More memories from viewings past...
1) BAPTISM OF THE NEOPHYTES (1427) - Masaccio
I bought this when I saw the remarkable frescos in the
Brancacci Chapel within the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine
in Florence. The frescos can only be viewed on short timed visits, you enter through the cloisters next to the church, so the vibrant paintings are
not damaged by constant visitors. Masaccio began his frescos in 1425 but stopped when he had to travel to Rome in 1428 where he died aged only
27. Filippino Lippi completed them 55 years later.
St. Peter is seen baptizing believers in a river, a supplicant kneels before him as the holy water runs over his head, the river eddying around his knees. Again, one is drawn to the remarkable cast of characters - the man who is waiting to be baptized who is obviously already freezing, the acolyte of Peter who is helping the man undress in the queue and, at the back, a man in a green tunic who really looks like he is thinking "What have I let myself in for?" as he looks nervously around him.
2) LADY WITH CAPE AND HAT (1890) - Gustav Klimt
This was bought at the Royal Academy exhibition of drawings by Klimt and Egon Schiele from the Albertina Museum in Vienna in 2018. The Albertina has for many years been the main research centre for the artist's life and work. Klimt drew this haunting composition using black and red chalk aged 28.
Say the name Klimt and one thinks of art nouveau stylized, highly coloured portraits of glamorous women but this earlier drawing of a young woman in a black coat with high collar and a large hat is haunting in it's simplicity; her mournful expression beautifully caught as it is lit from the side. Klimt was to embark on years of upheaval when in 1892 both his father and brother died and their families were dependant on Gustav for their well-being.
3)
VIRGINIA AND LEONARD WOOLF'S WRITING LODGE (1934)
A very happy memory is visiting Monk's House on a sunny day in 2014.
Virginia and Leonard Woolf bought the house in an auction in 1919 for
£700 and over the years, as they both became successful, they started
making improvements to the rudimentary interior and garden. They lived
increasingly at Monk's House during the 20s and 30s due to Virginia's
recurring mental breakdowns which were exacerbated by London life, and
became a much-loved part of their life. After Virginia's suicide in
1941, Leonard lived on at Monk's House until his own death in 1969.
The garden lodge was built in 1934 and, apart from being a place to store apples in the loft, it served as Virginia's writing retreat being only a short walk across the lawn from the main house. Apart from her articles, she would have written the bulk of THE YEARS and BETWEEN THE ACTS here. I blogged at the time "We were told that we were lucky that they had a full compliment of
volunteers so the lodge was actually open to visitors and it was
wonderful to stand there by her writing desk, her glasses and cigarettes
still there waiting to be used. The volunteer said sadly all we could
do in there was look and breathe in the air. That was fine for me."
4) SELF PORTRAIT WITH MONKEY (1938) - Frida Kahlo
Another of the great self-portraits by Frida Kahlo. This was bought
in 2005 at Tate Modern when they had a major retrospective of her
work. It had been a commission painting for the then-president of New York's Museum of Modern Art. Anson Conger Goodyear. 1938 was a pretty good year for Frida: she had made her first notable
sale when the actor Edward G Robinson bought four paintings for $800 and
she was invited to New York to hold her first US exhibition which,
while dismissed by critics, was financially successful.
She had met the Surrealist André Breton earlier in the year in Mexico who invited her to Paris to exhibit and famously described her art as "a ribbon tied around a bomb". Frida stares out at us at an angle, coiffed and elegant, defiantly uni-browed and with a mousetache showing, against a background of large tropical leaves. Her spider-monkey pet Fulang-Chang sits behind her with a protective paw around her neck, as if to guard her against the sudden explosion of interest in her and her art.
5)
PIETÁ (AFTER DELACROIX) (1889) - Vincent van Gogh
I
bought this at the wonderful van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam: we wandered over that way one late afternoon and saw a smallish queue outside which we joined more as a dare to see how long we would stand there but to our delight it wasn't that long before we were shifting along and we were in, to discover the nooks and crannys of the modernist interior - and of course revel in the glorious paintings within.
Of course the knowledge that this was painted the year before his suicide makes one read more iinto the subject matter than one should, for most of the year Vincent was in the asylum in Saint Rémy-de-Provence where his access for inspiration came mostly from prints of other artists' work that he had with him as well as the grounds of the asylum. He had always admired Delacroix and one day, when his print of his Pietá fell in some oils, Vincent decided to do his own. Although based on another work, Vincent was working from a b/w print so the swirling and turbulant colour is his own imagination and memories of Delacroix's style. I really love the colours: the many blues he finds in Mary's garments, offset against the paler tones of Jesus' skin and his sheet. As usual when looking at his work you just feel sadness for the poor guy.
