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

Another selection of postcards that have grabbed my eye at exhibitions and galleries...

1) THE RISEN CHRIST (1521) - Michelangelo

This was bought in the church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva where Michelangelo's glorious statue stands between the main altar and the grave of artist Fra Angelo.  It is remarkable to be able to get so close to such a life-size wonder.

This is the second version of the statue that Michelangelo carved.  He had started the private commission in 1515 and had nearly finished it when he noticed the white marble had a black streak in it so stopped work on it and started afresh.  He created it in Florence and it was then moved to Rome.  The bronze loincloth was added later on, the bloody prudes!  The first version can still be seen in a Monastery near Viterbo in Italy although it was shown at the National Gallery in 2017.

2) SUNFLOWERS IN THE GARDEN AT PETIT GENNEVILLIERS (1885) - Gustave Caillebotte

 

This was bought at Madrid's Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza when I visited their lovely exhibition of paintings by the impressionist Gustave Caillebotte.  He is still under-appreciated, his best known works are evocative paintings of La Belle Epoque Paris.  He was not only a member of the original group of impressionists but also a patron of them.  Possibly his most famous painting is "The Floor Scrapers" showing three working men stripping the parquet off a Parisian apartment floor.

But Caillebotte also loved painting gardens and the outdoor locations around Petit-Grenevilliers, a suburb outside Paris where he had a house.  He moved there permanently three years after painting this rapturous painting of sunflowers crowding the foreground of his garden, you can almost feel the sun and the buzzing of bees.  Gustave came from a wealthy family and his painting slowed towards the end of his life as he found other interests to pursue.  Sadly he died of pulmonary congestion while working in his beloved garden, he was 45.

3) STROZZI CHAPEL, SANTA MARIA NOVELLA (1502) - Fillipino Lippi

Santa Maria Novella is the huge church which faces the main station in Florence and it was consecrated in 1420, 144 years after building started on it!  It's glorious marble frontage conceals many treasures within.

One being the Strozzi chapel that is beside the main altar which featues frescoes by Fillippino Lippi of scenes from the lives of the Apostles Philip and James.  Filippo Strozzi was a rich Florentine banker and statesman who commisioned this chapel and the Strozzi Palace near the Duomo but didn't live to see either completed but he is buried in the chapel. The paintings are very colourful and very Florentine!

4) GILBERT CANNAN AND HIS MILL (1916) - Mark Gertler

 

I bought this at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford to remember Gertler's wonderful painting of his friend, the writer Gilbert Cannan. The painting has the similar colours of orange, blue and whites that featured in his anti-war MERRY-GO-ROUND from the same year. Cannan had met Gertler through Lady Ottoline Morrell and, through him, also knew painters Dora Carrington and CRW Nevinson; Cannan later wrote a novel of the artists' complex love triangle. Cannan was living in the mill in Buckinghamshire at the time with his wife and two Newfoundland dogs Sammy and Luath.  

 

Think Luath looks familiar?  Cannan had been JM Barrie's secretary and in 1909 started a relationship with Barrie's wife Mary who felt neglected by him.  After a highly-publicized divorce case Gilbert and Mary married in 1910 - and Luath came along too.  Luath's claim to fame is she was the inspiration for Nana in PETER PAN.  In the same year, Cannan suffered a mental breakdown brought on by the stress of WWI and his marriage ended in 1918.  He suffered another breakdown in 1923 and spent the rest of his life in sanatoriums.  Gertler tragically killed himself in 1939.

5) THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON (1812) - Francisco de Goya

I bought this at the National Gallery's exhibition of Goya portraits.  I find Goya a bit tricky: overly florid and over-emphatic but I was taken with this simple chalk drawing of the Duke, possibly done as a run-up to his more detailed portrait in oils.  Wellington sat for Goya after he liberated Madrid through winning the Battle of Salamanca.

The drawing presents a Wellington different to the usual pomp and circumstance portraits of him, here he looks a bit more human, a bit more unprepared and natural, he was 43 at the time.  This is now in the collection of the British Museum while the oil painting is in the National Gallery collection.

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

More postcards from exhibitions and galleries...

1) IL PROFETA ABACUC 'IO ZUCCONE' (1425) - Donatello

Donatello's statue is packed with character and humanity, I love the excellent way he has carved the swags and falls of the prophet's robes, supposedly this was Donatello's favourite sculpture. 

I bought this at the Museo Dell 'Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore in Florence where Zuccone (Bald-head!) resides.

