Not sure of the name or artist (I guess I should find out if I am going to own it!). It is the painting of the cherub playing a lute (?). It hangs in the Uffizi. I bought a print of it at the museum and have it framed at home. The original would look much nicer...

The Last of England by Ford Maddox Brown

What a difficult question! Only one. Ok. I'd choose Portrait of Iseppo Porto With His Son by Paolo Veronese. I saw this painting at the Musee du Luxemborg in Paris during October 2004. The tenderness displayed toward his son by this nobelman/soldier is so touching. Oh, and if I could have additional paintings: anything painted by Fra Lippi and Botticelli!

Ohhhh, that's hard. I've narrowed it down to any of these three, how's that?
Van Gogh, The Church at Auvers (Orsay)
Caravaggio, Conversion of St Paul (church of Sta Maria del Popolo, Rome)
Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Beata Beatrix (Tate)
Oh shoot. I forgot about:
Geertgen tot Sant Jons, Night Nativity (Nat'l Gallery)

Kudos to the poster who wants the Bosch!

Anything by Monet or Van Gogh w/the appropriate home to show it in of course.

Just canvas? Or can we take frescos (and the wall, and the building that it's on?) ;)

The Birth of Venus by Botticelli. Since I can't afford the original, I settled for a post card that I put on my bulletin board at work so I can enjoy it every day. Can't tell you why, it just awes me. Barb

Any Lautrec poster ...
and any of Degas' ballerinas

in fact, next time I'm there, I'm going to focus on posters at those sellers along the Seine...

hey thanks! Good idea!!

Mine is made easy by having just seen it at the Musee de Luxembourg in Paris last week.

Renoir's "Luncheon of the Boating Party". I've always loved it, but viewed in person it was spectacular. The crystal items on the table literally glitter and glow as if the sun were shining directly on them.

This is a premlinary answer because I'm going to Rome and Florence next week and will probably have another pick after that:

The Mona Lisa - there is a reason why this painting is so famous and when I saw it in person, I was awestruck!

Also, any Van Gogh or Degas or Monet (in that order).

Vermeer's "View of Delft" (I'm looking at a post card of it in my office, but it's not the same) at the Mauritshuis in The Hague

Velasquez's Las Meninas at the Prado in Madrid

(Armchairtraveler: Renoir's Boating Party will soon return to its home at the Phillips Collection in Washington, to the cheers of its many Americna fans.)

This has always intrigued me:

http://www.abcgallery.com/S/seurat/seurat61.JPG

(Did you know that pixels were invented in the 19th century?)

Scarlett, I agree with the Turner at the Tate...gorgeous,,,just saw them last week and fell in love,,,,some of his works were quite like Impressionists IMO. But I adore Van Gogh and Renoir....had to go to the National Gallery to see them last week and fell in love all over again...they have Sunfloers on loan now:-)

Any one of the Waterlilies by Monet - the colours are just breathtaking...

"Peach tree in flowers" by Van Gogh, or "The Geographer" by Vermeer.

If my home were big enough and my truck large enough, I wouldn’t mind taking home Gericault’s “The Raft of the Medusa” from the Louvre.

first choice: a turner at sunset over the thames

second:: a henri rousseau jungle primatif

third: a diebenkorn abstract

actually, in sum of all parts, my favorite painting is rembrandt's "jeremaiah lamenting the destruction of jerusalem" in the rijksmuseum...

but i'd be embarassed to have it in my home.

wandeful, you just mentioned one of my favourite's paintings..The Raft of the Medusa is really a heartbreaking true story.
Gericault's did a great job in this masterpiece.

This may seem an odd choice, but I love Rothko's "Seagram" series, on display at the Tate Modern. The colors and scale of the pieces really blew me away.