Reflections, Van Eyck and the Pre-Raphaelites at the National Gallery

Just add pictures

Whilst it is the major, blockbuster exhibitions like the current Charles I, King and Collector at the Royal Academy which receive most of the public’s attention, there remains an important role for smaller, focused exhibitions like Reflections, now showing at the National Gallery.

Reflections focuses on the influence of one painting, the Arnolfini Portrait by Jan Van Eyck. Painted in 1434, the picture was acquired by the National Gallery in 1842. It was the first example in the gallery’s collection of early C15 low country painting. And as such it represented a marked contrast from the Southern European Renaissance and Mannerist painting which dominated the collection and were typically seen as the high point of the art of painting.

The Arnolfini Portrait is a very sophisticated painting, highly naturalistic in execution, And with a quality of the detailing, such as the two figures greeting the pair who can only be…

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London’s Russian Artist: Boris Anrep | London Historians’ Blog

This article by Dr Helen Szamuely was first published in London Historians Members’ Newsletter of April 2015.

The cavalier way in which TfL seems to have treated the Paolozzi mosaics in Totte…

Source: London’s Russian Artist: Boris Anrep | London Historians’ Blog

N.B. I’m not currently responding to comments or visiting blogs because of ill-health but I much appreciate your support.

Take care and keep laughing!

BBC News – How the colour-blind see art with different eyes

A riot of red: Edgar Degas’s Combing the Hair (La Coiffure) is part of the Making Colour exhibition

In its latest exhibition [2014], the National Gallery examines how generations of painters have created and used colour. But how do people who are “colour-blind” view art?

Visitors to the Making Colour exhibition, which opened in London this week, can feast their eyes on the rich tones of lapis lazuli, vermilion and verdigris.

In the National Gallery’s colour-themed show, the paintings include a blue room containing Claude Monet’s Lavacourt under Snow (1878-81) and – in the red room – Edgar Degas’s Combing the Hair (La Coiffure) from 1896.

But to anyone who has a colour vision deficiency, commonly known as colour blindness, the bold reds that dominate the Degas work may look very different.

The subject of colour blindness is tackled in an interactive part of the exhibition devoted to the science behind colour vision.

Claude Monet’s Lavacourt under Snow (1878-81) is also part of the exhibition

The retina at the back of eye contains light sensors called cones. The three cone types – red, green and blue – are stimulated by different wavelengths of light.

Most colour-blind people have three types of cone, but they are sensitive to a different part of the spectrum.

By Tim Masters – who has first hand experience of colour blindness
The earliest sign that I was colour-blind was, according to my parents, when I drew a picture of Doctor Who’s Tardis – and made it shocking pink.

When I tell people I’m colour-blind some assume I see the world in black and white.

That’s far from the truth. I can see rainbows. I just don’t see them in the same way as most people…

Source: BBC News: How the colour-blind see art with different eyes.

Goya, The Portraits at the National Gallery

Portrait of Antonia Zarate, about 1805

Francisco Goya y Lucientes (1746-1828) ranks with Velasquez at the pinnacle of Spanish painting. Best known today for his compelling depictions of the brutality of war and the disturbing intensity of his images of witches, he was also a prolific portrait picture. It is these portraits which are the subject of this large and expansive exhibition.

Goya came to portrait painting in his 30s but quickly established a reputation which…

Source: Goya, The Portraits at the National Gallery

Self-Portrait with Two Circles by Rembrandt (1659-1660) | The Squirrel Review

Originally posted on The Squirrel Review.

Self-Portrait with Two Circles by Rembrandt (1659-1660)

If the aim of self-portraiture is defined as the production of a painting displaying  perfect likeness to one’s physical self, Rembrandt van Rijn was a master of this medium for much of his artistic life. However, when one defines the aim of a self-portrait more subtly, that of providing an honest window into the deep and personal character of an artist, Rembrandt only began to succeed towards the end of his life. This truth is exemplified in what many consider to be one of the artists greatest masterpieces, Self-Portrait with Two Circles.

In his earlier self-portraits, Rembrandt depicts himself as handsome, successful, and fashionable – indeed, far more like a gentleman than an artist. From his clothing to his posture, the artist reflected upon the glamorous…

via Self-Portrait with Two Circles by Rembrandt (1659-1660) | The Squirrel Review.

First Night Design | Public Spaces for Art

I’m dreaming BIG, Mr De Mille!

Hollywood Vintage Gloria • Hollywood Vintage Louise

The Glass Cloche • Clown in the Mirror • Turning Windmill on display at The National Gallery, London!

Take care and keep laughing!