Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting small exhibition at Leighton House of photographs taken by Edward Linley Sambourne,   cartoonist and illustrator for Punch over a long weekend in Paris in 1906. The show complimented one upstairs looking at the clothes of his wife and daughter and these photographs concentrated on people in the streets of Paris with an emphasis on clothing. I was intrigued as to how he took these street photographs at this date, many of which felt spontaneous. I loved this one of a sailor as well as this one of women walking which catches the movement of their clothes. Closed 10 October 2024

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades introducing an exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum on the 1924 Paris Olympics. The co-curator Caroline Vout from the University of Leiden led us through the main themes of the show and some of the highlight exhibits. She showed us how the show started by setting the scene of what Paris was like 100 years ago and how it hosted the games. She then looked at some of the personalities o the games including the runners made famous by Chariots of Fire some of whom were students at the University of Cambridge giving local interest. Next she talked about how the games reflected modernity but also drew on classical themes particular around the presentation of ideal bodies in a period after the destruction of the First World War. I had wanted to see the show but ran out of time so this talk was the next best thing and gave a good sense of what it was about.

Fascinating online lecture from the Wallace Collection looking at the drinking fountains which Sir Richard Wallace commissioned for the city of Paris. The talk marked 150 years since the first fountain was installed and brought together Suzanne Higgott from the gallery and Barbara Lambesis from the Society of the Wallace Fountains. Higgott took us through the design and the commissioning of the fountains and how they are based on French Renaissance and Neo-classical models. She outlined the symbolism on them. Lambesis then talked about how her enthusiasm for the fountains came about and the celebrations for the anniversary in Paris. She also introduced us to the Society of Wallace Fountains and I was impressed that as well as aiming to preserve and maintain the pieces it also promotes philanthropy in the same spirit and making them a symbol for global and equal rights to clean water. I must admit I hadn’t known about these fountains before booking the talk and had popped to se...

Excellent six week online course form the National Gallery looking at the history and art of the main centres in Northern Europe in the Renaissance. Jo Walton took us clearly though the period splitting the lectures geographically starting with France focusing on Paris, Dijon and the Loire, moving on to Bruges and Flanders, the court of the Holy Roman Empire, Nuremberg and Durer, London and the Hanseatic League and finishing with Antwerp. This order did take us on a rough chronology of the time as well with some overlap. In each case Walton blended the history of the area and the art it produced showing how the two often went hand in hand for example when rulers used art to promote and control their image or competed with each other to commissioned the richest and best work. She tired things together clearly so I now have a much better overview of the history of the period although I’m not sure I will ever understand the intricacies of the Hapsburgs. Despite this being a period I ...

Interesting talk at Charleston Farmhouse as part of the Charleston Festival looking at two aspects of art in the early 20th century. Sue Roe talked about her book “In Montmartre: Picasso, Matisse and Modernism in Paris, 1900-1910” looking at how and why this area of Paris became the birthplace of Modernism in art. She spoke about how Picasso went there and found a new way of working. Esther Freud then talked about her new novel “Mr Mac and me” which is a novel about Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s time in on the Suffolk coast. She’d written it after moving to the area and researching the house she bought which had been an inn. Her main character, a young boy, is imagined as the son of the family who owned the inn. There was an interesting discussion between the writers chaired by Olivia Laing and some good questions from the audience.  

Interesting exhibition at the Wallace Collection of 19th century watercolours of Paris by British artists. In the brief periods of peace in the Napoleonic wars and after Waterloo it was possible for British artists to visit Paris and a demand for views of the city grew up. Some of these pictures were done for pleasure, some to sell and some to be published in books. It was interesting to see works in sketch, finished water colour and printed form such as a selection of Turners. Also to compare the different styles of watercolours such as Turners ethereal smoky finish compared to the detailed polished finish of Thomas Shotter Boys. The works gave a picture of a city about to change with the town planning of Haussmann but also showed views of the city which are still being painted by artists today. Reviews Telegraph

Interesting exhibition at the Petit Palais in Paris looking at the work of this early photographer and those he taught. The first room cleverly used eight images to sum up Gustav Le Gray’s achievement and covered a huge range of work. He started teaching photography just ten years after its invention. Le Gray quickly got away from the idea of putting his subject in the centre of the frame and did not use the new genre to imitate paintings. He often chose humble subjects and even by 1857 photography was being used to document war. The last few rooms focused on the work of five key students of which I liked the portraits by Adrien Tournachon best as they showed real depth of character.

Nice exhibition at the Louvre in Paris of drawings by Giulio Romano to compliment the Late Raphael exhibition which had featured at lot of his work.   There were some exquisite drawings and in fact they were better than the paintings which seemed to lack life and spontaneity. There were wonderful designs of the Palazzo Te in Mantua for Frederico II Gonzaga including lovely signs of the zodiac.   There was also a wonderful scene of the Gods called “Divinities in Olympia ”

Outdoor exhibition of photographs of brain scans matching them to similar outside the side entrance to the Louvre in Paris. It was organized by the University of Jerusalem and AFIRNe (Franco-Israeli Association for Research in Neuroscience), and translates as "The Colour of Thought". There were some wonderful images and the match to paintings made you look at both the scan and the painting in a different light.

Exhibition at the Louvre of early Renaissance drawings and incunabula from the collection of Baron Edmond de Rothschild. I found this an confusing exhibition but this wasn’t helped by the fact we came in from the wrong end and did it backwards! The idea was to show how printing developed in Italy and how this was influenced by drawing. However the exhibition was dominated by a fantastic model book bringing together wonderful architectural fantasies and pictures by the Master of the Soane Album. The printing elements began with the wonderful “Battle of the Naked Men” by the Pollaiolo brothers and continued with a room of small early etchings. There were also some lovely drawings such as a boy in turban by Gozzoli and Gaddi’s drawings for his frescos at St Croce but they didn’t seem to fit with the theme.

