The Essential 20

      Not wanting to be seen as totally negative, after posts on the Worst Paintings and the horrors of Glazing, and returning to Minneapolis after six months in California, I toured the MIA’s third floor to pick out 20 paintings I couldn’t do without. That is to say, I am not purporting to call these the “20 Best,” or even my “20 Favorites,” although many on this list qualify on both counts. Instead, my test was, what pictures would I miss the most if I found they had been sold, stolen or moved to storage. I have listed them chronologically within four levels of essentiality, to avoid some of the meaner aspects of ranking.

Gerrit van Honthorst, The Denial of St. Peter
Nicolas Poussin, The Death of Germanicus
Rembrandt van Rijn, Lucretia
Eugene Delacroix, The Fanatics of Tangier
Max Beckmann, Blindman’s Buff

Edgar Degas, Portrait of Mlle Hortense Valpincon
Egon Schiele, Portrait of Paris von Gutersloh
Rene Magritte, The Promenades of Euclid
Philip Guston, Bronze
Chuck Close, Frank

Eugene Boudin, Beach at Trouville
Gustave Caillebotte, Nude on a Couch
Paul Cezanne, Chestnut Trees at Jas de Bouffan
Georges Seurat, Port-en-Bessin
Pierre Bonnard, Dining Room in the Country

Master of Embroidered Foliage, Madonna and Child
Pieter Claesz, Still Life
Charles Caryl Coleman, The Bronze Horses of San Marco
Amadeo Modigliani, Little Servant Girl
Larry Rivers, The Studio

And not wanting to be too positive, I should footnote that my admiration for the Rembrandt, Delacroix and Modigliani is based on having known them before they were put under glass.