Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting exhibition at the   Wallace Collection looking at items collected by Sir Richard Wallace to mark the   200th anniversary of his birth.   Wallace had been private secretary to the 4th Marquise of Hertford and unexpectedly inherited his fortune and art collection although it is thought that he might have been his illegitimate son. Wallace had been a collector in his own right but this fortune allowed him to buy on a huge scale. His taste was for Medieval and Renaissance decorative art and armour. I loved the still life by Desgoffe of his collection with a number of the items shown in it displayed in the exhibition including a wooden Hercules by Francesco Pomarano mentioned in a 1560 history of Padua along with a shield made for Henry II of France in 1558-9. I loved a pair of small wax portraits like wonderful 3D Renaissance portraits also St Hubert’s hunting horn which had been given to Charles the Bold in 1468. However my favourite item was a s...

Fascinating exhibition at the Queen’s Gallery looking at the art collection of Charles II. I managed to do this on the same day as the Charles I show at the Royal Academy which filled the slight gap, in turn created by that exhibition, of how Charles II regathered his father’s collection. It was mentioned and it was lovely to see some of the proclamations asking for it back, however there were few examples of what he reacquired because they were on the other side of Green Park! Instead this show focused on what Charles II collected for himself dividing the two main rooms into contemporary art and older works. It was nice to see Dutch art entering the collection following his exile there during the Commonwealth. I loved the room of contemporary work with not only some of Lely’s Windsor Beauties but also their complimentary set of sea captains and admirals commissioned by the Duke of York.   The first section looking at Charles flight from England and restoration was fasc...

Fabulous exhibition at the Royal Academy looking at the art collection of Charles I. From the first room of portraits of the main protagonists this was such a sumptuous show. For a long time I’ve been seeing things marked as having been part of Charles I collection so it was wonderful to see so much of it brought back together. I loved the labelling which not only told you about the item but also detailed where the work had hung when it was in the collection and what happened to it at the sale of work by Cromwell and on the Restoration. It was interesting to see how he collected older works and it was great to see so many Titian’s and in particular to see those which are now in the Louvre and the Prado. It was also good to see the wonderful Mantegna fresco which he acquired as part of the Gonzaga collection from Milan. However it was also interesting to compare that to the contemporary art he commissioned such as the lovely royal portraits by Van Dyck and the tapestries from th...

Wonderful exhibition at Tate Modern looking at modernist photography in the first half of the 20th century. The show was fascination as it gave a good overview of photography in this period when artists were transforming how photography could be used. It picked good clear themes to look at such as portraits, the start of documentary photography and abstraction. There were some amazing pictures such as a wall of portraits by Irving Penn taken in a wedge shaped set which gave a sense of confinement. I loved the one of Duke Ellington. A very art deco photo by Rudolf Koppitz of three women in long black outfits with a naked woman in front creating a wonderful contrast against the black. I liked the section on how taking a different view on a real object can create an abstract image such as Emmanuel Sougez picture of half a cabbage and Aleksandr Rodchenko’s picture up a transmission tower. As interesting as the individual works was to look at the pictures as a collect...

Wonderful exhibition at Fortnum & Mason of art from the collection of Frank Cohen, described in the excellent brochure as “one of the most important private collections of Modern British art in the world”. This was a great opportunity to see some rarely shown works and to see them in such an innovative setting. Most works were on the main staircase but others sat on the shop floor. Trying to see them all took me to areas of the shop I’d not seen before. There were some amazing works. As any regular readers may have realised I love British art from the early 20th century and there were some great examples I didn’t know such as three pictures by William Roberts “Discussion in a Café”, “The Boxing Match” and “Snooker”. All of these were studies of people at leisure in groups and I loved the way the figures fitted together in a flat pattern. There were some great late 20th century work as well. I loved a Maggi Hambling in the 5th floor foyer of a bar with a mirrored c...

Delightful exhibition at the Palazzo Cini in Venice of Venetian works from the collection of Vittorio Cini. Cini was one of the most important collectors of early Italian art who concentrated on Tuscan art but also had a good collection of Venetian work. There were some lovely works in this show and it started getting me to look properly at the first names of Tiepolo painters as I realised how much of a family business painting was to them! I loved a picture in the first room by Lorenzo of a man in an Oriental hat. There were some nice Guardi’s and Canaletto’s although Cini seems to have collected their more fantastical landscapes rather than picture of Venice. Also a good room of early works and I loved a picture by Bernardino da Parenzo of St Vincent de Paul raising the dead with wonderful bodies rising from their graves in different states of decay. Macabre but beautiful! There was also a Titian of St George I’d not come across before which was contemporary with t...

