Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting display at the National Portrait Gallery of portraits of those involved in the Peterloo Massacre to mark the two hundredth anniversary. The display was just two sides of a small case but there was an extensive information board which helped to explain the context and why so few pictures of the protagonists exist. There was just one watercolour picture, shown here, of the main speaker at the event, Henry Hunt, but others were represented by prints which became popular after the event. It was a nice touch to have the display near the portrait of Shelley who wrote two poems about the event which weren’t published until the 1830s. Closes 1 March 2020

Fascinating exhibition looking at the year 1819 in art, a time when George III was close to death and Britain was struggling economically post Waterloo leading to the Peterloo Massacre in August. All the works on show were produced or exhibited at the Royal Academy in that year and incorporated paintings, prints and illustrated books. The prints reflect the politics more than the paintings but the later reflect painters working for the growing middle classes incorporating comedy, visual spectacle, history and travel. It was a lovely mix of familiar artists such as Turner (shown here) and Cruickshank prints but also artists who were well known at the time but have fallen out of fashion. There was a lovely Willian Etty of Mary Arabella Jay and an overblown Joseph Gandy, “Jupiter Pluvius”, which divided opinion at the time as to whether it was a dignified classical work or popular entertainment. There was a sketch of the panorama of Venice which was shown on the Strand th...