasers:

• Rembrandt's Night Watch at the Rijksmuseum
• Bernini's Apollo and Daphne at the Borghese
• Michelangelo's David

Then, I have some more unusual picks:

• Velasquez's portrait of Pope Innocent at the Palazzo Doria Pamphilj in Rome. (There's a reason so many later artists riffed on it.)
• Therese Swartz's portrait of Lizzie Ansighn at the Rijksmuseum. It's tucked away in an obsure section of 19th century paintings, and it absolutely stopped me in my tracks, possibly because I wasn't expecting it..
  • Tiepolo's fresco at the Wurzburg Residenz. (It required many years of restoration after WWII, and was not open to the public until 1987. I suspect that it's not common in art history texts because very few art historians ever saw it.)
  • Anything by Frans Hals.

I almost agree with Claudia, but add:
1. Sistine Chapel is so amazing and filled with magnificent art.
2Rembrandt’s Nightwatch
3 Michelangelo’s David
4 Da Vinci’s The Last Supper

Just a quick tip: I recommend always referring to the great artist and scientist from the village of Vinci as "Leonardo," the proper way of referring to him. It will raise your perceived net worth by a couple hundred percent.

By the way, the science museum* in Valencia has an amazing temporary exhibit based on Leonardo's life, his art and his inventions. I'm not certain how long it will run, but it's worth a bit of a hike to see.

*Part of the Ciutat de les Artes i Sciencies

"But my favourite was a small gold pendant of two bees or maybe hornets with outstretched wings and holding a ball between them."

@ Lesley, this one?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malia_Pendant

Wow, that is difficult. I visit the Art Institute in Chicago often, so that's a high standard.

While traveling, for some reason I really liked Mucha's stained glass window at St. Vitus.

I love Antony Gormley's ' Another Place' on Crosby Beach, just out side Liverpool.
A weird combination of moving and fun.
Previously some of the men were on roof tops in London and it was always nice to spot one.

https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/another-place-301861

I love the impressionist era and could find any number of paintings during that period that take my breath away, including Women in the Garden by Monet that I saw at the Musée d'Orsay back in 1999.

One of my favorite artists, though, is John Singer Sargent. His use of color and light turns his portraits into a feast for my eyes. Here is the painting of Mrs. Carl Meyer and her Children I saw last year at a special exhibit at the Tate Britain that brings rich taffeta, satin and lace to life.

https://mostlytraveled.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/img_2893-2.jpeg

"...Caillebotte's Raboteurs de Parquet"

@Emily I'd never seen that but I agree. And that's only seeing it online.

But after looking at it, I was led to the second version (a year later?) that I like better. And that's still with just seeing it online.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5a/Gustave_Caillebotte-Floor-scrapers_%281876%29.jpg/960px-Gustave_Caillebotte-Floor-scrapers_%281876%29.jpg

Where the above image came from:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_raboteurs_de_parquet

I've seen many of the beautiful pieces already suggested, all good choices. But the first painting that made me sit down in utter awe and brought tears to my eyes was "The Flower Carriers" by Diego Rivera (San Francisco MOMA). Perhaps it was the time and place in my then-young life that caused the reaction, or maybe it was seeing the details, colors, brushstrokes and unexpected size of the painting. I've reacted similarly to other pieces of art (including the Bernini sculpture you selected) but the Rivera was the first one and it sparked a life long pursuit of seeing as much beautiful art as possible.

https://www.sfmoma.org/artwork/35.4516/

"Perhaps it was the time and place in my then-young life..."

It was for me with the "Winged Victory". I'm haunted sometimes by the thought that I'm missing so much Art from how I encountered them.

This is a lot of fun and I have enjoyed reading all of the replies. Ten years ago I had very little interest in art. All of my education was in the sciences. I am now, as an old lady, rounding out my education with some art studies. I will list the two works that I had the most emotional reaction to, as there are so many different ways of trying to decide a favorite.

1. Lane already mentioned Donatello's David
   wikipedia page

2. Titian's Assumption of the Virgin in situ at the Basillica dei Frari
   save venice

Guernica by Pablo Picasso at the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid. The anti-war painting is moving to see. And it is a very large work, around 25 feet long. I was amazed to learn while viewing it that Guernica was displayed in Chicago in the 1950s. In an adjoining case, was an exhibition catalogue from the Art Institute of Chicago for Guernica. It an age of increasing fascism in the US, Europe and other places, it's heartening to know a Spanish painter took up his brush against tyranny.

