FEELING ROTTEN;....
Were people rushing off to vote? There didn’t seem to be any frenzy. Pierrette returned to her home town. I went off to the theatre but was back to the hotel early. My mind was elsewhere. The results fell in the early hours of the morning. I was flabbergasted. It couldn’t be true….the vote was not to remain in the EEC. There are pages I could write on the subject. Anyone who is interested in Europe, lives here and believes in the community even if there is a lot to be done to improve it, must have felt like I did. « What went wrong? »
I was to visit the new Tate but my heart wasn’t in it. That morning walking down the Strand to the National Gallery, the faces spoke for themselves. There were many damp eyes around, especially amongst the young. I really wanted to see « Painters’ Paintings - From Freud to Van Dyck » which opened that morning.
Painters' Paintings' takes its inspiration from works in the National Gallery Collection once owned by painters, revealing the private acquisitions of Freud, Matisse, Degas, Leighton, Watts, Lawrence, Reynolds, and Van Dyck.
The exhibition investigates why these painters acquired other painters' works – for artistic inspiration, to support fellow artists, as status symbols, as investments, even out of obsession.
It also considers the fascinating relations painters had with the paintings they possessed, and what happened when their acquisitions entered public collections.
'Painters' Paintings' features more than eighty works spanning over five hundred years of art history, from Freud’s 2002 ‘Self Portrait: Reflection’ to Bellini’s Agony in the Garden of about 1465.
About half of the works are exceptional loans from public and private collections, including Cézanne’s ‘Three Bathers’ once owned by Matisse, Sisley’s ‘The Flood. Banks of the Seine, Bougival’ once owned by Degas, and Gainsborough’s ‘Girl with Pigs’ once owned by Reynolds
Each painting offers a unique insight into the private worlds of these celebrated masters.
Of course, no photos. Perhaps this was a day when I was not in a mood to take photos. The Freud section was fascinating. So fascinating but alas my mind seemed to be elsewhere.
« Snap out of it, my girl » . So over to the Portrait Gallery.
Apart from the BP award, this is what I found. Some really interesting work -
Sir Tim Berners-Lee - 1955: He invented the World Wide Web in 1989 a computer technology which has become the most powerful communication medium in the world.
In 2007, he founded the WWW Foundation to ensure an open and free Web...He is Professor of Engineering and Computer Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technolgy and also at the university of Southampton.
This Painted bronze whici is stunningly life-like is by Sean Henry and completed in 2015
Dame Maggie Smith (of course) born in 1934. She has won two Oscars and recently appeared in ITV'S "Downtown Abbey" (2014-15) for which she won two Emmy awards.
This is by James Lloyd an oil on canvas completed in 2012
Jane & Louis Wilson False Positive, False Negative. They are identical twins born in 1967. This is a double self portrait
And a series painted by Lucian Freud in a small section called "Lucian Freud Unseen"
A Self portrait (Fragment) of Lucian Freud thought to be painted in the 1980's
He said "The way you paint yourself you've got to try and paint yourself as another person. Looking into a mirror is a strain in a way that looking at other peole isn't at all".
Girl in Bed - Oil on Canvas done in 1952 and depicts the writer, Lady Caroline Blackwood (1931-96) in the Hotel La Lousiane, where she and Freud stayed after they had eloped to Paris. They married in 1953 but divorced soon after in 1958
Arnold Abraham Goodman, Baron Goodman - charcoal done in 1985. He was chairman of the Arts Council and many other arts organisations. He posed for the portrait by lying in a bed in a position which he described as "not entirely comfortable"
An oil on Canvass by Ishbel Myerscough of Sir William Wentworth White born in 1946 in Jamaica. A renowned opera singer appearing internationally and singing regularly at the Royal Opera House
Sir Ian McKellen born in 1939. Also a Shakepsearean actor. He was nominated for Academy Awards for performances in "Gods and Monsters" (1998) and the Lord of the Rings triology (2001-3). Recent roles include those in "The Hobbit Triology" (2012-14) and the X-Men films. He is a campaigner for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender groups.
Dame Cicely Saunders (1912005) a Physician and writer. Was President and Founder Trustee of the Cicely Saunders Foundation, a charity to improve the care of people at the end of life.
The painting was done by Catherine Goodman
When I first looked at the painting, I thought it was Mme Chirac, the wife of one of our previous President's.
This represents an anonylous 21st century subect in reference to ancient traditions of monumental sculpture.
J.K. Roling born in 1965 is the author of Harry Potter. These books have now been translated into 78 languages, sold over 450 million copies world wide and have been made into 8 major feature films!
The painting was done by Suart Pearson Wright. It is an old on board construction with coloured pencil on paper.
A photo included in the BP Travel award. I think it was taken by Laura Guoke and is called Petras. I am not sure.
LMFO3 by FC Borden and is a portrait of the artist's mother of whom she says: "She wasn't interested in being painted and only agreed to it because she's my mother...."
DIE VERMUTUNG by Wolfgang Kessler born in 1962. Oil on canvass. The portrait is the artist's daughter and the title can be translated as "presumption". It is part of a series recording his daughter as she grows up.
James Rhodes by Aleander Chamberlin - oil on canvass. The man is also a painter and a friend of Rhodes...Rhodes is known for making classical music accessible to a wide audience through informal presentation of his peformances and campaigning music tuition for school children.
I had jumped from gallery to gallery, stopping when something really caught my attention. I left feeling a little less forlorn.
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