Cathy's Art Diary

Fun online lecture from the Wallace Collection examining Caravaggio’s life in Rome. The talk complimented the museum’s exhibition of Caravaggio’s cupid painting and set it in context. Andrew Graham-Dixon, art historian and author of an excellent biography of the artist, led us through Caravaggio’s years in Rome from his arrival to his rapid departure after murdering someone. He told the story in a lively and colloquial style making the period feel very alive.  

Disappointing online talk from London Art Week looking at the early life of Thomas Lawrence. I say disappointing because, as the title suggests, it was meant to be on the early life of Lawrence based around a new book by Amina Wright who was one of the speakers. She started well and I was intrigued to hear more about how Lawrence was a child protegee, initially working from his father’s inn. However the chair of the event, Andrew Graham-Dixon, interrupted her narrative on a number of occasions making it hard to follow. The other two speakers were interesting, Lowell Lisbon, on Lawrence’s drawings and Ben Elwes on finding a lost self-portrait from these early years but there was not as much concentration on the astonishing story of his early life as I’d have liked and, as someone who didn’t know a lot about the artists I didn’t feel I came out of it knowing a lot more.