When I was five years old, in 1968, we lived in London for a few months and my mother took me to the British Museum. I fell in love with the Standard of Ur. All those fascinating little figures on each side! Over the years, whenever I have been in London and visited the British Museum, I always make time to visit the Mesopotamian galleries and see my old friend the Standard of Ur again, most recently just this past June.

1. Diego Velázquez’s Las Meninas and Pablo Picasso’s interpretations of it
2. Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory
3. Pretty much everything by Fernando Botero

I love Las Meninas as well. But since Lane didn't limit our travels to Europe, I have to go with In From the Night Herd by Frederic Remington. You can Google for just the image, but here is a link to an interesting discussion about Remington in general and In From the Night Herd in particular.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrVvK6ntAgs

When I visited the State Russian Museum in St. Petersburg in 2018, I was mesmerized by the works of two artists in particular, Ivan Aivazovsky, whose "The Wave" stood out majestically covering an entire wall. Loved his landscape paintings as well, many from the Russo-Turkish wars in the 19th century. Also Vasily Perov's paintings.

In addition to that, my favorites have been the Orsay (the entire gallery, not just the Impressionists) in Paris, and the Reina Sofia in Madrid (Guernica).

What a fun topic and difficult question! I’d have trouble figuring out my favorite art piece in each museum I’ve been fortunate to visit. But, my initial reaction is to choose Picasso’s Guernica in Madrid. I learned about it years ago from a Rick Steves book or show. The history behind it fascinated me and when I finally saw it, I was mesmerized. It is a huge canvas that just draws you into it. I must have looked at it for 20 minutes. https://www.museoreinasofia.es/coleccion/obra/guernica

I’ve enjoyed everyone’s answers and the links to art I haven’t seen before.

Picasso’s Guernica just depresses me too much. :(

Franco won.

That’s a beautiful choice! For me, one that stands out is Vermeer’s Girl with a Pearl Earring in The Hague. In person, it’s smaller than expected, but the intimacy and subtle play of light make it feel alive, almost like she’s about to speak. It’s a reminder of how powerful simplicity in art can be.

I had 2 directions in my life - computer science that brought home the bacon and art/art history.

I probably have a different outlook than most travelers - I majored in art (oil painting) and art history in the 70's in Ann Arbor/Ypsilanti MI with professors who were schooled in French Impressionism and Post-Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago and also with artists/professors at Yale University.

In 1976 my university sponsored a field trip from Ypsilanti MI to New York where I was fortunate enough to see the "Fauvism: The Wild Beasts" retrospective which completely rewired my viewpoint. The joyous products of 1905-1907! Being able to see a painting as a pleasing arrangement of color, shape, texture, line etc on a 2-D surface without necessarily representing "something" freed my mind and released my energy. There were several Matisse, Braque, Kandinsky, etc pieces that were worthy competitors for "favorite". What a collection of small gems!

Although I've traveled to many of the museums of the world in 5 decades since my favorite work is right here in Washington DC. The modest sized Matisse masterpiece "Open Window, Collioure" that I first saw in a NY show has been at the National Gallery of Art. The colors of the actual painting aren't exactly correct in this image but it's from the museum's official website: https://www.nga.gov/artworks/106384-open-window-collioure

Being able to recall this image in my mind is one of life's great gifts.

Too many works to list. Early this year I sat in front of Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio in London for so long, just in awe of everything he does in that canvas, right down to the knot in the tie around the apostle with the out thrust hands. Amazing.

But yes, Silas! Matisse and the Open Window , Collioure. Wow, it is gorgeous. I’m lucky enough to have a framed poster from the NGA with pretty good color representation and love seeing it everyday. The older I get the more I love Matisse and where he went in art.

