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My Favourite Painting: Martin Yeoman
'There is a sublime and sensual beauty about all aspects of this painting.'
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My Favourite Painting: Viktor Wynd
Artist and collector Viktor Wynd chooses a haunting picture by Austin Osman Spare.
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My Favourite Painting: James Birch
'The symbolism in it is too weird to mention and every time I look at it I see more.'
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My Favourite Painting: Judith Weir
'This exquisitely decorated painting with a young, ginger-haired man screwing up his face, expressing disgust, and also fear, suggested by the whites of his eyes – such a vivid detail.'
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My Favourite Painting: Ashley Hicks
'This timeless triumph of trompe l’oeil always gives me something to dream of and aspire to .'
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My Favourite Painting: Kim Wilkie
'The setting sun pulses, the motion in the waves and figures is slowly rhythmic and the mountains float on the horizon.'
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My Favourite Painting: Hartwig Fischer, director of the British Museum
'An extraordinary statement on the intoxicating power of art,' says Hartwig Fischer as he chooses 'Untitled' by Cy Twombly as his favourite painting.
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My Favourite Painting: Tim Parker
Tim Parker, chairman of the National Trust, chooses a right royal rarity: Goya's painting of the Spanish king and his family depicted as normal people, rather than leaders and figureheads.
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My Favourite Painting: James O'Donnell
A painting which was inspired by the best-selling novel Ben Hur — and which went on to inspire the famous 1959 film — is the choice of James O'Donnell after his chance encounter one afternoon.
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My Favourite Painting: Robert Dalrymple
'Our West Highland terrier stood in for the cat; Anna put on a big hat, but, to my regret, I never got round to buying a spotty dressing gown.'
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My Favourite Painting: Courtney Love
Courtney Love chooses the Chi Rho page from The Book of Kells.
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My Favourite Painting: Fergus Henderson
'There should be one point of simple, enticing clarity – a pickled walnut, perhaps, which is what I most strongly associate with this image – that compels you to dive in. Come! Commune with the pickled walnut!'
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My Favourite Painting: The Marquess of Cholmondeley
'It’s an image of great tenderness; Gainsborough painting for himself and his adored wife, not for a rich patron.'
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My Favourite Painting: Nigel Havers
'It is large and the rather melancholic tone is very moving. At first glance, I thought the fisherman was dead, but Jamie told me he was just sleeping–taking a break on that gently rocking, dark blue sea.’
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My Favourite Painting: Nicola Kalinsky
'This is a familiar scene, such as Rubens saw daily in his later years, and yet it is pure poetry'
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My Favourite Painting: Robert Sandelson
'In the foreground of the new version (currently at the Saatchi Gallery), our late father’s hat can be glimpsed above a deck chair–as it turned out, he was watching his last game of cricket.'
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My Favourite Painting: Piet Oudolf
'One cannot sense whether he is far out on the ocean or closer to shore, or what he may be watching or feeling in that moment as he stares towards the beach.’
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My Favourite Painting: Julian Fellowes
'There is something about its energy and desperation that seems to howl from the canvas and I find it extraordinary and inspiring.'
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My Favourite Painting: Louise Moelwyn-Hughes
'My parents bought it in one of the large, family-owned department stores (soon to be destroyed by terrorist bombs) and I remember us carrying it home on the bus.'
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My Favourite Painting: Lachie Stewart
The architect Lachie Stewart chooses a Piero della Francesca masterpiece from the 15th century.
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My Favourite Painting: Michael Wainwright
For the first time in a decade, John McEwen takes a look at a Favourite Painting of which neither he nor its owner knows the history.
