Henri Matisse Goldfish and Palette Paris, quai Saint-Michel, late November 1914-spring 1915.29/1/2024 This painting hangs, with many others by Matisse, in the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York. It was one of the paintings I confronted years ago, when I returned there on my own, and had to withdraw to the cafe to collect myself. The sight of these wonderful paintings made me want to cry- partly with sadness that J was no longer here to enjoy, but also because of the joy at seeing such vibrant, unusual, glorious pieces of canvas and paint.
As I looked through a stack of postcards today to find images to bring more meaning to the words of Psalm 27:4, : "One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple." This is the postcard I chose. It says something about the fine and beautiful things to be found in the place where God dwells, where we too can dwell.
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Show your face - reveal yourself to us. Help us to connect with you across the centuries. Allow us today to see how you were when you were alive. Give us an indication of your position in society, your thoughts, your pose and poise. What do your faces tell us about our own, our friends, our billions? Hans Holbein the Younger (1497-1543) and Franz Hals the elder (1582-1666) were from Northern Europe , painted and drew the leaders and locals of their day. Each in their very different styles revealed the lives behind the faces they encountered. Exhibitions by these artists are running concurrently in London (at the Queens Gallery and at the National Gallery) Two faces to ponder There is a story to be written about each. What were they about to say? What will they be doing after the sitting with the artist? Who do they talk to and confide in? Who do they love? Katherine Brandon was a significant patron of reforming clerics and encourage date publication of evangelical texts at a time when theology and religious practice were hotly disputed. The young woman painted by Hals is more of a mystery, yet seems so approachable. Eyes The hardest part to paint and yet the most revealing of character. Both Holbein and Hals were masters, in their different ways. These details show more of the techniques they used but above all show the deep looking by the artist in order to see so accurately. Hands Both artists also took time and care over hands, and over costumes. The black dresses and white ruffs of the Hals portraits give frame to the faces just as the hats and tight headwear of the Holbein’s define and give form. The hands don’t always appear in their portraits but when they do they are expressive and flowing. Women and men For both artists, in these exhibitions at least, women are given prominence and dignity, and there is a sense of power and influence. Holbein drew queens (Ann and Jane) and courtiers Hals chose often to give women poses with attitudes of assurance In the Hals double portrait, her pose with the arm on her hip was a very unusual way for a woman to be shown. She seems more confident and determined than her hesitant looking husband The two remarkable Holbein portraits bring each sitter to life : their thoughtfulness and significance in the court of Henry VIII Free faces, poses, style The vigour and vim of these youths and they way they have been shown - flowing brushstrokes and free pencil marks - shows life and future In the Holbein drawing the very careful rendering of the face and hair is contrasts with the free sketching of hat and gown. Holbein drew the family members of Thomas More in preparation for a large group portrait. The Hals shows an exuberant young man who nevertheless holds a skull as a ‘memento mori’ : all things must pass Each of these portraits are an inspiration. They demonstrate very different ways of drawing and painting, they give hints of the lives of these people and yet above all they show the uniqueness of each person who has ever lived. Each person we see is unique. We and they will not be immortalised by Holbein or Hals but we all facing the world, through our own eyes and hands and pose and have the precious gift of life. Franz Hals at National Gallery London until 21st January 2024 https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/exhibitions/the-credit-suisse-exhibition-frans-hals Holbein at the Tudor Court. Queens Gallery London until 14th April 2024 https://www.rct.uk/collection/themes/exhibitions/holbein-at-the-tudor-court/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace When I first saw this painting (at the RA Gauguin and impressionist exhibition), she seemed very Madonna like, with a background of the exact green Bellini used for his wonderful paintings of Mary and Jesus. The painting is are unfinished.. However, despite this it 'works' It is very beautiful: a depiction of a quiet activity. The model was Manet's fiancee but they didn’t marry for several years. Because it is unfinished she seems solid and fragile at the same time. The river in the background provides the movement that is not seen from the jug. She hasn’t quite tipped it enough for the water for flow. It seems to be an image of blessing, it is about pouring out into the bowl to be used. She not only has put water in a jug but is now dispensing it, letting it flow from something narrow with a handle into something wide and open. Jugs are fascinating and beautiful and I have found myself with a big collection, like this brass milk jug found in a shop in the Cotswolds. Another painting - here the milk flows in a simple white line. The task is given great dignity and beauty so that this woman's daily task can be pondered and enjoyed even for us today. A print of this hung in my Mother's kitchen and as I look at it afresh appreciate how well it suited that home, and her.
Corot’s paintings have a confident stillness that always seem to stand out in whatever gallery they hang in. They are not very large and the subject matter is rarely dramatic. In this painting in the National Gallery in London there is a wonderful sense of light and calm and yet the composition somehow makes challenges and certainly sticks in the memory. I can’t see a leaning tree trunk any more without being reminded of this view. This image was one that he found originally in Italy, where he made the first sketches in 1826. About 30 years later he comes back to the idea and did a series of paintings exploring the view, gradually simplifying and making a perfect composition. Below is a page from my digital scrapbook which shows the progression. It is a very inspiring example of taking something from so far back, realising what attracted you to the view, the subject and then with the benefit of years and new thoughts using it as a jumping off point for something contemporary and eternal. Info from S.Herring, 'The Leaning Tree Trunk', in 'The Nineteenth Century Paintings, Volume I', London forthcoming. Published online 2009: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/research/the-leaning-tree-trunk Sarah Bernhardt lived from 1844-1923) so this was painted by here when she was 66 When I discovered that fact it made this swirling, confident and exciting self portrait even more remarkable. Who was she? A 'superstar', we would call her now, She lived in the cross over from 19-20th centuries, appeared on film and entertained troops in WW1 yet was leading stage actress in France, England, in States and on world tours. She was resilient and determined throughout her life. Even an injury to knee which eventually meant she had her leg amputated didn’t stop her working. She began painting early in her career - an activity for the time between performances at the Comédie-Française. At her holiday retreat Holiday retreat at Belle-Ile off the Brittany coast she had a studio and there produced mainly landscapes, some sculpture and this self portrait. As an actress she was skilled at being someone else, yet she clearly had a sense of her own style. This self-portrait shows this so well: her pose, her unruly curly hair and the white scarves she often swathed herself in. And there is no way that here she looks like an old lady, but then neither does she in the photo taken the same year. That piercing thoughtful gave and that determination to keep on going is fascinating and inspiring. The painting belongs to the Fondation Bemberg collection - an extraordinary treasure house of art in a side street in Toulouse in the South for France.
