Three Centuries of British Art, Tate Britain

Location: Tate Britain, London

For the second visit to the Tate Britain, the emphasis here is on a single room of a gallery. The main entrance room to the Harry and Carol Djanogly Gallery, though unlike the National Gallery, the paintings within this room are of a range of periods.

The room is a large, rectangular gallery, with a high arched ceiling in white, covered in plaster decorations, especially the round flower shapes within square frames. The walls are of a dark grey, which comes as not dull in any regard, but focuses the visitor on the paintings themselves.

The paintings cover a range of centuries of British art, from the late 1500's Elizabethan art, to the late 1800's. The room covers three centuries of art, with some excellent examples of style and the impression of the dress at the times.

Moving to the art itself.

The starting at one of the room, and working his way round, the author made note of some paintings on the basis of how much they had caught his eye.

First was called Portrait of the artist's wife by William Dobson in 1635-40. Eye catching for an entrance, the artist had captured so much detail about his wife, and how she looked through his eyes. She does show as a beautiful woman in it.

Next, An Allebgory of Man by the British school of the 16^th century painted this in 1596. A religiously centered piece, it is regarded as a painting of excellent detail, and content, with a prayer on the bottom.

The Portrait of Mary Kytson done in 1590 by the British school again, was chosen as one very good painting of thje style of dress worn by high society.

The Portrait of Sir William Killigrew, was done in 1638 by Anthony van Dyck. Van Dyck's style was noticeably different from the others here, as he had a much softer way of painting, and an eye for setting up interesting features in his backgrounds, such as that of the trees on the side in this painting.

Next is the accurate rendition of Queen Elizabeth I, painted over 1572-5 and attributed to the work of Nicholas Hilliard. This piece is one of the very famous pieces depicting this queen, and this one in particularly was not just exquisite for the details of Elizabeth's features, but also how extravagant Elizabethan dress can truly be.

Moving on, The Dance by William Hogarth, done in 1745, was less detailed compared to many of the neighbouring paintings, but it was a highly dynamic scene of a party, with people socialising and walking around. What was also very noticeable is that it gave an overview of the styles of attire worn in high society parties during the 18^th century.

The Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Peter Lely, from 1670-5, was eye-catching on a cruder scale. It showed a beautiful woman staring at the painter, with one bare breast, and an almost inviting expression on her face.

Halfway along, the next piece worth looking at was the Pomeranian bitch and puppy by Thomas Gainsborough in 1777. It makes for a return to the Romantics the author covered at the beginning of this, and is noticeable for the focus on the dogs, with excellent detail, even down to emotive expressions. The background is less detailed, of a more flowing quality.

Next, the Lady Bate-Dudley done in 1787 by Thomas Gainsborough again, remarkable here for the exquisite and elaborate dress worn by the Lady, of white and blue, which contrasts greatly against the dark background.

Moving further, the next is a selection of paintings called Past and Present, a series of three paintings Augustus Leopold Egg in 1858. All three paintings are dark and feature scenes of melancholy and sadness in various forms.

The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse in 1888, is a particularly well known painting, though considered against much of the rest of the collection, it is not that good. What is worth remarking is the expression captured of the Lady in the painting.

Here, two paintings by John Everett Millais, Ophelia (1851-2) and The Boyhood of Raleigh (1870). While in no particular way, these two pictures contrast against each other in colour, the former in green, the latter in a sand and blue colour, but what they both share are exquisitely captured central scenes, with the expressions captured, Ophelia's despair, and Raleigh's childlike curiosity.

While continuing with the next painting, the Monna Vanna, done in 1866 by Dante Gabriel Rossetti. While there has been a growing expression of passion throughout the paintings so far, in this, Rossetti shows great passion in his painting to the point it shows through, even if the painting itself does not contain anything much beyond that of a beautiful woman.

Next, introducing one by William Holman Hunt, the Awakening Conscience from 1853, strikes out as another interesting, and eye catching painting. Though the expressions are captured brilliantly in this, what was particularly noticed was certain details noticed, such as the scene reflected in the mirror.

Ellen Terry as Lady Macbeth, by John Singer Sargeant in 1889, is a large, flowing painting, but shows a great scene of an actress, with her long red hair down the front of her blue and green costume.

Marianna done in 1851 by Millais, another great example of the level of detail put in to the painting.

Now for the last stretch, starting with The Derby Day by William Powell Frith, 1856-8, is a very busy scene now the races, showing a panorama filled with punters. Excellently detailed, and a large painting.

The Rome: St. Peters and the Vatican by Richard Wilson in 1753. This is a spendid and calming scene of room at this time, from a distance. There it shows the Vatican in the distance, surrounded by the hills of Rome, in summery colours.

Last is Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney: The Archers from 1769. This piece by Joshua Reynolds is a very well-centered and dynamic painting, showing a composition the central two characters on a hunting mission. The colours are well used, with darker ones for the background to contrast the pale central figures.

