Cathy's Art Diary

Niche but  fascinating exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery exploring how different technologies of reproduction have shaped encounters with artworks since the 19th century. The main focus was on an ivory mirror case from the Victoria and Albert Museum collection of the “Castle of Love”. The show discussed the different types of casts which has been made of it to spread its image and allow study along with print versions of it. The original was there and I was surprised at how poor the modern 3D printed version was. The show also looked at the use of new technology in the 19th century from glass slides to brass rubbings used by art historians. Closes 14 February 2025

Useful four week online course from the National Gallery introducing four art historical approaches which can be used to ‘read’ paintings. The four approaches were social history, decolonisation, feminism and queer studies and each week we took a picture from the gallery’s collection and discussed it with one of these approaches in mind. Inevitably to make a point, the discussion sometimes felt a bit one dimensional and we sometimes strayed a long way from the painting in question to look at history of the art historical approach. I think week one looking at social history was the most natural to my approach. John Fagg, from the University of Birmingham, looked at “Men of the Docks” by George Bellows from 1912. I do like to know about the context of a picture and what it shows about the times it was painted in as well as what the market for the type of work might have been. Ana Howie, from the University of Cambridge, took the decolonisation theme using “Drunken Silenus Supporte...

Interesting online lecture  from ARTscapades looking at a new way of looking at art history. Charlotte Mullins, art critic for Country Life talked us through the arguments in her book “A Little History of Art” inviting people to take a wider look at art history bringing in people and places usually not considered in the traditional cannon. She began by pointing out that people have made art even before they could write and that some of the earliest works are two sculptures of bison in a cave made over 17,000 years ag. We don’t know who made them or why but they still have the power to affect us. She then took us though various little studied aspects of art history including the women artists of the Renaissance and black artists of the American Depression. She also looked at areas of the world which are often not considered including China, Benin/Nigeria and Australia. I found her arguments very interesting but, as an ardent exhibition goer, I felt I had done shows on all th...

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery on the 19th century art historian Anna Jameson. I hadn’t come across Jameson before and was delighted to find out about her. Adele Ernstrom from Bishop’s University, Canada, delivered this inaugural Anna Jameson Memorial lecture clearly outlining her life story and the contribution she made to art history and the National Gallery. I certainly want to find out more. In the 1840s she wrote a guide to public galleries of art in London, shortly after the National Gallery relocated to Trafalgar Square, which she followed up with essays on artists in “The Penny Magazine” and then her “Memoirs of the Early Italian Painters” in 1845. She also advised the National Gallery on the gaps in their early collection as a result of which they acquired a Fra Angelico.  

Interesting videos of seven of the talks given at last years festival art historical research at the Courtauld Institute of Art. I’d seen the event advertised but hadn’t managed to get along to it so was delighted to find these talks online in my digital wandering. I did find some of them a bit philosophical but there were some good highlights too. As galleries improve their digital offering these did feel a bit flat but they were a good record of how the talk was delivered on the day including jokes and technical hitches. I liked Aviva Burnstock talking about some discoveries made by the Courtauld in the technical analysis of paintings. Most interesting was the discovery of a figure painting under Picasso’s Child with a Dove, which she compared in style to other works of the time for which it might have been a study and the discovery of a sketch for the Roundabout under a picture of Garsington by Mark Gertler. Tom Nixon gave a lively talk on why people like climbing t...

Brilliant four day course at the Courtauld Institute led by Anne Puetz and Clare Richardson which did what it said on the tin, provided an introduction to the study of art history. Day 1 looked at what the different periods and isms were and how their styles distinguished them. It also looked at why it can be dangerous to try to shoehorn art into a definition. In the afternoon we went into the gallery and split into two groups to discuss the issues raised in the morning in front of the pictures. Day 2 looked at artistic techniques and how paintings were made and the materials used also at the different genres of painting. In the afternoon again we split into two groups spending time in the conservation studio and the print and drawings room. I am always fascinated to see conservation work in action. I’d also never been to the Courtauld print room before and it was good to see new things and discuss the different uses of drawings and prints. Day 3 was the most stimu...