Selection Sunday! (er...Monday, rather.)

Here it is, folks- My version of March Madness. In the coming month, I will start with the 65 painters I have chosen (from a list of 267... van Aelst to Zurbarán) and whittle away until we have just one painter left. More than anything, this is going to be an exercise in learning about my own tastes. You'll notice a lot of trends just based on whom I've chosen for the bracket. Not many 20th c. artists there... and some scandalous omissions. The process of picking just 65 was quite tough.

Anyway. My criteria for chosing these, and for deciding who will win? Wellllll, it's a little complicated. Sure, I want to take into account how important these guys (sorry, I know, no females represented here. It's not intentional.) are in the big picture (but not too much). Mostly, this is about my reactions to and interactions with paintings/art. So, yeah, it's kinda fuzzy, but we'll all just have to deal with that, won't we? Although I picked the artists based on my own tastes, I seeded them roughly how I think an average survey textbook might do it if it had to.

Who would you add? Who here is a surprise to you? Who do you think will win? Let's discuss.


Louvre Division
Play-In game: Abbot Handerson Thayer vs. Ralph Albert Blakelock

16) Play-In Winner
1) Leonardo da Vinci

9) Jan Steen
8) Edvard Munch

5) Sandro Botticelli
12) Hokusai

13) Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin
4) Diego Velázquez

3) Francisco Goya
14) Gustave Caillebotte

11) Pieter de Hooch
6) James Abbott McNeil Whistler

7) Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres
10) Théodore Géricault

15) Henry Fuseli
2) Johannes Vermeer


Uffizi Division
16) N.C. Wyeth
1) Vincent van Gogh

9) Pieter Brueghel the Elder
8) Hans Holbein the Younger

5) Eugène Delacroix
12) Jacob van Ruysdael

13) Dante Gabriel Rossetti
4) Salvador Dalí

3) Claude Monet
14) Odilon Redon

11) James Ensor
6) Hieronymus Bosch

7) Gustave Courbet
10) Thomas Gainsborough

15) Geertgen tot Sint Jans
2) Caravaggio


Getty Division
16) Thomas Wilmer Dewing
1) Rembrandt

9) Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
8) Rogier van der Weyden

5) J.M.W. Turner
12) Gustave Moreau

13) George Inness
4) Peter Paul Rubens

3) Albrecht Dürer
14) Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema

11) Matthias Grünewald
6) Paul Gaugin

7) El Greco
10) Gerard David

15) Hugo van der Goes
2) Paul Cézanne


Met Division
16) Albert Pinkham Ryder
1) Raphael

9) John Singer Sargent
8) John Constable

5) Jacques-Louis David
12) Bronzino

13) Lucas Cranach the Elder
4) Titian

3) Jan van Eyck
14) Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones

11) Parmigianino
6) Edgar Degas

7) Thomas Eakins
10) Fra Angelico

15) Sir John Everett Millais
2) Édouard Manet


xomatt