Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the life and work of Henri Rousseau. I have never quite understood Rousseau whose works seem to stand out in a world of their own against contemporary works be they by the Impressionists or the Realists. Lucrecia Walker led us through a selection of his work spending some time with the gallery’s own “Tiger in Tropical Storm” from 1891. She pointed out how difficult his work is to analyse as it is so out of its time and that he often wrote about his own work in a confusing way calling himself a Realist. Much of the work shows exotic, imagined scenes even though he never left France. She also looked at the people who championed him particularly Picasso and we looked in some detail at the banquet he hosted for Rousseau which was attended by most of the avant garde of the time. There seems to have been a fine line between admiring him and mocking him. I’m not sure I understand him any better but at least I now realise...

Useful online lecture from ARTscapades taking us through the “Sargent and Fashion” exhibition at Tate Britain. Lucrezia Walker took us through the show room by room describing the themes and picking out significant works and artefacts. She told us some details of the sitters and the clothes. I would have liked to have heard more background information such as how the show was put together or more about the fashions of the era which were being shown. I hadn’t been to the exhibition when I heard the talk but I have since and it did help me to have had this introduction.

Interesting online lecture from the National Gallery on the work of Vermeer. Lucrezia Walker took us through the paintings of Vermeer in what she described as ten easy bites. It was a fun approach, grouping the work into eight themes which added segments on his early life and legacy. I must admit I have done quite a lot on Vermeer recently, as the big show is on in Amsterdam, and I don’t think this lecture added a lot to what I had already learnt. She did describe the pictures well and did lead you to look at the works carefully. She raised some interesting questions about what they might mean but, of course, there are no answers. It did make me wish, even more, that I had been organised enough to go to great exhibition as Vermeer is one of my favourites.    

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades on the life, work and collecting of the Helena Rubinstein, the cosmetics magnate. Lucrezia Walker, Independent Art Historian, took us from Rubenstein’s poor beginnings in Poland through to be a global business woman taking in her time in Australia where she developed her Valaze face cream, based on Lanolin, thought her time in London and Paris and on to New York in 1915. She talked about her two husbands, a publisher, through whom she knew DH Lawrence and James Joyce, and a Georgian prince. Most interesting she talked about Rubenstein’s art collection consisting of Leger’s, Picasso’s, Chagall’s as well as works by Frida Kahlo and over 360 African masks and sculptures.