This was very good room for spending a good deal of quality time in exploring a vast range of British art. Covering three centuries in a gallery containing some of the very best of British art, it contains a few famous masterpieces, and is also a very good glimpse in to painting styles and the clothes worn by people throughout this time. Following the list route here was necessary to present a careful selection of some of these paintings. However it is by no means comprehensive, and there is always so much more on offer from the Tate Britain.

Images courtesy of Travel Guide London, and the Tate Britain

National Gallery - Great Britain 1750 - 1850

Location: National Gallery, London

The National Gallery is by its own an imposing building, situated at the North end of Trafalgar square, and instead of blending in the background, stands out proudly as a great example of Neo-Classical architecture.
Inside is no less impressive, but also very confusing. It would take more than one visit to get a good idea of the layout, consisting of lots of rooms of a wide variety of sizes from large halls to small side-rooms. This overview is not a general one, but rather focused on a single room in this instance.

Continuing with the Romanticism theme from the last gallery (Tate Britain exhibition), this room contained paintings by a number of Romantic artists, including the previous two famous artists: J.M.W. Turner, and John Constable.

The room itself is nicely decorated, with blue patterned walls extending upwards to gold-coloured coving, above which are small arched alcoves bordered in maroon and gold, and finally to a large rectangular ceiling filled with lots of square panes of etched glass. The image below was taken from the virtual tour of the National Gallery:

To begin with, in no particular order than by artist, John Constable's paintings covered more or less a third of the display, with the most preferred pieces being Salisbury Cathedral from the meadows, The Cenotaph to the memory of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and lastly, Hay Wain. The former two are both dark pieces but beautiful views:

Continuing onward, Thomas Gainsborough had an extensive collection here too, with Cornard wood, near Sudbury, Suffolk and Mrs Siddons, a very famous actress of the time.

Moving on, other interesting pieces worth looking over are Henry Raeburn's The Archers, Pompeo Giolamo Batoni's Humphrey Morice, and William Hogarth's The Graham children, which in the description noted that the youngest had died before the painting was completed. Though amongst these stands out two amazingly detailed pieces, one being a life-size painting of WhistleJacket, a race horse, by George Stubbs.

The next was An Experiment on a bird in an Air Pump, by Joseph Wright of Derby. This piece is particularly noticed by visitors to the room as it shows exceptional detail in the paintwork, and the realism in the faces of the girls standing by the table. Even the use of candlelight for the central piece creates an appealing contrast between the illuminated experiment set-pieces, and the dark surrounds.

Lastly then, J.M.W. Turner also makes an appearance as well, with almost as many fine pieces as Constable, though they are all of a maritime nature. There are a few worth noting here, from the dramatic scenes of Dutch boats in a gale and Calais Pier, to the much calmer and brighter pieces, Ulysses deriding Polyphemus and The Fighting Temaire.

Conclusion, this is a small part of the immense National Gallery, and as with all posts of this blog, serve as a small introduction to what is available.
Images have been yanked from the National Gallery website.

Romantics exhibition, Tate Britain

Location: Tate Britain Gallery, London

So for an entrance, this has begun with motivation provided by a much needed dose of art.

The Tate Britain, situated along the riverfront of the Thames south from the Houses of Parliament, has on this visit a free exhibition, the Romantics. The Romantics is a collection of paintings and sketches by artists such as J.M.W. Turner, John Constable, and Henry Wallis, to name a few. The bulk of the exhibition are landscape and scene paintings, capturing dramatic views of the world.
One of the first major paintings near the entrance that captures the attention is John Crome's Slate Quarries, which despite the title subject inspires a degree of awe from the mountains in the background, captured beautifully in sombre colours, with clouds noticed to glide over their slopes.

Facing it, an eye-catching scene of the Battle of Trafalgar by Turner. Turner is by far the most dominant featured artist of the exhibition, with a variety of paintings by the artist, capturing landscapes, sea battles, classical scenes, all highlighting his life in the Navy as complementing that of his as a painter.
However deviating from the Navy and landscapes, are his classical scenes, the use of strong bright colour in Regulus, and the warm summer hues of The Bay of Baiae, with Apollo and the Sibyl.
However there is a wide range of other notable works by artists, such as The Reconciliation of Helen and Paris after his Defeat by Menelaus by Richard Westall, a carefully rendered scene with soft velvet features for the main characters.

Lastly, the second most featured artist, John Constable, also caught my eye in a few of his works, almost all of which were landscapes. Though seemingly not as creative or varied as Turner, he had some works that are really worth taking in, one very good example of this is Sketch for 'Hadleigh Castle'.

To conclude, a really good exhibition, and worth the visit if one has not. Though the Tate Britain boasts far more works on display, and other exhibitions, this one should be seriously considered, not least as it is free entry. Much and more would have been said of this if the author had a notepad to scribble down some notes.

Images yanked from the Tate Britain website.