Fascinating exhibition at the National Gallery looking at the paintings owned by eight well known artists. The show was inspired by the recent bequest from Lucien Freud of a Corot’s “Italian Woman” to the gallery. The artists featured with Freud, Matisse, Degas, Leighton, Watts, Lawrence, Reynolds and Van Dyck. I liked the fact the narrative of the show was told in reverse chronology so you saw works by the earlier artists in the collections of the later ones. It discussed how some artists collected out of admiration for other artists and others   to seek inspiration themselves. Matisse owned a Cezanne of Three bathers which he referred back to in his work and it was great to see a large sculpture inspired by it. Degas got two rooms, one for his collecting of contemporary work and one for old masters. It was interesting to see that at the sale of his collection the National Gallery bought thirteen pictures including works by Ingres and Delacroix. Reynolds col...

Mixed exhibition at Pallazzo Fortuny in Venice of work from the contemporary art collection of Enea Righi. Righi is a Bolognese business man. It is always interesting to see what appeals to a person and what their eye sees but I found a lot of this work quite depressing. He seemed to have chosen a number of pieces looking at disfigurement.   The commentary said each floor of the show was “a step forward in finding the meaning of existence” but I’m afraid I did not get that from the show.   My favourite two pieces were both series of photographs of people. The first by Jonathas de Andrade called “Looking for Jesus” explored what the real face of Jesus would have looked like and consisted of portraits of middle eastern men quietly going about their business. The other by Petere Feldman was 101 black and white portraits of people aged from 1 to 100, one for every year. It was lovely to see a gradual picture of how people mature and age. It was sometimes hard to ...

Small exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of works from the collection of M.H.Spielmann, an art journalist from the end of the 19th century. This was a slightly mixed collection but the highlight was a series of self-portraits of Punch cartoonists which he had commissioned and collected when writing a phistory of the magazine in 1895. A section on British sculptors of the early 20th century, again collected for a book, was enhanced by notes to tell you where you could find works by the artists in the gallery.

Interesting exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery of 19th and 20th century photographs donated to the museum by their Senior Special Adviser on Photographs, Terence Pepper who worked at the gallery from 1978-2013. The works were chosen by staff who had worked with him and they wrote the comments. The display talked about the style and history of photographic portraits from carte de visite to press photographs. Stand out pictures included one of Lewis Waller, a Victorian English cult actor, who still looked very dashing. I also loved one of Edward VII and his grandchildren. Pepper had championed the collection of press prints as a record of the key moments of “contextual live of the sitter”. In this genre there was a lovely picture of Lucien Freud and Lady Caroline Blackwood on their wedding day. There was also a nice section on the defining exhibitions which Pepper had curated such as the Angus McBean from 2006 and the May Ray show of 2013.

Fascinating exhibition at the Wallace Collection looking at the origins of the collection and the people who had collected it. It’s quite hard to explain! Basically the collection is based on the collection of five generations of a family, the last man being Sir Richards Wallace, the illegitimate son of the 4th Marquis of Hertford who had unexpectedly inherited his father’s collection in 1870. Richard added to it and his widow left it to the nation in 1897. Things   are made more complicated as some of the characters had about four different names during their lives deepening what title that had inherited or been given. Thank goodness for the family tree at the beginning. The most interesting section was about the 3rd Marquis whose wife was an ‘intimate friend’ of the Prince Regent and his son who became a friend of the Prince and spent time buying art with him. There was a wonderful set of Regency cartoons featuring the family with great explanations of who all the pe...

Stunning exhibition at Tate Britain looking at the life, work and collecting of Kenneth Clark. I may just be saying stunning as it included so many things that I love that it was like walking round my own head! Renaissance, Bloomsbury Group, early 20th art, the National Gallery on the Second World War and throughout the whole a real sense of friendship and a desire to support artists. The show was beautifully arranged. I loved the way it set up the artists in a New Romantics gallery who were going to come to the fore during the war before the wonderful room of the war art. It gave you a real sense of why Clark picked particular artists for different types of picture. I will admit to shedding a tear in that room! The mix of fantastic art, the tableaux at the far end almost reproducing one of the first photographs you’d seen in the show, realising the music represented the Myra Hess concerts in the National Gallery and one mention of Raviolious was enough to send me over the...

