The Greatest Painting in Britain - vote

My personal choice would be

'Cowles Fish and Chip Shop, Cleator Moor', 1948. by L.S.Lowry

But of course, it's not on the list of finalists.

The painting I think Id enjoy the most from those listed is Turners 'The Fighting Temeraire'.Its so atmospheric and beautiful.
Hmmm, id seriously have to think about other paintings Ive seen.

I agree, Material Girl. He was ahead of his time, that Turner.

I looked in vain for your choice Endymion, but it wasn't on the net. Here's another Lowry though, The Fever Van.

Thanks. I adore Lowry's understanding of the working class Brit. You can really smell the coal dust!

By the way Endy, here is a post of mine you may not have seen
Endymion predates Dan Simmons by millennia, Endy!
In Greek mythology, he was the most handsome of men, the god of eternal youth and fertility. Some versions describe him as king, others as a shepherd. The moon goddess Selene was so smitten with Endymion's beauty that she put him into a perpetual sleep so that she could kiss him whenever she wished.

In his poem ENDYMION, John Keats starts with the famous sentence:

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever: 
Its loveliness increases; it will never 
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep 
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep 
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing

So we'll have to do until what this picture says ...

... waiting until the shops open.

Or, until I post it :wink:

I haven't been to Britain, have a starting bias for Turner, but that's my own avidity in particular. I'll look a the link a while - I expect to have trouble picking one 'greatest' as there are so may roads to greatness.
Back in a bit.

All right, now that I've looked at the ten, I won't pick that particular Turner.
It is hard to make a choice as the paintings represent achievements of different times in the history of painting.

My first and not definite selection is Rake's Progress, for my own subjective reasons of this particular morning in 2005, reasons I'd discuss later.

I'll wander off now to look at the explanations about nominations (including more than the ten chosen) on the side of the link-page.

Well, that was short circuited since I can't unload all the explanations.
But I could look at six other photos, among them some that throw my choice of Rake's Progress, the Orgy into question:

Of those six -
I have long had Uccello's Battle of San Romano in the Uffizi as one of my favorite paintings, having to do with perspective and apparent motion and interconnection of elements and yes, the horses, and colors. This version of The Battle of San Romano in Britain has much of the same that I like, though different colors, as far as I can tell. Anyway, the why's in my liking the Uccello's also somewhat apply to my liking of Hogarth's Rake's Progress, the Orgy. I like the interconnectedness of the elements (people), the apparent motion, the depth to the painting scene, the colors.

Then there's Caravaggio, The Supper at Emmaus has it all, truly great painting. Geez, look at that guy's arms going in and out of the picture plane..

I was touched by Execution of Lady Jane Grey by the French academic painter Paul delaroche - quite modern in its way...

I liked that Battle of Britain painting too.




I'll come back to selecting, for the BBC poll, Hogarth's Rake's Progress.

Yes, Os, I would agree Not particularly that Turner. I love some of his others:


stunning, I think.

Incidentally he was very free with the landscapes. My home town isn't a bit like this, even allowing for changes since 1824, he's moved the castle and changed the height of the land to make it more impressive!

As an aside, here's a thread by Vivien on favorite paintings that might be a pleasure for some who missed participating -

http://www.able2know.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=9809

mmm I'll have to go for the Turner simply because I love his work - his sketch books in particular.

The last of England: there are 2 versions of this and in one there's a man shaking his fist at England as they unwillingly leave. I'm not keen on this era of painting even though I can appreciate its skill, it's a bit too heavy handedly sentimental for me on the whole.

It's always difficult when they limit you like this as they don't choose the images to represent the artist that you would.

The Bar at the Folies Bergeres is great and the Caravaggio is amazing.

First, I really do not like these ranking contest. Generally, IMHO the best painting around is the one I'm looking at at the moment. For me "good paintings" are the one's that for some reason stick in my mind and that criteria is highly idiosyncratic. Secondly On one level I like all the paintings but on another level I don't really like any of the the paintings on the short list. Many are passive or overly emotional (sappy), Hogarth excepted. IMHO he is the best of the lot but I think that composition worked better as an engraving. But to disabuse anyone of the notion that there is any great intellect at work here, my idea of a great painting is West's "The Death of Wolf" which isn't a painting at all but rather a masterful piece of propaganda.

From the Guardian:



Full report and list of paintings

That's quite funny, Walter..

I suppose, they meant it serious. :wink:

Of the ten selected, I choose the Turner too. I would have liked to see a Kitaj and a Francis Bacon.

C'mon, you guys, you think that particular Turner (I say as a Turner fan) is better than all the rest as paintings at their time?

Actually to judge this kind of thing accurately you'd have to know a lot more than I do, and many other people... as to where that Piero fell in his life's work. Piero della Francesca cut quite a swath in art history - to me and people who do that for a living. How is his work somehow less than a ... eh.. Turner.