Interesting exhibition at the Pompidou Centre which looking at how new media like photography and film influenced the work of Edvard Munch. The early rooms looked at how Munch set about reproducing his work. It looked at a series of themes which he revisited many times in his left. The first two rooms seemed almost identical but were the same hang of dfferent versions of about 6 works. There were then rooms on film and a wonderful picture called “Workers on their way home” which took a cinematic approach to a group of workers walking towards you. The whole exhibition was dotted with photographs and film taken by Munch to show how he used the new forms. I have to be critical of the way the exhibition was hung and used. The rooms were quite small and there were large groups of school children being lectured to in there. At times a group would practically fill a room and made it very difficult for other people to view the works. I knew very little about this artist and came away better i...

Small exhibition of illuminated manuscripts for the museums own collection at the Louvre in Paris. It was arranged over 2 rooms which almost displayed different worlds. The first room was the early work and showed a detailed medieval world with wonderful insights such as a woman chasing a fox which had stolen a chicken. It included wonderful works by Jean Fouquet. The second room was the Renaissance world with larger pictures looking at classical motifs and perspective. Some pictures were full page illustrations. There was a nice section on Flemish works as well.

Beautiful exhibition looking at the work of Fra Angelico and his contemporaries at the Musee Jacquemart Andre in Paris. The exhibition included about 30 panels by Fra Angelica alongside painters who influenced his work, such as his teacher Lorenzo Monaco, Masolino and Paolo Uccello, as well as artists that he inspired, such as Filippo Lippi and Zanobi Strozzi. It really was a vision of the use of light and was a real chocolate box for the eyes. I hadn’t realised Fra Angelico and also been an illuminator so was fascinated to see his works on paper. I fell heavily for an altarpiece by Baldovinetti with the most beautiful St Julian. An added extra was that you could buy the tape tour as a phone app which means I can still refer to it, look at the pictures and zoom into particular sections of pictures to study them further.

Wonderful exhibition about French art at the cusp of the Renaissance in France at the Galeries Nationales, Grand Palais in Paris. It focused on the reigns of Charles VIII (1483-1498) and Louis XII (1498-1515), and was dominated by the personality of Anne de Bretagne, successively the wife of both kings. The first section looked at the different noble courts and difference influences on them, the next at major projects and the final section looked at Northern and Southern influences. I think this my favourite period of art where the Medieval is reaching a final glorious culmination and just developing into the Renaissance. People in the art look like archetypal medieval types in tights and pointed hats. My favourite section focused on the work of Jean Hey, a Flemish artist working in France who probably studied under Hugo van der Goes.

Exhibition of photographs by father and daughter photo journalists, Pierre and Alexandra Boulat, at the Petit Palais in Paris. I preferred the fathers work on the suburbs of Paris, women in America and WestPoint to the daughter’s work which focused on current war zones. I am sure her work was the harder hitting but somehow by focusing on the brutal side of war I found myself being desensitised. My favourite picture was by Pierre of two soldiers dancing at WestPoint. He had a vey honest eye.

Exhibition at the Louvre of contemporary Russian art. This was rather imaginatively displayed in the medieval Lourve so very modern art was set against the foundations of a medieval keep. I love the space so it was fascinating to see it used in this way. The most dramatic exhibition projected flames into an alcove of the architecture. I loved a series of Staffordshire style ceramics by the AES & F Group contrasting opposites in society such as an anarchist and a policeman.

Small exhibition at the Louvre as part of an Umberto Eco event there called the Vertigo of the List. This exhibition, whose title is based in Leperallo’s aria in Don Giovanni, at the role of lists in art, from lists by Rousseau and Delacroix to modern conceptual art. I loved “From humanity to something else, from something else to humanity” which was two identical lists of words linking humanity to art in two columns working in opposite directions the common word where they meet in the middle in trade.

Nice exhibition at the Musse Rodin in Paris comparing the works of Matisse and Rodin. The two artists met in 1900 but were of different generations however there often seems to be a dialogue in their work. I loved the room on dancing. Along the middle were small figures by Rodin of dancers, some in full flight. Alongside were Matisse sketches for La Dance. I also loved four large plaques by Matisse of women’s back which had a Gauguin like feel plus a foot on top toe by Matisse.

Wonderful exhibition at the Louvre in Paris comparing the styles of the three great painters of the Renaissance in Venice. The exhibition was very busy and I found it quite hard to relax at first due to the pushing and shoving but once you learn to fight back it was fine! It also took a while to realise the way the exhibition was a arranged as the first couple of rooms set the scene. After that each room took a subject and looked at how the three artists treated it. I loved the room about mirrors which pointed out that reflections were a way of painters working in 3D and fed into the intellectual argument about whether painting or sculpture was the higher art form. There was a super room of Suppers at Ammaus’s which gave a good opportunity to compare the painters and how they treated a subject. I particularly liked Veronese picture set in a Venetian hose with the family almost ignoring the religious event at the middle of it all! I think Titian came out of it as the greatest artist, T...

Installation in the church of St Roch in Paris by the photographer Matthias Schaller . It is a series of photographs of the offices if Vatican priests taken between 2004 and 2008 mounted on a purple backing and placed behind the high altar. I am not sure if you can get any closer to the pictures but I attended a service there and they made a very effective backdrop to the Mass.