A Few of My Favourite Things...

Being a History of Art student, whenever conversation runs out at a dinner party, I always get asked who my favourite artist is. I hate this question. Mainly because I look like a dick when trying to answer it ("oh well, wow, good question, um, I'm not sure...") and then I end up saying something boring like "Monet?" and hope that they don't probe further. Truth be told, I don't have a favourite artist. In fact, most History of Art students don't. It's like asking an English student "who's your favourite author?" when they've probably studied hundreds of authors, and are doing English not because they're Shakespeare's number one fan, but because they appreciate and love the subject. But before I start sounding like a preacher, I just thought I'd share with you some of my favourite pieces of art - in the hope that the next time some bored old man at a party asks me who my favourite artist is, I can just show him this blog post and then get back to my dinner.

Painting

Jean-Honoré Fragonard, The Swing, 1767, The Wallace Collection, London

Pierre-Auguste Renoir, The Umbrellas, c.1883, The National Gallery, London

John Singer Sargent, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, 1885-6, Tate Britain, London

Johannes Vermeer, Girl With A Pearl Earring, c.1665, Mauritshuis, The Hague

Drawing

Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Edgar Degas

Sculpture

Gian Lorenzo Bernini, The Rape of Proserpina, 1622, Galleria Borghese, Rome

Close-up of the above

Adolfo Wildt, Un Rosario, 1915, Private Collection, Milan

Auguste Rodin, Danaïd, 1889-90, Musée Rodin, Paris

 Photography

Robert Doisneau, Hell, 1952

Robert Doisneau, The Kiss, 1950

Cecil Beaton, Charles James Gowns, Vogue, 1948

William Klein, Smoke and Veil, 1958

William Klein, Atom Bomb Sky New York, 1955

Contemporary

Tracey Emin, I Listen To The Ocean And All I Hear Is You, 2011

Tracey Emin, It Was Just a Kiss, 2011

Damien Hirst, Observation The Crown of Justice, 2006

Andy Goldsworthy, Storm King Wall, 2000

Andy Goldsworthy, Ice Spiral: Tree Soul, c.1991

Eboy, London, 2008

Love,

Belle x