If Someone Asked You Who Your “Top Six Favourite Artists” Are – Who Would Be on Your List? It is not as easy a task as you may think. CANALETTO is my #1 Favourite Artist of My Top Six

Francesco Guardi (Italian,
1712-1793), The Isola della Madonnetta on the Lagoon of Venice,
1785-1790, Fogg Art Museum. Francesco Guardi was on my
“Possible Candidates’ list” of top favourite artists, but with
the limited spots available, Francesco was not one of my top
six. Nevertheless, most assuredly, if I were to list a “Top 20
Favourite Artists” list, Francesco Guardi would be guaranteed a spot.

Attempting to narrow down a list of your top six favourite artists isn’t as easy as you may think.

If you had an option of listing 20 favourite artists, I think that would be so much easier because you don’t have to eliminate so many painters from your list that you really like: It was painful for me to have to leave Francesco Guardi out of my top six list.

And consider this point: “favourite artists” does not necessarily mean your most “influential artists”.

This is what I mean: Very few of the artists on my top six favourite artists list have been influential for me with my own artistic work. And less than half of the artists on my topmost “influential artists” list would make my Top 20 Favourite Artists list. My favourite artists are considerably different than the artists who have influenced me the most with my own art style.

Another detail about my personal favourite artists’ list is that I have seen and experienced artworks at art museums, which were created by four of my top six favourite artists.

How do I determine who my ‘favourite artists’ are?

One of the most important and obvious aspects is that I must find their work extremely interesting – which is a subjective determination. I love artworks that are technical. I like ultra-realistic Science Fiction and Fantasy painting. I’m also a big fan of surrealism. And also, there are those artists whose works really speak to me on some personal level. The artists on my “Top Six Favourite Artists” list have at least one of those qualities about their artworks.

Canaletto is #1 on my “Top Six Favourite Artists” List

#1: Giovanni Antonio Canal, aka. Canaletto (b. 18 Oct. 1697 – d. 20 Apr. 1768):

Canaletto was born in Venice, and he was a topographical painter and a master of the painting style known as veduta: This is the style of creating “detailed, largely factual paintings, drawings, or etchings depicting a city, town, or other place….Among the most famous of the vedutisti are four Venetians”: Canaletto and three members of the Guardi family, Giacomo (b. 1678 – d. 1716), Giannantonio (b. 1699 – d. 1760), and Francesco (b. 1712 – d. 1793) – Francesco being the most famous of the Guardi family painters. (Constable 2019. “Canaletto”. Britannica.) Canaletto is associated with the Rococo movement, and the Venetian school style.

I knew that Canaletto was my #1 favourite painter of all time the moment I saw his amazing painting of “Piazza San Marco, Venice”, 1730-1734, hanging on the wall in a gallery at the Fogg Art Museum. Of all the masterful works of art in the Fogg Art Museum collection, I stood in front of the Canaletto work the longest. The detail, perspective, architecture, history, and colour, got me hooked. Words, in my opinion, do not rightfully do Canaletto’s paintings complete justice – you simply need to experience his works to understand the genius of Canaletto.

Canaletto (Italian, 1697-1768), “Piazza San Marco, Venice”, 1730-1734: From the Collection of the Fogg Art Museum, Harvard University.