Cathy's Art Diary

I am a Friend of Charleston, the house where the painters Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, the art wing of the Bloomsbury Group, lived in Sussex. In last years AGM we bought a tour of the house with Simon Watney, one of the leading writers on the Bloomsbury group whose most recent book is " Bloomsbury in Sussex ". It had taken a while to arrange but on Saturday four of us gathered for our tour. Although I know the house well already it was a real treat to go round with someone who had known the house when Duncan was still alive and had been instrumental in saving and conserving it. It was also good to focus on the paintings and decorative aspects of the house rather than the personalities. I had not known before how much of the decoration had been done quite soon after they moved in in 1916. It was good to have your eye drawn to paintings you might have missed on previous visits. While there we also took the opportunity to view the small temporary exhibition which was on in the...

Second plenary lecture for the Courtauld Summer School given by Professor Eric Fernie who is a previous director of the Courtauld and architectural historian. It traced the geographical boundaries of the Latin Church in this period and how external factors influenced the architecture on the North. South, East and West edges. Must admit after a week of the school I found this possibly one lecture too far. I think it is something which might be quite interesting to go back and read at a later date. As I was tired I was getting my Eastern and Western influences a bit muddled.

Again two very good days and I'm really sorry the week is over. On Thursday we concentrated on Roger Van de Weyden with Douglas Brine. In the morning we looked in detail at "The Descent from the Cross" which is in Madrid. I saw this at the end of last year so the experience of it was quite fresh in my mind. Fascinating to go through the iconography in detail and to think about how and why the figures fit in the space the way they do. We then focused on some of the other works in detail. The afternoon was spent in the Print and Drawing Room at the British Museum . I hadn't realised that anyone can go along and ask to see anything that they hold there. A nice atmosphere with a mix of people studying and the staff who work in the room with their personalised desks. We had out a series of drawings linked to Roger van de Weyden. There was a particularly fine portrait of a woman but my favourite was a drawing which was probably for a wall painting of a procession. I was dra...

Good exhibition at the Heritage Rooms looking at works of art and objects from Napoleon and Josephine's country retreat at Malmaison brought together for the first time since their dispersal in 1815. The displays focused on how the works were collected, by fair means and foul, and how such a large number of items found their way into Russian collections. The highlights for me were the paintings which included a St Sebastian by Ribera and Claude Lorrain's "Landscape with Tobias and the Angel". There was also a wonderful Canova sculpture of a dancer in a diaphanous dress. It was also good that the works were shown with more personal objects which had belonged to Josephine including a court dress and shoes. Personally I was impressed that she had hundreds of pairs of shoes! The exhibition was a good picture of the taste of one person who in turn influenced the taste of a generation as well as the nature of collections. Reviews Times Metro

Another good day at the Summer School. Today focused on The Master of Flemalle or Robert Campin, again looking in detail at a selection of works attributed to him with the course leader Dr Susie Nash. In the morning we went into some detail on who this artist was, whether he was Robert Campin who taught Roger van de Weyden or whether he was the unnamed master of the Flemalle panels. Also whether all the works attributed to him are in fact by the same hand. In the afternoon we focused on the Seilern Triptych in the Courtauld collection. We looked at detailed micro photography of it and talked through the iconography then spent time before the actual picture thinking about what we had learnt. Finally we went into the conservation department to look at the x-rays of the picture and to discuss changes which had been made while it was being painted. Susie Nash had worked closely with this picture so it was fascinating to hear new research and ideas about it.

Small Room 1 exhibition at the National Gallery to commemorate 200 years since the abolition of the slave trade bringing together "Mrs Oswald" by Zoffany and "Colonel Tarleton" by Reynolds to look at their and their families role in the trade. Also looked at the role of slave trade money in art collection of the C18th and how those collections formed the foundation galleries such at the National itself. The initial core of the collection was given by John Julius Angerstein (of whom their is a portrait in the exhibition) who was instrumental in the development of LLoyds which profited from insuring slave ships amongst others and who also had shares in Caribbean plantations. The Room 1 exhibition was complimented by new work by Yinka Shonibore MBE both in that gallery and Room 36 where the two main portraits usually hang, which explores the effects of the wealth created by the trade on society. The main work were two headless figures shooting birds with clothes mirror...

Another good day on this course being immersed in Jan van Eyck. We had a different lecturer today, Dr Douglas Brine, who took us through a brief outline of the life of Van Eyck and then focused on three major works The Washington Annunciation The Rolin Madonna The Van der Paele Madonna It was fascinating to look at these works in detail, focusing on symbolism in them and how new technologies have brought to light changes in the composition between the initial drawing and the final painting. The lecturer was just back from Bruges where he had been doing some research into the Van der Paele Madonna so we were introduced to some new theories about this picture. In the afternoon we went to the National Gallery to look at the Van Eyck's there as well as the Van de Weydens and Gerard David.

Just done day one of a Courtauld Summer School on Early Netherlandish art. I thoroughly recommend these. I did a Spring school last year on Saints and Sanctity and really enjoyed it. It was nice to see people I'd met at the previous course and to meet new people. Today we've had good general introduction looking at why a lot of this work has disappeared and what the workshop set up was like. The afternoon was spent in the conservation department where we got a chance to mix and use paints and pigments of the time. Fascinating to use contemporary materials and see how a different pigment can affect the feel as well as the colour of the paint. Quite proud of my small rather cross eyed virgin but I think I'll stick to the day job!

Small but focused exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery based around their "Adam and Eve" by Cranach. It brings together linked drawings and four other Cranach's of similar themes. This is a nice opportunity to explore a specific picture and some of the detail in it. It includes two beautiful studies of deer and an amazing early still life drawing of dead partridges. Pop by the small sister exhibition of German drawings from the Courtauld collection which includes their two Durer's. Reviews The Times FT Evening Standard