The worst painting I have ever seen

 

The Source of Life, Leon Frederic, 1890

The Belgian Symbolist artist created paintings, like this mystical work, that explored the cycle of life, and here he must have reached his nadir. When I saw this hanging on the walls at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, I burst out laughing. Keep in mind that the painting is at least 5 feet tall, and how overwhelming all these life-sized naked kitsch babies are when they are looming over you.

Sayings about taste keep running through my head now. But its not just me--the family who walked into the gallery after me also started laughing when they saw it.