No 10's Brown Period: Are Gordon's new paintings for Downing Street tasteful art or just dismal daubs?

It's a perk and a problem of being at No 10 - new Prime Ministers can choose the pictures for their homes but then have to face the judgment of the critics.

Margaret Thatcher liked Turner and Constable. John Major (or his wife, Norma) had a passion for Hockney, and Blair favoured Damian Hirst back when he was a BritArt wildchild.

Now The Mail on Sunday has seen some of Gordon Brown's selection of art for the flat where he, Sarah and their young sons will live.

The verdict? Inoffensive, middle-of-the-road and, pointedly, south of the border - nothing to set the tea-cups rattling.

There's more than a hint of political correctness in the carefully assembled group of paintings that reveal little about Mr Brown's genuine tastes and much about his meticulous, studied character.

Robin Simon, editor of the British Art Journal, said: "These are paintings for people who don't like pictures or aren't particularly interested in art.

"It's the bland leading the blind. There are a couple of very good works but in total this is a civil servant's selection of ruthlessly boring, unadventurous paintings."

Mr Brown made his selection from the Government Art Collection which mostly comprises British works from the 16th Century to present day.

Said Mr Simon: "It seems such a missed opportunity - to rifle through the Government collection and come up with this when there are such treasures, such real masterpieces there to be viewed.

"It's interesting that they are all landscapes, which can be code for "safe". They're very uneven in quality and appear to have been selected according to the criteria of not clashing with the wallpaper."

Whether by design or accident - and the latter seems unlikely - the most interesting and valuable work that will hang in the Brown's flat is a painting by Euan Uglow.

Uglow, who died in 2000, was one of Britain's greatest figurative artists, a friend of the Blairs and notorious for having painted Cherie in the nude when she was a young law student.

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Richmond, Yorkshire

by John Aldridge

This is one of the few really good paintings chosen. Aldridge was a member of the Royal Academy and a characteristically solid, good and very English painter. His landscapes are particularly highly crafted.

The amusing thing in this choice is that John Aldridge is famous for being about as Establishment a figure as you could possibly get - something of which any civil servant charged with looking after the Government Collection would be well aware.

This is a very good painting. But set against the rest of the collection, I'm rather inclined to think it wasn't chosen purely for its artistic merit.

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Two Trees

by Susan Hawker

Really all you can say about this is that it is a very pleasant picture. There is no question that Susan Hawker can paint. But I notice this was bought through the Thackery Gallery which is an absolute bastion of the best sort of rock-solid, landscape painting. It is safe, safe, safe.

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Open Land

by Pauline Jones

Well, this is just the worst sort of vapid nonsense.

The best thing perhaps one might say about this is that we are lucky they selected one of her earlier works. Pauline Jones belongs rather ominously to an organisation called Art of the Imagination - a group of artists who support each other in producing appalling fantasy, New-Agey works.

We can only be thankful that they didn't go for one of her awful Lord of the Rings-style fantasies.

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Heathland

by Philip Sutton

It's cheerful isn't it? There's very little more to say about this one. It's been chosen to cheer up a dark room. It's inoffensive, it's rather nice but again we're back to art being chosen so as not to clash with the wallpaper or because it's the right size. He is a competent but not particularly notable painter.

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Towards Norway

by Mark Thompson

One must assume this was chosen to represent 'youth', as Mark Thompson is only 35. And it's big - again one assumes that they have a big wall somewhere to fill.

This is the work of a conceited young man, working on a very large canvas with very little to say. It is technically very clever but it is utterly pompous.

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North Cyprus

Study for a History Painting by Euan Uglow

This is the absolute other end of the scale in every sense. Mark Thompson's work is the largest, Euan Uglow's is the smallest and by far the most interesting and accomplished of the group. I think it would be impossible for Uglow to have painted a bad picture. He had such an unusual eye, was so technically gifted.

It is rather amusing that the best work should be one done by a favourite of the Blairs. Though I rather fear that as it is the smallest work it may be destined to hang in the smallest room in the house."