Here are the results of Ray Warburtons survey conducted at the 2025 Christmas lunch to find what TASUT voted for in their top 20 artworks in Britain:
Members were asked to vote for their favourite painting in a British collection. Sixty-eight members were able to vote, while having their Christmas lunch! Here are the headline results.
Five votes
JMW Turner ‘Fighting Temeraire’, 1839, National Gallery, London
Four votes
George Stubbs ‘Whistlejacket’, 1762, National Gallery, London
Three votes
John Constable ‘The Hay Wain’, 1821, National Gallery, London
Frans Hals ‘Laughing Cavalier’, 1624, Wallace Collection. London
JMW Turner ‘Rain, steam and speed’, 1844, National Gallery, London
Two votes
Hans Holbein ‘The Ambassadors’, 1533, National Gallery, London
Claude Monet ‘Water Lilies’, after 1916, National Gallery, London
John Singer Sargent ‘Carnation Lily Lily Rose’, 1885-86, Tate, London
One vote
Anonymous ‘The Rainbow Portrait (of Elizabeth I’), c 1603, Hatfield House
Banksy – Girl with a Balloon, 2006, Private collection in modified form/prints
Mr Brainwash ‘Reach for love’, 2022, Limited edition print
Pieter Brueghel the Young ‘Spring (The Tulip Garden)’, 1632. Kelmscott Manor
Canaletto – A Regatta on the Grand Canal, 1740, National Gallery, London
Canaletto ‘Basin of San Marco on Ascension Day’, 1740, National Gallery, London
Caravaggio ‘Supper at Emmaus’, 1601, National Gallery, London
Paul Cézanne ‘Lac d'Annecy’, 1896, Courtauld Institute, London
Terence Tenison Cuneo ‘The Royal Engineers clearing the Minefields at the start of the Battle of El Alamein, October 1942’, 1950, Defence Academy of the UK
Salvador Dali ‘Metamorphosis of Narcissus’, 1937, Tate, London
Salvador Dali ‘Christ of Saint John of the Cross’, 1951, Kelvingrove Gallery, Glasgow
Thomas Gainsborough ‘Portrait of Countess Howe’, 1764, Kenwood House, London
Thomas Gainsborough ‘The Honourable Mrs Graham’, 1777, Nat Gall Scotland, Edin 1
Artemisia Gentileschi ‘Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting’, 1638-39 Royal Coll’n
Jean-Honoré Fragonard ‘The Swing’, 1767, Wallace Collection, London
David Hockney ‘Portrait of an Artist’, 1972, Private collection
David Hockney – unspecified painting of the road in the wolds
Gustav Klimt ‘Hermine Gallia’, 1904, National Gallery, London
LS Lowry ‘Street Scene, Pendlebury’, 1935, The Lowry, Salford
LS Lowry ‘Coming home from the mill’, 1938, Manchester Art Gallery
LS Lowry ‘The Sea’, 1963, The Lowry, Salford
J E Millais – Ophelia, 1851-52, Tate, London Claude
Monet ‘The Thames below Westminster Bridge, c 1871, Nat Gallery, London
Camille Pissarro in London – one of 12 paintings to choose from Camille Pissarro ‘Lucien Pissarro’, 1890, National Portrait Gallery, Robert Ker Porter ‘Portrait of an Officer’, 1801, Private collection Henry Raeburn -
The Reverend Robert Walker’, 1790s, Nat Gall Scotland,
Edin Allan Ramsay ‘Portrait of Rosamund Sargent’, 1749, Barber Institute of Arts, B’ham
Eric Ravilious ‘Train landscape’, 1939, Limited edition print
Eric Ravilious ‘Buscot Park’, 1938, Farringdon Collection, Buscot Park, NT
Rembrandt van Rijn ‘Girl at a Window’, 1645, Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
Rembrandt van Rijn ‘Portrait of Aechje Claesdr’, 1634, National Gallery, London
Pierre-Auguste Renoir ‘The Umbrellas’, 1881, National Gallery, London
Bridget Riley – unspecified paintings – ‘one of her linear works’
Georges Seurat ‘Bathers at Asnières’, 1884, National Gallery, London
Joaquin Sorolla ‘Valencian Fishermen’, 1895, on loan from the Broere Charitable Foundation to the National Gallery, London
Stanley Spencer ‘Southwold’, 1937, Aberdeen Art Gallery
Elizabeth Thompson, Lady Butler ‘The remnants of an army’, 1879, Tate, London
Titian ‘Portrait of a Young Man’, 1515-20, National Gallery, London
Jan Van Eyck ‘The Arnolfini Portrait’, 1434, National Gallery, London
Vincent Van Gogh ‘A Wheatfield, with Cypresses’, 1889, National Gallery, London
Joan Wanklyn ‘Review of the King's Troop Royal Horse Artillery, Hyde Park, 10th May 1967’, 1967, Royal Collection
John William Waterhouse ‘Lady of Shalott’, 1888, Tate, London
George Frederic Watts ‘Hope’, 1886, Tate, London
Summary Analysis
The 68 votes that were cast identified: • 52 different paintings • 41 different painters – 36 were men, four were women, and one was anonymous. The most-voted for paintings were: • JMW Turner’s Fighting Temeraire (with five votes) • George Stubbs’s Whistlejacket (four votes) The most-voted for artist was JMW Turner (who received eight votes for two paintings). The artist with the most different paintings was LS Lowry (with three).
Reasons for liking the chosen paintings (with some members giving more than one reason, and some reasons not asked for/given) were as follows: • Painting technique: colour and composition - nine votes • Atmospheric/evocative/spiritual – nine votes • Personal connection (from childhood or first visit to an art gallery) – five votes • Subject matter that appealed or related to me - five votes • Daring and new – four votes • Puzzling aspects – two votes • Just seen it – one vote
Most (29) of the 52 different paintings are located in London.
The breakdown is as follows: • National Gallery, London - 18 paintings • Tate, London - six paintings • Other galleries in London – five paintings • Galleries Outside London – 19 paintings • Limited edition print – two prints • Unknown as paintings not specified – two paintings Three additional artworks that received votes fell outside the scope of the lecture Not in Britain • Leonardo da Vinci ‘Lady with an Ermine’, 1489-91, Czartoryski Museum, Kraków • Jan Vermeer ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring’, c 1665, Mauritshuis, The Hague One artwork -Barbara Hepworth’s ‘Mother and Child’ was a sculpture.
Thanks to all who attended the lecture, and to those who took part in the vote.