Unfinished… Works from The Courtauld Gallery

Stimulating exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery of works from their collections, paintings, sculpture drawings and prints from the Renaissance to the early twentieth century, that have all been described  as 'unfinished'.

In his writing on art Pliny said that an unfinished work was more precious as it let us see into the artists mind and many of these works are now seen as valuable teaching tools for art history. The idea of what is finished is less clear in art since the early 20th century.

The poster girl, a virgin and child by Parmigianio was a good example of what w e can learn from an unfinished work. Her face allows us to see the cartoon tracing underneath and we can see how the drapery outline was done freehand with a brush. Most interesting was the speculation that the picture was abandoned due to the Sack of Rome.

The show included Manet’s “At the Ball” a lovely sketch of a woman from behind showing the movement of her body in a few strokes of paint. I was also interested to see an unfinished Damier and learn that he was notorious for not finishing work but that Bacon loved these works and took inspiration from them. 

A lovely connection with recent shows and my interested was a Degas of a lady with a parasol which was sold by Durard0Ruel and bought by Sickert! It was also interesting to read that all Degas’s sculptures were made to sketch from not as finished works. It was only after his death that they were cast in bronze.

Another interesting take on unfinished was a sketch of a chest which just showed enough detail to sell the idea to the customer. It also left you with the idea of an unfinished story, was the chest made, did the patron like it and who was it by.

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