The Van de Veldes: Greenwich, Art and the Sea

Fascinating exhibition at the Queen’s House in Greenwich looking at the work of father and son painters the Van de Veldes.

The painters specialised in sea and ship pictures and were brought over from the Netherlands by Charles II where he had probably known them when he was in exile. He gave them a studio in the Queen’s House so it was magical to see the paintings in the buildings they were probably painted in.

The centre piece of the show was a recently conserved tapestry designed by them and commissioned by Charles II of the Battle of Solebay. It looked glorious and made you realise the richness of tapestry. Standing in front of it you felt like you were in the battle.

I must admit as art they were exquisite but a bit repetitive however the most interesting aspect was the light it shone on studio practice at the time. The artists kept a large collection of drawings which they used to build they compositions. These included detailed studies of particular ships. In the last section there was a recreation of their studio which was magical to an art history nerd like me.

One moan though is the complicated lay out of the show. I ended up going twice as I realised I’d missed a bit. It starts on the 2nd floor then moves down to the back of the first floor which is only accessible by a particular staircase. You then have to exit by going back up the said stairs and down in the main building. I did blag my way onto the accessible route the second time I went to save going up and down again.

Closes 14 January 2024


Reviews

Telegraph

Evening Standard


 

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year Exhibition 2019

Image
Delightful exhibition at Clarendon Fine Art showing pictures from the Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year TV series. I had loved the series which had set nine artists, both professional and amateur, to paint one of three celebrities. It then had a semi-final and final with them all looking at one sitter and in the final they also took on a commission. I loved the way you watched a picture build and how some were then made or spoiled by one stroke of paint.   Finding these pictures I knew so well in the flesh was therefore fascinating. None of them disappointed. My favourite artist from the final, Tom Mead, works looked just as good in real life if not better as you could see the detail. The show included his impressive self-portrait which he submitted to enter the competition, a wonderful fragmented picture of his reflection in a mirror giving a sense of movement. I loved that it included a large version of him and a miniature. His commission for the final of Jazzie B was
Read more

Thomas Becket: Murder and Making of a Saint

Image
Stunning exhibition at the British Museum on the life and afterlife of Thomas Becket. I studied Becket both at A Level and at university so I was really looking forward to this show and it did not disappoint. From walking in to see an old friend, the early Limoges casket showing the murder from the Victoria and Albert Museum, I was gripped. The show told the story well using fantastic objects and led you through his life, the murder, the political aftermath, his sainthood and miracles, and how Canterbury became a major pilgrimage site. It is hard to pick out the best objects as so many were wonderful. I loved that they had early copies of some of the five eyewitness accounts of the murder which made you fell you were almost touching the event. I liked the manuscript on his time in exile which was almost like a comic strip. How wonderful to get a 13th century font from Sweden which shows how far and how quickly the news that Henry II had integrated the murder spread. I think my
Read more

Courtauld summer school day 1

Image
Today has been my first day of this year’s week at the Courtauld Institute’s summer schools. This year I am doing “Painting in Renaissance Venice” which is being led by Michael Douglas-Scott. It was nice to see some familiar faces and there are at least five of us who did Michael’s course last year. Today has been two lectures. Firstly setting out the background of Venice in this period looking at how the city had set up a myth of itself, the role of the Doge. the nature of the Republic and the role of citizens. The second lecture looked at why the nature of Renaissance was different in Venice. There was still a sense of the coming of antiquity and humanism but in Venice it fused with the Gothic and Byzantine rather than replacing it. The day ended with a choice of gallery talks. I went to one on the second floor of the Courtauld on the coming of Modernism. In essence it looked at the Impressionists and discussed what they were reacting against and what themes they portrayed. All in a
Read more