> All in all, it's an impressive haul they're sending across (except perhaps the Matisse, which I think looks like it should be mounted on some proud mother's fridge, but that's just me).

NO KIDDING.

Impressionism is probably my favorite era in painting -- Renoir, Degas, Manet, Monet, etc, are all artists whose work I adore. I'm not crazy about Van Gogh, but I like some of it.

And then all the "neo-impressionists" came and munged it up. Gauguin, who paints awkward, depthless, lifeless, clumsy crap. Matisse is the worst. Devolve much from Matisse, and it's just that pseudo-intellectual psycho "art."