My meeting was for one hour but I did a 10 hour day!!!
I love visiting our capital but it is only these days on a day trip as the train can get me there in a little over 2 hours.
I took my camera and did a walk, click, walk.
But that can wait for another blog or two.
Our London offices are nestled in Whitehall a stones throw from Downing Street and the Houses of Parliament but most importantly 10 minutes from the National Gallery.
I have not been there since I was a teenager, nor have I had time to pop in on other trips to London. As I had 1 1/2 hours to spare before my train I thought 'why not?'
The gallery was packed and it didn't strike me for ages, until I heard another UK English voice just how many foreign tourists were there. Many Japanese, French, Spanish etc and so many Americans (which I thought unusual due to the state of the $ to the £ just now).
My first 'oo' 'ah' there was Cezannes ~ 'Bathers'. Love the simplicity yet depth of this painting
Then dear Van Gogh and his 'Chair' & 'Sunflowers' 'Sunset in Wheat Fields'.. how we had to draw 'The Chair' in that style aged 16.
Some great Lautrec's ...
Moroni ~Portrait of a Lady ('La Dama in Rosso')
How sumptuous is that fabric on her dress?
Dirck van Delen from 1634 and Architectural Fantasy.. simply wonderful in composition & imagination!
Rembrandts 'Anna and the Blind Tobit'
Rubens 'Minerva Protects Pax from Mars'
Velazquelez ~ The Toilet of Venus' an odd title, love this along with a contemporary postcard 'Life imagining art!'
Loved this image of 'Antoine Paris' by Hyacinthe Rigaud. (oh not a woman painter but a man!) how contemporary is this guys face (not his dress or hair) in comparison to other portraits in the 1700s?
Georges Seurat, ~ Bathers at Asnieres.
I hadn't realised just how large it is? Approx 5ft x 8ft.. and even more sensational live :-)
Ahh! My inner soul is recharged again :-D
7 comments:
It's funny but since Tate Modern opened I have neglected the National Gallery! I must remedy that soon....
Oh you must Diane I was amazed at the breath of art there... saying that there have been many years that have past since I was last there so it was all anew again
Haven't been there for yonks. I tend to find galleries a tad over-powering and if I do go [very very rarely] I limit myself so as not to go into 'confused overload'. Very pleased you manage the time to refresh your soul - [surprised you've got one of course - tee hee].
Know what you mean DP about the overpowering nature of some galleries.
But I was on a strict time limit & I knew which paintings I wanted to see in the flesh again. There is nothing better than seeing the actual work close up.
One of the best exhibitions I have seen was a pre raphelite exo in Liverpool I was close to tears seeing for the first time Rossetti's paintings that I had admired for years in books ... see I do have a soul :-)
Wonderful pictures! I could spend all day in an art museum (provided I had sufficient libations, of course).
you would lone London .. Rev.. so much to see
that would be 'love' btw lol
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