Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting study day from the London Art History Society held at the Foundling Museum looking at Scandinavian art in the 19th century.   Kathy McLauchlan started by giving an overview of the period and how the art culture in the various countries operated with royal collections, academies and independent art societies called Konstforening. She then moved through the period chronologically which also fell into geographical areas over the next three talks.   The pattern of development was similar to Europe as a whole partly as the period was so dominated by Paris. We looked at how tastes moved from the Classical to the naturalistic, through Impressionism and social realism to Symbolism. It was fun to discover new artists and I particularly fell for Christoffer Eckersberg’s clean detailed works very evocative of one of his teachers, David. However I chose this wonderful portrait Frederick Sodring by Christen Kobke which I loved to illustrate the post.

Interesting exhibition at the Wallace Collection looking at the life of the 19th century ruler of the Punjab, Ranjit Singh. Using contemporary paintings and objects, many owned by Singh, they clearly told his story from starting to rule at 21 to building a cosmopolitan, cultured empire despite threats from the Britain, Russia and Afghanistan. The basis for the show being at the museum was its collection of contemporary armour much of it associated with Singh. I must admit I found that quite hard to relate to albeit that much of it was very beautiful. I loved the use of exquisite miniatures to illustrate a lot of the points. I am very fond of that type of jewel like Indian painting. I particularly liked an intricate picture of his court. There was a section on how he attracted Europeans to his court and to fight in his armies including a number of Napoleon’s former generals. There were good portraits of them including a lovely drawing by Landseer. The most intriguing pieces w

Delightful and clever exhibition at the Wallace Collection using contemporary art to look at the Rococo period. There is a lot of art influenced by the Rococo around at the moment and this show used work by Flora Yukhnovich to set up a dialogue. In a plain space downstairs the show hung two paintings by Boucher without their frames, as you would look at a contemporary painting. The effect was interesting and I found myself looking in more detail at the image. I generally find the style too frilly but without the frame they seemed more paired down. Upstairs the two contemporary works were then shown in gold frames which seemed to elevate them. They were abstract pieces in the luxurious colours of the Rococo and worked well with the other work and furniture and them. Closes 3 November 2024 Review Times