Exit Through The Giftshop - Pictures At An Exhibition #18

Memories from when galleries and museums were open...

1) SELF PORTRAIT WITH CERISE RIBBONS (1782) - Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun

 

This was bought at the wonderful Le Brun exhibition that was on at the Grand-Palais in Paris which I saw in 2016, the first ever retrospective of her portraits both pre- and post-revolution.  

Elisabeth, aged 27, looks out at us fresh-faced and apple-cheeked, a vision of prettiness with her hair tumbling naturally to her shoulders.  Her soft white dress as accenuated by the bright cerise pussy-bow and sash, and the black lace shawl and jaunty plumed hat.  For a working portraitist, it also served as unoffical advertising, showing the fashionable women of Paris that she could paint them like this too.

2) LADY AGNEW OF LOCHNAW (1892) - John Singer Sargent

A century on from Le Brun, the society painter of choice was John Singer Sargent who, like Elisabeth, gave the sitter exactly what they wanted only with more insight.  The commission came through from the 9th Baronet of Lochnaw Castle to paint his wife Gertrude (née Vernon).  I bought this at the National Gallery of Scotland where she sits in residence.

A glorious portrait, Sargent always managed to give the impression of capturing his subjects 'live', negating the length of time it would have taken to paint.  Her full white dress is accentuated by the mauve sash which also ties in the tones of the silk backdrop and French upholstery of the chair.  She holds a white rose in her lap and languidly drapes her arm over the arm of the chair to hold the chair frame.  She stares directly at Sargent and at us, almost saying "Kiss all this opulence...".

3) STATUE OF EBIH-IL (circa 2400 BC) - unknown

This glorious chap is Ebih-Il, the superintendant of the ancient city of Mari, now in Syria, sculpted at his prayers.  I made his acquaintance at the Louvre in Paris where he is currently residing.  He was discovered in 1934 by French archaelogist André Parrot at the site of the temple of Ishtar.

He is seated on a whicker seat and wears a bulky skirt of animal skin. What makes it stand out however is the marvellous rendering of his face with his happy smile and the vivid blue of his lapis lazuli eyes.  He stands - or sits - just over 20 inches tall and I would head straight for him when the Louvre let me run around with a shopping trolley.

4) THE RAISING OF THE SON OF THEOPHILIS (detail) (1428-1484) - Masaccio and Filippino Lippi

Part of the marvellous fresco cycle which adorn the walls of the Brancacci Chapel within the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence.  The frescos can only be viewed on short timed visits through the cloisters next to the church so the vibrant paintings are not damaged by constant visitors.

I was immediately drawn to this group of observers who rather dispassionately are watching Saint Peter raise a young man from the dead.  Their faces are remarkable and you will definitely have seen them walking along the streets of Florence to find the church of Santa Maria del Carmine. My personal favourite is the man second from the right, turning to his neighbour with a resigned look on his face. Work on the frescos started in 1425 by the painter Masaccio but he stopped when he had to travel to Rome in 1428 where he died aged only 27.  Filippino Lippi completed them 55 years later!

5) THE LAOCOON GROUP (possibly circa 27BC and 68AD) - unknown

One of the most iconic works of art, it's wonderful to see it in 'the marble' and to realise you are looking at a statue that Pliny The Elder wrote about.  If Laocoon and the lads hadn't suffered enough, they are missing a couple of limbs - and a bit of upraised snake - but it does not detract from the overall power of the work and your feeling of helplessness observing it.  The postcard was bought at the Vatican where the statue stands in the Pio-Clementino Mueum.

The Trojan High Priest Laocoon's fate was written about by Sophocles in a now-lost tragedy and by Virgil who tells of him throwing a spear at the Trojan Horse and being killed along with his sons by venomous snakes sent by the god Poseidon.  Sophocles had another take on it and sexed up the tale by having the gods send the snakes to kill his sons in revenge for him breaking his vow of chastity to the god Apollo.  The huge statue was re-discovered in 1506 and Michelangelo was one of the first to inspect it - you can definitely see the influence in his work.  The statue's actual date is still widely open for conjecture and there is no definite idea if it is Greek of Roman.  What most - apart from silly old John Ruskin - are agreed on is it's tragic power.