2) LA MANDRA (1898-1900) - Ramon Casas

Bought from the Museu Nacional d'Art De Catalunya where room after room suggests to one that Catalonian artists followed rather than instigating movements down the years, one reaches the late 19th Century rooms with a sigh of relief to come across the great works of Barcelona artist Ramon Casas.

Yes they are again following the French impressionists but they have a charm and a quality that make them memorable - here a woman lazes on a bed in a quiet room, doing anything than what she probably should be doing...  This was painted just as Casas was becoming a proponent of the Spanish Modernista movement, this included being a part owner in the famous bar Els Quatre Gats with his friend Pe Romeu which became a hub from Barcelona's artist community.

3) LES PASSANTS (The Passerbys) (1906-7) - Raoul Dufy

Yes, London art galleries and museums... whenever you finally decide to have an exhibition of Dufy I will be there.

This glorious painting is in the Courtauld collection and whenever I visit, I love to spend some time entering into the lovely world of LES PASSANTS.  It's Fauvist colours and spare setting is a world I would love to live in... can I be in red please and own the green dog?

4) DAVID TRIBUNE (1501-4) - Michelangelo

I bought this in Florence at the Galleria dell'Accademia where Michelangelo's epic David stands in solitary majesty in a stark setting.

DAVID was originally placed in the Piazza della Signoria beside the magnificent Palazzo Vecchio.  It stayed there for 369 years until it was moved to it's present location in 1873.  Like all great art, it still manages to amaze when seen in the stone despite all one's previous sightings in books, films and adverts.

5) WOODEN CRUCIFIX (detail) (circa 1412) - Fillipo Brunelleschi

A detail from Brunelleschi's wooden sculpture which you can see in Florence's Church of Santa Maria Novella - see the full length postcard in my earlier "Giftshop" blog here.

According to the biographer/artist Vasari, this was Filipo Brunelleschi's response to a crucifix he disliked that Donatello had made in the church of Santa Croce. It's simple but glorious.

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

More postcards from exhibitions and galleries...

1) ELS COLOMINS (1957) - Pablo Picasso

A wonderfully exuberant and vibrant painting of the view from Picasso's Calais window, I bought this at the Museu Picasso in Barcelona.  I love his punky white pigeons, the propped-up palette, the azure sea and magnificent tree in front of his studio window.

2) LE COURONNEMENT D'EPINES (1602-3) - Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio

Well I never knew Caravaggio was a Michelangelo too!  I bought this at the Musée Jacquemart-André when they held an exhibition named FROM GIOTTO TO CARAVAGGIO.  Caravaggio lights the scene with his usual shaft of light from one side to illuminate his fleshy, all-too-human Christ, held by two soldiers, as a third forces the crown of thorns onto his head with a stick. I like how Caravaggio has both Christ and the soldier holding him staring into the face of the soldier forcing the crown on as well as the emphasis on the hands of all involved.

3) LA NASCITA DI VENERE (1484) - Sandro Botticelli

Botticelli's iconic Birth of Venus isn't exactly one of my favourite paintings ever but when you go to the Uffizi Gallery shop you have to buy a copy of it - they call the police if you don't!  For such an image of idealised beauty Botticelli's Venus is all over the shop physically but I prefer to dwell on the figure in the billowing drapery who hurries to cover Venus' modesty.

4) WOODEN CRUCIFIX (circa 1412) - Fillipo Brunelleschi

This wonderfully realised crucifix is in the Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence and is one of the many remarkable works of art displayed there.  According to the biographer/artist Vasari, Brunelleschi was compelled to make this crucifix after criticizing the one that Donatello had just unveiled in Santa Croce.  Donatello's is certainly more realistic than Brunelleschi's idealised, stark figure but if you wish to decide for yourself, head to the Capella Gondi at Novella.

5) ANNE BOLEYN (circa 1533) - unknown

 Um.  The shame.  I have never actually visited this portrait at the National Portrait Gallery!  And me a big Boleyn fan.  I am telling myself that this is for the best as I would probably try to stick it in my bag!  An iconic portrait of an iconic woman, this has been the first stop for any costume designer and/or casting director in the countless retellings of Anne's sorry tale.  I do love the stark quality of the portrait, Anne's jet black veil and gown accentuated by the brown furry sleeves and heavily-worked gold and pearls of the dress's neckline - and of course the directness of Anne's coolly knowing gaze, it almost feels like she is saying down the years, "Me?  Guilty??"