I can hardly ever choose favourites of anything, but what popped into mind when I read the question were the following:

1. The Rape of Persephone (Proserpina) by Bernini, in the Borghese gallery: how Bernini made stone look like flesh, especially where Hades' fingers cause indentations in Persephone's thigh. Wow! There's another sculpture, but I forget the name/artist or exactly where I saw it, where a woman's face is covered by a delicate, translucent veil, and I thought it was amazing.
2. Starry Night, Van Gogh, in the Moma. I don't know why, but as soon as I saw it, I burst into tears.
3. Guernica, Picasso, in the Reina Sofia, Madrid. It's sheer size and detail are breathtaking, as are the emotions it evokes.
4. Degas' Little Dancer sculpture. I think I saw it in the National Gallery in Ottawa, but, apparently, it is housed in the National Gallery in Washington. Perhaps it was on loan?
5. Depictions of Medusa, such as the one by Rubens in Vienna and the one by Caravaggio in Florence.
6. This painting, by Allen Sapp, in the Allen Sapp Gallery, North Battleford, Saskatchewan. When I saw it in person, I was struck by the light filtering through the walls of the tipi. https://www.allensapp.com/paintings/baby_was_crying.jpg
7. The reliefs on the temples in Cambodia, especially the one on the Bayon Temple showing a warrior being eaten by a crocodile. https://yatrikaone.com/cambodia_bayon_bas_relief_war_croc_eating_man_1/

See? I can't choose just one. Even in naming these 7, I'm leaving many out.

Like CJean, I often find myself drawn to the works of the Dutch and Flemish masters, especially when they are oil on wood. The quality of the light and shadow in these paintings is exceptional.

"The quality of the light and shadow in these paintings is exceptional."

I think this is what strikes me as well. When I first saw the Girl with the Pearl Earring in the Mauritshuis I was shocked at the light reflection on the pearl. So mesmerizing. And that is what caught me about the View of Delft - the way they had it displayed for the exhibition made the most of the glowing light. Amazing.

It IS hard to choose just one. I love the Matisse view of Collioure....so vibrant.

Lane, this is a really fun and interesting thread! Thanks for starting it!

My favorite painting is the Almond Blossom by Vincent van Gogh. I like it for the painting itself but perhaps even more for why Vincent painted it.

My favorite painting is Two Sisters (On the Terrace) in the Art Institute of Chicago.

My new favorite artist is Peter de Hooch. I saw his work in London and the Netherlands this spring.

Silas Marner: I've had a print of the Matisse work on my wall for at least 25 years. I love it, too.

Art lovers: I highly recommend Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death by Laura Cumming.

Lyndash & Grier - I've also got a perfect replica print (size and color correct) on my wall - I look at it while doing elliptical - it somehow makes the hamster wheel bearable!

I had always remembered El Greco’s View of Toledo from art history class. I bought a print on fabric of it when in Toledo and got to see the real thing in NYC. It did not disappoint.

Most memorable item was a beautiful Etruscan safety pin at a museum in Volterra, Italy. A safety pin!

A little Graduale (Mass chant book) from 9th century in the St.Gallen (Switzerland) monumental library. Looking at so ancient written music (the notation was completely different from today) I began weeping.

Ooof, how does one choose? Some random top picks:
Bernini's "David": my favorite of his works and of all of the 4 most famous "David" sculptures, the others being Donatello's, Michelangelo's and Verrocchio's. Unlike the static postures of those others, it simply breathes tension in the strain of the muscles, the weight of the forward leg and set of the jaw. Galleria Borghese, Rome.

"The Lacemaker": Vermeer. Louvre, Paris.

2 in the Art Institute of Chicago:
"Song of the Lark", Jules Adolph, and "Pardon in Brittany", Gaston La Touche.
They've become old friends over many years for reasons I can't explain.

Bernini's David is a great work! I've been fortunate, like the other respondents here, to have seen so many masterpieces in person. Vermeer is one of my favorite artists. As an amateur astronomer, his "The Astronomer" is especially appealing to me. The one painting that calls to me and ranks as my No. 1 is Claude Monet's "La Pie." I can't explain why. I fell in love with it after seeing a photo of it years ago. I was not disappointed when I saw it in person at Musee d'Orsay in 2023.

"The one painting that calls to me and ranks as my No. 1 is Claude Monet's "La Pie." I can't explain why. I fell in love with it..."

Thanks. Hadn't seen that.

You've got a lot of company.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magpie_(Monet)

[snip]
The painting was privately held until the Musée d'Orsay acquired it in 1984; it is considered one of the most popular paintings in their permanent collection.

Anselm Kiefer's sculpture park installations. Astonishing scale and subject matter. La Ribaute, France.