Exit Through The Giftshop - Postcards at an exhibition....

I haven't done one of these for a while...  more postcards from exhibitions and galleries...

1) ELLEN TERRY (1889) - John Singer Sargent

I bought this at the National Portrait Gallery after seeing the wonderful exhibition of Singer Sargent's portraits. In a room filled with other larger-than-life portraits of the rich and famous, Ellen Terry's ruled them all with the intensity and majesty invoked.

Capturing Terry in her role as Lady Macbeth which she played aged 42, you can see how Singer Sargent has captured lightening in making you aware of both the power and the incipient madness that must have been conjured by Terry's performance.  The portrait is all the more remarkable in that it is pure imagination as there is no such scene in the play.  Singer Sargent has painted her in an extended, larger-tan-life pose to show off the heavy medieval costume, jewelry and accessories and those enormous plaits!  But what arrests the viewer is the intense look on Terry's face, her eyes unfocused and lost in a reverie of power

2) MONA LISA (1503-6) - Leonardo de Vinci

Well... how can you not buy a postcard in the Louvre where Lisa del Giacondo stares out at you from anything and everything.  Started by Leonardo when she was 24, Lisa Gheradini had been married at 16 to (gasp) Francesco di Bartolomeo di Zanobi del Giocondo, a silk and cloth merchant.  It is believed that he commissioned the portrait of his wife but Leonardo never delivered it to the couple and worked on it over the years until it was found in his possession when he died in Paris in 1519.

I wonder did Lisa ever entertain thoughts of becoming well-known, possibly when her husband became a Florentine official in 1499.  But as the mother of five she probably thought she would be known only to family and friends.  I wonder how she would feel to know that her face is one of the most famous in history?  As you cannot get close to the painting in it's bullet-proof shrine, really the only way to study it up close is though the postcards, books, posters, prints, tea-towels, fridge-magnets...

3) VERGINE ANNUNCIATA (1528) - Jacopo Pontormo

How many surprised Virgin Marys does one see in Florence?  This postcard was bought when we visited the church of Santa Felicita in Florence which boasts several works by the Renaissance painter Pontormo.  In this fresco of The Annunciation, Pontormo gives us a restrained version of the event as Mary turns to look behind her at the arrival of the Angel in her bare whitewashed room.

It reflects a Mannerist influence where the bling and emotionalism of Renaissance painting is stripped back to a clear, restrained version of the story.  The light shining on her face could be from an external source or from the Angel's radiance and it highlights her pale colouring, blond hair and the simple colours of her robes.  I think it's rather lovely.

4) THE GREAT DAY OF HIS WRATH (1851-3) - John Martin

I bought this in 2011 when we visited the John Martin exhibition at Tate Britain.  Odd how things trigger memories... we came out of this and I remember getting some very sad news so that is what stays with me when I see Martin's extravagant painting of the Apocalypse. I remember walking round the exhibition and wondering what the Victorians thought of his huge panoramas of sturm und drang. To me, they seemed to be early incarnations of the Biblical epics of Cecil B. deMille; massive palaces with huge empty terraces spotted with 'extras', or as here, huge set-pieces come alive with huge visual effects.

Two huge mountains of earth rise up to be crashed to earth with a zig-zag of lightning cracks across the sky to hit the tiny house raised high off the ground.  At the bottom of the painting, tiny figures cower in terror as the end approaches... and all lit by a sickly, glowering deep-red sunset.  This painting was one of a triptych that Martin painted about the end of days and they actually toured around theatres in England and America, presented like a sound-and-light show with music and lights to scare the bejesus out of the audience!

5) BANKS OF THE SEINE AT CARRIERES-SUR-SEINE (1906) - Maurice de Vlaminck

I bought this at the Courtauld Gallery which boasts a wonderful collection of both Impressionist and  Post-Impressionist paintings, and one of them is this vibrant landscape by Vlaminck.  I love his Fauvist world of reds, blues and greens; the year before he painted this, he did a town landscape called "Restaurant de la Machine a Bougival" and whenever I see it I just want to leap into it and live there.

