Quick, Your Favorite Painting Is?

Paul Delvaux, artist, The Village of the Mermaids

In response to the question, quick, don't think, don't hesitate, "What's your favorite painting, Nancy?", here it is. It is in the Art Institute of Chicago, which is where I took Saturday classes in high school, wandering through the galleries of the place. For a while the painting was shelved in abeyance of the construction of the modern wing, where it now resides. I visit it every time I'm in the museum. I can't explain why it fascinates me, but it has for many, many years.

The women in long skirts are sitting mute, puissant, lonely perhaps, bathed in the light of an ocean sun, down the path is a man in formal attire, maybe holding a stopwatch, behind which mermaids take to the sea from a beach. Where are they, why do they seem so sad, and the man with the stopwatch is?

I've just heard from Catgirl, her favorite is Van Gogh's Bedroom in Arles, of which a total of three versions exist, one in the Art Institute of Chicago, one at the D'Orsay in Paris and a third in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

This video treats the Van Gogh Museum's efforts to deal with discoloration over the years.