Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery on Rembrandt’s portrait of Margaretha de Geer. I am very fond of this insightful picture of a determined old lady so it was good to have Bethan Durie talk us through where it sits in Rembrandt’s career and how it differs to the pendant picture of his husband, Jacob Tripp. She also looked at another picture of De Geer in the collection which may have been painted by one of the artists studio and then talked about how the main painting came into the galleries collection during the Second World War and, after pubic demand, was brought to the gallery and shown when the rest of the pictures were still in storage and created the idea of a painting of the month programme which continues to today.

Novel online lecture from the National Gallery looking at Degas’s “Combing of the Hair” to look at the symbolism of hair in art. Bethan Durie led us though looking at the picture in detail and discussed why Degas might have painted it. She talked about his use of drawing and how he often recorded moments of everydayness which he saw. She took us though other paintings by Degas which include hair brushing and there seem to be a lot! Durie also talked about the vibrant red palette and whether this is deliberate or if it is an unfinished work still showing the under paint. She also looked at earlier paintings involving hair brushing as well as how the image still appears in contemporary art. I’ll certainly be looking out for this intimate but everyday image in the future.  

Intriguing online lecture from the National Gallery looking at migration in art. Bethan Durie from the National Gallery education department takes two pictures from the galleries own collection to look at migration in art and the artist as migrant. She gave other examples of each genre and used five other pictures to highlight other themes. Interestingly she used “The Thames Below Westminster” by Claude Monet from 1871 as it was painted when he was in exile in London from the Franco-Prussian War. She felt the melancholy colours and painting of fog reflect his sense of displacement. She also discussed how this picture reflects the modern world showing the newly constructed Houses of Parliament and Embankment as well as steam boats on the river. She compared this to artists who deliberately migrate in search of new artists ideas such as David Hockney and his move to California in the late 1960s. “The Men of the Docks” by George Bellows from 1912 was use to illustrate migrants in ar...