Skip to content

Banksy's balloon girl chosen as nation's favourite artwork

PA A Bonhams' employee adjusting a version of Banksy's Balloon GirlPA
Banksy's Balloon Girl was voted as the nation's favourite in the poll

Banksy's mural of a girl letting go of a heart-shaped balloon has been voted the nation's favourite artwork.

The image, which was daubed onto a London shop 15 years ago, was chosen above the likes of Constable's Hay Wain and Jack Vettriano's Singing Butler.

Some 2,000 people chose their favourite artwork from a shortlist of 20 works drawn up by arts editors and writers.

The Fighting Temeraire, by JMW Turner, and Antony Gormley's The Angel Of The North sculpture completed the top five.

PA A V&A museum employee looking at John Constable's 1821 painting The Hay WainPA
In second place was John Constable's 1821 landscape The Hay Wain
PA Butler Bryan Munroe walking past Jack Vettriano's 1992 painting The Singing ButlerPA
Jack Vettriano's 1992 painting, The Singing Butler, came third

Banksy, an anonymous street artist from Bristol, painted the Balloon Girl onto the wall of a printing shop in Shoreditch in 2002.

A decade later a version of the image, painted onto cardboard, sold at auction for £73,250.

Then in 2014 the original stencil mural was removed from the wall of the shop to be exhibited and then sold.

PA A National Gallery employee moving JMW Turner's 1839 work The Fighting TemerairePA
In fourth place was JMW Turner's The Fighting Temeraire
PA Antony Gormley"s 1998 sculpture the Angel of the NorthPA
Antony Gormley's 1998 sculpture The Angel Of The North completed the top five

The poll, carried out by Samsung, results in full:

  1. Banksy; Balloon Girl
  2. John Constable; The Hay Wain
  3. Jack Vettriano; The Singing Butler
  4. JMW Turner; The Fighting Temeraire
  5. Antony Gormley; The Angel of the North
  6. L S Lowry; Going to the Match
  7. John William Waterhouse; The Lady of Shalott
  8. Peter Blake; Sgt Pepper album cover
  9. Hipgnosis and George Hardie; Dark Side of the Moon album cover
  10. George Stubbs; Mares and Foals
  11. Thomas Gainsborough; Mr and Mrs Andrews
  12. John Everett Millais; Ophelia
  13. Andy Goldsworthy; Balanced Rock Misty
  14. David Hockney; A Bigger Splash
  15. Bridget Riley; Movement in Squares
  16. Anish Kapoor; ArcelorMittal Orbit
  17. Stik; A Couple Hold Hands in the Street
  18. Maggi Hambling; Scallop
  19. Henry Moore; Reclining Figure
  20. Jamie Reid; Never Mind the Bollocks album cover