Vlaminck's painting of the banks of the Seine in a town to the north of Paris glows with life and the joy of painting.  The whole painting moves with the breezes that swirl the branches of the trees and bushes.  The houses on the far side of the Seine offer solidity and community - but on this bank all is life, nature and vivid colour.

Exit Through The Giftshop - Postcards at an exhibition....

More postcards from exhibitions and galleries...

1) THE FOUNTAIN, VILLA TORLONIA, FRASCATI, ITALY (1907) - John Singer Sargent

This came from the recent marvellous National Portrait Gallery exhibition of portraits by John Singer Sargent.  In this atmospheric study, a woman has perched herself onto a stone ballustrade to paint her canvas, dressed for the outdoors in her veiled hat and white coat and dress with her brushes arrayed beside her.  Her companion relaxes beside her and Sargent has captured him either humourously regarding her painting or closing his eyes for a nap.  Behind them the fountain of the painting's title splashes away, matching the white of their clothes and contrasting with the lush green trees beyond.  A painting I could stare at for hours...

2) THE REBELLIOUS SLAVE (1513-15) - Michelangelo

From the Louvre in Paris, this is one of the two in Michelangelo's series of slave staues that is not unfinished and seeming to break free from the block of marble that surrounds it.  Here a bound slave - with the all-important swath of material over his groin - strains and twists to escape his fate.  The similarity facially to his David statue is very noticeable.

3) PORTRAITS OF BATTISTA SFORZA AND FEDERICO DA MONTEFELTRO, DUKE OF URBINO (1465-72) - Piero della Francesca

A double portrait of the Duke and Duchess of Urbino with their city spread out behind them which is one of the many treasures in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.  Reality dictated their positioning as the Duke has lost an eye and was scarred on the right side of his face from a tournament which had also broke his nose.  The Duchess' jewels and brocaded dress accentuate her grave beauty.   Oddly the Duke and Duchess are also painted on the reverse on these double portraits in a different pose.

4) PORTRAIT OF GIACOMO DORIA (1533-5) - Titian

This imposing portrait by Titian confers on his sitter all the trops of power - the swaggering volumous black garment, the direct gaze of the merchant who was also a diplomat and the marble column he stands in front of.  This can be seen in Oxford's Ashmoleon Museum.

5) OH, JEFF... I LOVE YOU, TOO... BUT... (1964) - Roy Lichtenstein

One of Lichtenstein's classic Pop Art portraits in all it's garish Benday-dotted Magna colour, a picture that while celebrating the banalness of commercial art also holds it's own mystique.  Oddly enough, this exhibition felt unsatisfactory.

Exit Through The Giftshop - Postcards at an exhibition....

I am going to do this as an occasional blog...

Usually for me it kicks in about halfway round an exhibition... that's when I start thinking "I wonder if they have this picture as a postcard in the shop?"  Indeed I remember going to the Royal Academy's 1991 Pop Art exhibition with a friend, Jacqui Tomlinson, who *raced* around the gallery barely looking at the Warhols, Lichtensteins and Johns'.  When I caught up with her I asked did she really dislike it that much and she said "No, I just want to get to the shop quicker".  I thought Andy Warhol would have found that particularly funny.

Of course once I get to the shop, I usually start my usual rant: "Why don't they have a postcard of THAT picture??  Why are there only 4 postcards for such a big exhibition - and why are they all the SHITE ones?"  I have yet to get a proper answer to that one...

But we buy the postcards they have - and in a very special case, the catalogue - but what do you do with yours?  Mine tend to sit in various boxes, waiting to be looked at again... so let's get them on here!  I shall put up a few at a time and give my memories of when and where I saw them.

1) CARNATION, LILY, LILY, ROSE (1885-6) - John Singer Sargent

I bought this after seeing the glorious 2015 Sargent exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery which included the luminous painting of an artist friend's two daughters lighting Chinese lanterns in a twilight garden.  The postcard doesn't exactly do Sargent's colours justice but it's a lovely painting, giving a nod to impressionism but with Sargent's careful staging.

2) EL FINAL DEL NUMERO (1900-1) - Pablo Picasso

I think I bought this at the Courtauld's exhibition BECOMING PICASSO in 2013 which focused on 1901, one of the key years in the artists life. I love his use of pastels in this vivid moment of a singer taking the applause of her audience.

