V1.B.P2 A day of Paintings

(source of all photos of the paintings is the National Gallery Website)...

What was much more entertaining than the Kandinsky Exhibition, however, was a day I spent after the Pre-Raphaelites and my former obsession Caravaggio. I started my search at the National Gallery.

As I entered I was struck with a painting by Delaroche: The Execution of Lady Jane Gray.

I once again noted that I have to try really really really hard to like most of the impressionist work however well-known they may be. No wonder "the term 'Impressionist' was first used as an insult in response to an exhibition of new paintings in Paris in 1874." But leave aside my understanding of art. Doesn't count.

What I liked was to look at this painting on the left, Avenue at Chantilly by Cézanne, from a distance. The loss of details, which I thought made his work rather boring seems to be a genius way of highlighting his work from a distance, now.

My next discovery was Combing the Hair by Degas. But don't blame it on my love of orange (oh doesn't it sound weird when one lives in the Netherlands to love orange) . I like to imagine that when he finished this painting he felt he made a difference to the world of art. The painting was once owned by Matisse, so I cannot be too wrong about this ;)

Yet, as I moved, I started to feel guilty about how quickly I had to pass some of the best work of art created in the Western European civilisation... Click here for the highlights. But I had to pass them by so that I could reconvene with The Supper at Emmaus by Caravaggio. As always it was a bliss to see his genius and passion at work. But walking down the hall, I also figured that there were some "Caravaggisti" of the Netherlands, particularly in Utrecht, which I will have to follow up later.

Of course, I will also go after the ice painters... More to come on that later (it requires a visit to the Rijks).

Out of the National Gallery, I headed to Tate Britain, with a bunch of books on the Pre-Raphaelites. For some reason, along the Thames, I had to stop by for a pub (yes, for a pub not for an ale because I obviously love pubs, not necessarily all ale). I like the feeling that a lot of things in a pub is that way just because they have always been that way. The power of the years that passed on the daily lives. I do like to feel that. It gives a meaning to many things that you cannot otherwise appreciate. Nothing is hyper-technological (or even technological) in a pub. It's good. -I know I am getting old... Yet, I liked the feeling.

After taking some photos -obviously influenced by the whole artistic mood of the day (see below for a few examples)- Tate Britain and the Pre-Raphaelites were finally a few steps away...