One of a series of exhibitions at the Whitechapel Gallery showcasing the Collection Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, one of the private contemporary art collections in Europe. This exhibition had only black and white pieces. This bound the items together well while making you look at the differences between them. My favourite was “Untitled (Alpha and Omega)” by Piotr Uklanski which was a collection of ceramic pits held together by a clay ground displayed vertically on the wall. I loved the sense of danger it gave while also including some stunning pots!

Fascinating exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery to complement their current main exhibition on the artist, looking at drawings by Lely and his substantial collection of drawings.   Lely had one of the great collections of drawings and prints in England in the 17 th century. At a sale on his death there were 10,000 works, each of which was market PL before the sale so they can now be traced in museums throughout the world. There is an emphasis in the collection on figures and drapery and many works were used as inspiration for his own work. The exhibition shone a spot light on collections of this period and how an artist used the work of others as models. I loved an ornamental head by Giulio Romano as I had seen a recent exhibition of his drawings in Paris, also a St Mark by Fra Bartolmmeo for San Marco in Florence.  

Trip to see the print collection at the law firm Clifford Chance organised by the Friends of the Courtauld. For twenty years the firm has acquired a significant collection of original artist prints. The collection includes works by major artists working in Britain over the last 150 years, running from Whistler and Nevinson, through Hockney, Riley and Gormley to works by recent Art School graduates. We were taken round by the advisers to the art committee and it was fascinating to hear how a collection was being developed and the process by which they chose and acquired new work. It was interesting to see that the work was displayed in all areas of the offices not just directors’ offices so that all staff had access to them. However it has to be said that any works we saw, and there were some lovely pieces, paled into insignificance when compared to the view from room where we had drinks which was on the 30 th floor of their Canary Wharf office!

A small exhibition of a selection of Old Master Paintings from the famous Bute Collection at Mount Stuart at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. It featured mainly northern European works including some lovely Dutch 17th paintings such as the de Hooch “A Disputed Reckoning”. I also really liked a Van Cleve portrait of a woman dated 1530. However I have to issue a Cuyp alert! A few years ago there was an exhibition of works by Cuyp which was basically wall to wall cows! I have quite recovered and still find his work very bland! 

Small exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery looking at works they have acquired since moving to their Somerset House site 20 years ago. It included a Joshua Reynolds of Cupid and Psyche which I last saw on a trip to the Courtauld conservation section when it was on an easel being cleaned! There were some pretty water colours and a focus on pictures of the building when it was used by the Royal Academy. There was an interesting room of20th acquisitions and gifts which included works by most major contemporary artists. It is lovely to see that it is a growing collection.

Lecture at the National Gallery on the collection of Charles I. The lecture was in the ‘Wine and Nibbles’ series and was given by Norman Coady, a free lance art historian. It was a hot night which slightly threw the speaker but things improved as the air conditioning kicked in. It was a fascinating insight into the works acquired by Charles I either inherited, purchased or given to him as gifts. It was amazing how many great works of art were in England in the early 17th century. Despite the fact that I’ve always seen myself on the Parliamentary side in the Civil War, maybe if it hadn’t happened we would have an art gallery bigger than the Prado and Louvre put together! I would like to have heard a bit more about the disposal of the works and reacquisition of some of them.

Exhibition at The Wallace Collection of silver collected by two generations of the Schroder family between 1870 and 1930. Mainly German renaissance in origin the first part of the exhibition focused on English and Continental domestic silver including beautiful German stacking beakers which fitted perfectly one inside the other and a drinking cut in the form of a bear which looked rather like a demented hamster. The second room focused on silver for display and talked about the advent of kunstkammer or schatzkanner, art or treasure chambers, in houses to display precious objects. These were said to be the forerunner of museums. The finest piece was a ewer in the shape of a ship complete with tiny enamel figures of solders, rowers and event a small party men eating dinner. Those men wore the Maltese cross as it was made for the order of St John in Germany. The exhibition was accompanies by a small display in the conservation galleries showing a mock up of a silver workshop explaining ho...