So you have a favourite painting?

[CaulkheadUpNorth]

This is mine. It's called A pageant of childhood By Thomas Cooper Gotch

The Execution of Lady Jane Grey by Paul Delaroche.

The first time I saw it it made me cry. It's just so sad and beautifully painted. The different fabric textures of the clothes when you get up close are incredible.

Oh Toby, I remember seeing that too for the first time and just being struck by the power of the scene.
My favourite is Love Locked out, I just adore it. We are in NZ now but I have a big print. I love it, and my boys are about that age too.
www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/merritt-love-locked-out-n01578

I'm so lucky I used to work at the national portrait gallery. Lots of time to wander the corridors looking at the paintings. The Joshua Reynolds self portrait is one of my favourites, I don't really know why. He just looks so innocent, honest, genuine - I can't really explain it.

Also, Whistlejacket, which I used to go and look at next door in my breaks :)

I know nothing about art, btw!

There is a Canaletto in one of the drawing rooms at Alnwick Castle. I could look at it for hours. I have never seen a print or even a postcard if it. It is beautiful. I go to Alnwick Castle yearly just for that painting.

Lady with an ermine by Leonardo da Vinci personally prefer it to Mona Lisa also like Vermeer lady with milk jug
Arnolfini marriage by van Eyck

Whistlejacket
Just wow try to see it whenever I get the chance, have a print the scale is awesome

Sorry GallicIsCharlie - the crucible 2 exhibition finished in October - they will probably hold another in a couple of years, I have been to both and they are STUNNING in their diversity and placement of the sculptures - more than 100 from the best sculptors we have to offer placed all over, under and around Gloucester cathedral...

The Birds by Franz Marc or almost anything by the painter of the Blue Rider and its German Expressionists. I am quite fond of the French lot as well

I love this portrait of Vanessa Bell by Duncan Grant, you can see it in the National portrait gallery. The Bloomsbury portraits were all influenced by French impressionists so are really colourful and loose. I really like them as a group of artists, women were quite equally represented too which is unusual in groups of artists.

Peter Lanyon's Thermal for me. It's so restful yet uplifting. I could (and have) looked at it for a long long time.

Pacific I love those!

The Pebble paintings by Ester Roi are spectacular - they make me feel happy

I love Picasso's Guernica, it's amazing and I find new things every time I look at it. The story behind it is fascinating (but tragic as well)
I have been lucky enough to see it " in the flesh" twice and it was one of the reasons we went to Madrid on Honeymoon so I could see it !!

spaceal, if you have a chance see (some) of them in many museums in Munich - they are spectacular in RL

I also like large format Rembrandts like The NIght Watch for atmosphere and detail. I often wish I knew more about history and history of art.

My favourite piece of art is Bernini's Pluto and Prosperina. It's so moving.

In terms of paintings, I love the different theories behind The Touch of God and I love Michelangelo's humour (or revenge) in The Last Judgement.

Henri Matisse Blue Nude II is another favourite.

Starlight over the Rhone by Van Gogh, saw it in Paris. Made my eyes water, it was so beautiful.

Wow, I'm so glad I started this tread - there are so many painings on here I've never seen before.
Thank you all

Landscape paintings by Kyffin Williams. I live in Gwynedd, so they are beautiful to me on a familiar level.

spaceal that painting is gorgeous!

Dali's St John of the cross for me too. Just incredible!

Hieronymous Bosch, Garden of Delights- teenage obsession I have never grown out of.... Also, I teach Spanish so this gives me an excuse to have lots of Dali and Picasso prints in my classroom, some of my current favourites have been mentioned, like Picasso's stark but unmistakable Don Quixote. Also love Van Gogh and lots of Japanese artists. You can never surround yourself with too many beautiful, uplifting things.

Botticelli's Birth of Venus

My dd,10 likes art and surprised me by really liking Picasso, she likes. La reve she tells me art has to have a meaning! But I prefer pretty landscapes.

Not exactly a favourite, but Freida Kahlo's "Ford Hospital" struck me utterly dumb when I first saw it. It's pretty graphic and yet personal and touching (warning: deals with pregnancy loss). I've never seen anything so raw and real about this in art before or since. www.frida-kahlo-foundation.org/Ford-Hospital.html