My Top Ten Prints

This week I've been watching lots of art history documentaries. Why? Who knows, but the best has been The Artful Codgers, a BBC documentary about the Greenhalgh family. Shaun Greenhalgh created some of the most successful forgeries - across a variety of mediums - in the world, in his garden shed. Very impressive!

Lacking the skill to recreate the masters, I'll settle for prints. In no particular order, these are the ten pictures I'd most like to get prints of:

#10. Aviva Brueckner

The most modern artist on this list, Brueckner did a really cool series of works exploring what some of the greats would have looked like if bones were all that mattered. This take on Matisse's 1909 'Dance' speaks to my love of the quirky and random.

#9. Caravaggio

Detail from Caravaggio's Madonna of Loreto (1605). There are many, many Madonna and child paintings out there. Just check out the Ugly Renaissance Babies Tumblr. Caravaggio, unlike so many of his contemporaries, succeeded in not giving his viewers nightmares. Well, at least until they looked at almost any of his other paintings...

#8. Rune Naito

This is my favourite illustration by Rune, King of Kawaii. When he wasn't busy shaping girls' culture, he was illustrating Japan's first magazine for gay men. It's always good to diversify. If you like the style check out Miracle Lovely! All of Rune's World printed in 2002.

#7. Rossetti

Veronica Veronese by Rossetti (1872); she's meant to look dreamlike but I think she looks wonderfully bored, forever stuck in the gilded cage of the Victorian private sphere. Rossetti, of course, was your typical crazy artist - he had his wife's body exhumed so he could publish the poems he had had buried with her - but he was very good with a paintbrush, so everyone overlooked it.

#6. Charles Burton Barber

A Special Pleader (1893) by Charles Burton Barber. Burton Barber specialised in depicting children with their pets, ensuring his position as one of the Victorians' favourite painters. My nan had a print of this when I was a kid and I always loved it, especially the sulky little girl. I could relate.

#5. Monet

Water Lilies by Monet. Who doesn't love Monet?
(For more on Monet, check out Artsy's Monet page.)

#4. Vladimir Tretchikoff

Tretchikoff's Chinese Lady painting (better known as 'The Green Lady') is probably the kitschiest painting ever to have kitsched. In spite of that I prefer Lady from the Orient (1950s).

#3. Waterhouse

John William Waterhouse's 1888 masterpiece, 'The Lady of Shalott'. Another Pre-Raphelite work, another beautiful, beautiful image.



#2. Margaret Tarrant

'The Fairy Way'. Tarrant was a children's illustrator, and her work is well worthy of being on my walls. I'm very picky when it comes to children's fairytale and nursery rhyme books, they have to have pretty illustrations. After much fruitless searching in physical shops I bought Marianna three Margaret Tarrant illustrated books online. 

#1. Mucha

Mucha is my favourite artist and it was really difficult to pick just one image. So I went for the set of four which makes up the 1898 Flowers series. Mucha's work is just so gorgeous, I'd put it everywhere if I could.

As you can tell, I'm not very cultured at all. I don't like Picasso, but I love kitsch and sentimental Victorian schlock. It's just the way I roll! :) How about you, what is your favourite painting?