3) MRS HERBERT DUCKWORTH (1867) - Julia Margaret Cameron

 I bought this at the National Portrait Gallery exhibition of Cameron in 2003.  Cameron's niece Julia Jackson posed for this photograph aged 21 and her austere beauty could almost be a personification of Victorian femininity.  Later that year she married the barrister Herbert Duckworth and was left widowed 3 years later with 3 children.  Eight years on she married the writer Sir Leslie Stephen who already had a daughter from his first marriage.  The Stephens would go on to have four more children together before Julia's death at the age of 49.  Her daughters would later rebel against their mother Julia's Victorian values through art (Vanessa Bell) and literature (Virginia Woolf).

4) DAWN, TOMB OF LORENZO DI MEDICI, DUKE OF URBANO (1520-34) - Michelangelo

I bought this in the Medici Chapel in Florence where Michelangelo's monumental tomb for Lorenzo, Duke of Urbano is. The Duke of Urbano was one of the lesser Medici, dying at the age of 26 but his daughter Catherine de Medici would go on to fame as the controlling Queen of France at the time of the Huguenot massacres.  Michelangelo's nude allegorical figure of Dawn however is a glorious statue of weary majesty.

5) SAINT JOHN THE EVANGELIST (1320) - Giotto

I bought this at the Musée Jacquemart-André, a favourite museum in Paris which usually has interesting exhibitions and an even more interesting restaurant, perfect for déjuner avec un grand patisserie.  This was part of their 2015 exhibition FROM GIOTTO TO CARAVAGGIO and is a fine example of Giotto's skill in humanising his figures, his John The Evangelist is an old man whose kind and wise face is suggested by the lines around his eyes and forehead.  I like the gold trimming on his blue gown and pink shawl... John obviously liked his colours.  I have been told by Owen that "Giotto invented art" and I'm glad he did.

More soon...

It's nice to have the odd adventure and last weekend Owen and I left London to simmer in the heat and took to the road (well, railway line) and visited Oxford for the day.

It was a bit of a time-travel moment for Owen as he went to college in Oxford at the end of the 70s for a short while before realising it wasn't for him and moving on. So it was interesting to walk around it with him as he kept up the mantra "this wasnt here then".

What was there was the tiny pub that he remembered drinking in listening to that heady combination of punk and disco on the jukebox, now very much changed but at least it was still there with a seeming emphasis on live music. Oddly enough this week we walked past the pub in Mayfair which was my 70s after-work drinkerie of choice - namely because the downstairs bar had a great jukebox packed with the same combination of punk and disco.We went round the Ashmolean Museum which was a nice way to waste an hour or so on a sizzling lunchtime. It had the requisite one-off work by famous painters as all regional galleries have but there were also some paintings that I had on my usual shopping list for when I am allowed to run around with a shopping trolley for 10 minutes namely an evocative John Singer Sargent parting of an Italian balustrade and I got my Bloomsbury fix with Mark Gertler's vividly bold portrait of Gilbert Cannan by his mill home with J.M. Barrie's dog Porthos who was the basis for 'Nana' in PETER PAN.They have a nice cafe in the basement too by the way.

Oxford was pleasant enough but I could hardly see any of it thanks to every building being about 4-deep in people - the place was MOBBED. I heard every dialect on God's earth on the streets - and in particular in the generic High Street... they were all there Next, WH Smith, Odeon, Pret A Manger, HMV, Caffe Nero, Sports Direct... all rather dreary.

Now Constant Reader, you really don't believe I went all that way just to look at shopfronts? Not then there is THE HARDER THEY COME playing at the Oxford Playhouse.

Yes it was time for my 7th visit to Ivan's ni-night and boy, were they a provincial, small matinee audience! Lines which have always met with BIG audience responses at best get smiles. All very discouraging but the cast still put their all into it and it was great to see Chris Tummings, Victor Romero Evans, Derek Elroy, Joy Mack, Marlon King and Jacqui Dubois for possibly the last time.
Anyways normal service was resumed at the end with the stalls up and hollering for more!

All in all, a very nice day out.