Rembrandt's Return of the Prodigal Son at the Hermitage. The father's expression and posture.....very moving.

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/html_...m3_3_1_4d.html

I would also like Velasquez' "Las Meninas" but since it is already claimed (and it's much too large for my rooms), I'll choose Giorgione's "The Tempest" in the Accademia in Venice. Every time I look at it, I see something new

A small oil of a flamenco dancer by artist Juan Benito..I saw it in a gallery in Nimes and VERY FOOLISHLY didn't buy it...Why this particular painting?? Because as you stare at her, her feet begin to tap...

I couldn’t get Gericault’s “Raft of the Medusa” into the trunk of my car, so I decided to take home a small treasure from the Musee Picasso: His lovely “Family at the Seashore.” Quiet joy and peace.

Another Rembrandt fan here: can I please have "The Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq and Lieutenant Willem van Ruytenhurch", better known as "The Nighwatch"
I am stunned by it every time I see it: what do you think?
http://www.rembrandtpainting.net/rem...ight_watch.htm

Pieter Bruegel (the elder) The Month of January, Hunters in the Snow from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna.

I, being Canadian, it tugs at the childhood heart strings and I get a warm buzz everytime I see it.

ohmigod, JulieV -- that's it! It IS Hugh Grant. As another Klimt fan (see above post), I wondered why the face in the "Judith" painting looked familiar.

Re: "Judith" and Hugh Grant: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! I may just have to put that comparison up in my art history class sometime to give my students a chuckle.

I love Klimt but unfortuantely have not had the priviledge of seeing one in person. Where's the best museum to view his paintings?

Various in Vienna, apparently:
http://www.artofklimt.com/Klimt_Galleries.htm

I want Las Meninas too! No fair.

How about Seurat's Sunday Afternoon on the Island of the Grande Jatte.
http://www.artchive.com/artchive/S/s...jatte.jpg.html - get up close and see the pointilism - but from far away your eyes create an optical mix. It's science and art in one!

An Alfred Sisley painting of rural Provence that hangs in yje middle of a triptych (sp?)in the Musee D'Orsay. I do not recall its name but it is flanked by two other great Impressionist paintings.

My wife and I have visited Provence for many years. One of its many charms is that change comes slowly. For example, you can compare a Sisley or Van Gogh late 19th century work to a terrain that still retains a remarkable resemblence to that period - a time before cellular telephones, PC's, urban sprawl and the like.

By the way, Sisley is my favorite Impressionist.

for sandinut:

Here's a list of museums that have Klimt paintings: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/klimt_gustav.html

The Moneylender and His Wife by Quentin Massys (Metsys) in the Louvre. My favorite painting - I have a reproduction on the wall near me as I type. Massys is a 15th Century Netherlandish painter. I try to see it each time I go to Paris. The last time in October '04 I went back to it so many times the guard started to look at me a little funny ;)

BTW, RufusTFirefly - I saw Senecio when I was in Basel in October. You should check out the new Klee museum in Bern if you can.....that was the impetus for a great week in Switzerland.

Oh gee, I forgot the Roger van der Weyden "Adoration of the Magi," in Munich. There's also a small but cherce Flemish seascape in Wellington House, London.

The mosaic at the Chagall museum in Nice!

Several years ago, we visited Sancerre and went into a gallery owned by a local painter and his potter wife. I was really taken by the paintings, but it was not at all feasible to buy one. But they kept haunting me. I wrote to the artist and told him I would return to the gallery the next summer (even gave him an exact date) and would buy one of his paintings if he would box it up for traveling. On the appointed day, we showed up at 10:00 AM, seemingly to his great surprise. So we picked out a painting and agreed he would construct a box for it and have it ready by closing that day. All went well and we roped it to the top of our car, as it was too large to fit inside a little Renault Clio. Eventually we drove it all the way to Zurich for our flight home to Seattle. When we got to US Customs, the agent spoke right up: "Painting?" "Yes," I replied, "Matisse." He laughed and waved us through without opening the box.

sanditravelenut,
We were in Williamstown Mass a couple of years ago, when the Clark Museum had a huge show of Klimt..big big ones in huge rooms :) It was wonderful.

It's the Belvedere palace, however, that has the Judith/Hugh Grant. The Belvedere is not only a wonderful museum but also a beautiful palace--to my mind the most beautiful, with graceful, undulating roof lines, unlike the usual square boxy Versailles look alikes. Closest to it is the Zwinger in Dresden. The Belvedere gardens and fountains are also wonderful. So it's a three for--palace, gardens and museum. Nothing better IMO.

La Primavera Allegorica.