Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the set of paintings “The Four Times of Day” by Corot in the gallery and why they were purchased by Lord Leighton. Christina Bradstreet took us through why and how the pictures were painted in around 1858. She took us through the style of the work and how they were commissioned by the artist Alexandre-Gabriel Decamps for the studio he was building. She then discussed Leighton’s purchase of them and how he too planned to use them in a studio house and designed the décor of a room around them. The artists were very different but the speaker suggested that Leighton may have purchased them as a reminded of his youthful travels in Italy and France where he met Corot.

Good online lecture from the National Gallery looking at three new portraits bought by or on loan to the gallery. Christine Bradstreet introduced us to the three works. Portrait of a Girl by Isaack Luttichuys from about 1650, shown here, joins the other earlier Dutch portraits in the collection. It is a lighter palette to them and shows a young girl in rich, fashionable clothes of the era. Bradstreet got us to look carefully at the image and think about what the picture was trying to tell us. Dr Ferdinand Mainzer by Lovis Corinth from 1899 has been acquired jointly with the Barber Institute and it is currently on show there until 2024. She used it to tell the interesting stories of both the artist and the sitter. The latter, having been part of the Berlin avant gard, was a member of an anti-Nazi group who smuggled Jews out of the country. In his turn he too was smuggled to England. Finally we looked at a Gwen John self-portrait from around 1900 which is on loan from the National...

Thoughtful online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the power of ruins in art. Christina Bradstreet took us though pictures from the gallery’s collection that represented the three moods she thought ruins can portray, happy, carefree and calm; brooding melancholy and frightening. Fortunately, most of the pictures we looked at fell into the first category which led to a light afternoon. I was interested in some Dutch Gold Age pictures she showed us which looked like simple landscapes but included references to the Dutch wars of the 17th century so had messages about peace and resistance.   These included a Cuyp without any cows! I was introduced to lots of works I didn’t know including this nightmarish picture by Francois de Nomé “Fantastic Ruins with St Augustine and The Child” from 1623 with statues falling off buildings and a mix of real and imagined ruins with two small figures showing the sheer scale of this ancient world.

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at Degas’s art collection, what he planned for it and how it influenced him. Christina Bradstreet started by listing the paintings in Degas’s bedroom as an indication of his taste in art. She took us through a brief outline of his life including how he had to sell his father’s art collection and how he started to build up a collection himself as he grew richer. He looked at how the artists he owned influenced his own work in particular focusing on Ingres, from whom he took line and composition, and Delacroix, for his use of colour. She talked about his plans for his collection to become a public museum on his death however this didn’t happen and it was auctioned at the end of the First World War. The National Gallery sent Maynard Keynes to the sale and bought old masters and works by Degas and we looked at some of the works they bought.