The monastery or San Marco at the edge of tourist Florence is a place of deep quiet. It is a serious place with stone corridors and wide arches with wooden stairs leading up to the monks cells. In each is a fresco for meditation painted by one of the monks - Far Angelico. In the corridor at the top of the stairs, waiting for the monks to see it as they return to their cells for prayer and sleep, is this image of the Annunciation. Far Angelico shows the stillness of the waiting virgin and her acquiescence to the terrifying message of the angel. The angel is gentle with her, their arms and hands mirroring each other in real connection. Far Angelico has fun with angel wings and clothes - in other versions of this subject they are even more elaborate than here. This messenger is simply alert under the elegant arches of the loggia. It is a moment of silence as the greatest miracle of all takes place. This is a fascinating painting with a strange title and painted by a remarkable woman - a successful painter at a time when it was extremely rare for a woman to work in this way. The title and image seems to communicate that painting is a test where you need your sleeves rolled up, you will need to take a difficult pose and place in society and there will be a sense of imbalance and uncertainty in life. This was in an exhibition at the Royal Academy in 2018 entitled Charles 1 : King and Collector . Artemisia Gentileschi was invited to London by the king and almost certainly painted this while she was there for her patron. It is still in the Royal Collection. And we now have a new King Charles ! From RA website : “King Charles I amassed one of the most extraordinary art collections of his age, acquiring works by some of the finest artists of the past – Titian, Mantegna, Holbein, Dürer – and commissioning leading contemporary artists such as Van Dyck and Rubens. Yet, following the king’s execution in 1649, his collection was sold off and scattered across Europe. While many works were retrieved by Charles II during the Restoration, others now form the core of museums such as the Louvre and the Prado.” Another self portrait by this artist has recently been wonderfully restored at the National Gallery in London. The removal of varnish, the discovery of previously cropped areas, the cleaning and mending that has taken place has revealed a powerful image of a strong woman, posing as St Catherine, who is confident in the life and strength of her art.
There was recently an exhibition by the textile artist Sheila Hicks at the Hepworth Gallery in Wakefield. I had seen her work previously at the Venice Biennale back in 2017 : great coloured balls of wool stacked in a corner of the great rope building in the Arsenale. At the most recent exhibition at the Hepworth in Wakefield there was work gathered from her 60 year career and travels to many countries
Below are the notes and photographs I made as I wandered round this delightful gallery The place, the texture, the colour makes me want to cry. The devoted craft to produce things that did not exist before The beautiful tangibility that one can’t touch, but it is there, really there Something about being woven, the intricacy and order Depth of colour Bound and free An accumulation defined and arranged Reaching to the sky and falling to the earth Art gallery as a place of thinking, seeing, feeling, tasting Order and display, and some of the items in this exhibition are site specific and arranged for here. A sense of place - a gift of place And wanting to sit on the floor and cry Not a painting but a small terracotta statue The Virgin with the Laughing Child sits in the corner of a far gallery in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. It is remarkable because of its life-like immediacy, The sketch like qualities of the terracotta are far more approachable than solid finished marble statue might be. The pose seems so real and the baby is actually laughing........ And that baby is God. It also turns out that it has recently been the subject of heated discussions about attribution. Traditionally said to be by Rossellino some academics, led by one Francesco Caglioti, now say it could be a very early work by Leonardo da Vinci, made when he was about 20 and the pupil of the Florentine artist Andrea del Verrocchio. One of the reasons for this possible new attribution is “the face of the baby Christ and his realistic, well-observed pose. He looks alive. That same attention to young children’s actual behaviour can be seen in Leonardo’s drawings. Yet portraying a laughing Christ in the 15th century was not only radical, but practically blasphemous.” (The Guardian , article by Jonathan Jones 9 Mar 2019 Fascinating though this debate may be, it is the power of the image that matters. it suggests an amazing answer to the question posed by AW Tozer who wrote “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us” Does a laughing baby feature in our thoughts? God not just as great mysterious Father but also as a baby, learning to smile and laugh and sit comfortably on his Mother’s knee. Is that possible? Is that who God is? .
Why has this picture in the Philips Collection catalogue arrested me, stopped me in my tracks? The gaps and the colour. White is allowed to stand between. It could be daubs by an over-enthusiastic child Yet, it is made of fierce and gentle deliberate marks Painted at the end of life. It could be seen as a picture of a life of now of truth Each colour is deeply complex, standing alone Yet harmonious Each mark deliberate, no more and no less than is necessary And the resolution surprising A painting to be looked at - the viewer now finding Anything, everything |
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