Curator’s Introduction: Gainsborough’s Blue Boy

Excellent online lecture from National Gallery introducing their current exhibition showing Gainsborough’s Blue Boy on his return on loan to England from the Huntingdon Museum in America.

Christine Riding, Head of Curatorial at the gallery, took us through the history of the picture and how it went to the US in 1922. She talked about whether the sitter was the artist’s nephew, Dupont, and whether is should be considered as a portrait or a genre work.

She then outlined why is being shown with two Van Dyck’s and two other works by Gainsborough leading us though why artists from the 18th century chose to show people in the earlier fashion of the Stuart era. She also talked about how Van Dyck not only represented a great painter, but also the idea of connoisseurship as he himself was a collector.

I hadn’t realise that Gainsborough had been part of the circle of artists around the Foundling Museum along with Hogarth and how this influenced his painting of children as well as how he say theatrical style paintings by Watteau owned by another of the circle.

Finally we looked at how the picture has influenced later artists from Millais through to Peter Blake’s Self-Portrait with Badges.

This was a great introduction to the exhibition, which I have been to since, so watch this space for a review of that, and it was helpful to know more about the thinking behind the display and the layers of idea which they are trying to show.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

The Renaissance Nude

Image
Beautiful exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the nude in Renaissance art. The show was gently themed but mainly let the pictures speak for themselves. It began by looking at the subjects, both religious and secular, which include nude figures then examined techniques and models used in these works, finishing by looking at more personal pictures. This is a period I’ve studied a lot so there were a lot of old friends and it was quite fun predicting what might appear. There were a few surprises too such as the rather surprising drawing of the Ecstatic Christ. I liked the fact the show included lots of different art forms not just paintings including sculpture, etchings, drawings and illuminated manuscripts. There were some fascinating hangs to draw comparisons particularly two sets of pictures by Giovanni Bellini and Hand Memling from almost exactly the same date. These were shown back to back in a display cabinet down the middle of one room. My favourite work was
Read more