Best Paintings of all time

The painting 'Applicants for Admission to a Casual Ward', by Sir Luke Fildes (1843-1927) is a very interesting painting to me for many reasons. The use of the light projected to the building enhancing the bunch of poor people leaning against it, is quite good. And if you pay close attention, you'll see that the painting depicts homeless people from different social classes in a row waiting for something, probably shelter for the night. It was painted by a victorian painter in 1874, but it totally reminds me of a scene from the Great Depression from 1929. To think that it was originally created as a print in some magazine, and intended only to gain sympathy and to create a feeling of social conscience from the readers, speaks volumes of the skills of the painter.

His other painting that I put here is a very touching painting named 'The Widower' that depicts a father's desperation facing the challenges of being extremely poor and a widower at the same time. He is crying holding one of his five children who is aparently very sick. The oldest daughter seems to be thinking, to no avail, in a way she can help her father. The whole dramatic scene is enhanced by all the little details like the very poor house, the grimy and old clothes of the father, and one of the children seems to be starving and trying to find food in his empty bowl. No one can deny that it's a very emotional and heartbreaking painting.