Cathy's Art Diary

Small exhibition at the National Gallery to compliment the “Painting history” exhibition. It features a Delaroche picture of Charles I which was believed to have been irrepairable damaged in the 2nd World War. It has however recently been unrolled and the gallery are working to restore it. It is being shown half way through the conservation process so we can see the process. It currently looks battered with recently repaired tears still showing but the force of the picture still shows and it will be interesting to see it again once finished.

Nice exhibition at the National Gallery which put the painting “The Execution of Lady Jane Grey” by Delaroche into the context of its time. I must admit I was not very excited at the idea of this exhibition but it was really good. I knew very little about the art world at this time and learnt a lot which made me appreciate the picture more. I was interested in the way the art reelected the theatre of the time but then the theatre started to base works on the pictures. It is very easy to look at pictures with a modern eye and forget what was happening around them when they were painted. I was also interested in the idea that although these were paintings of stories in history they also reflect how people were reacting to current events of the time. I had always found the picture quite kitsch but put into context it is a more rounded piece of work. Reviews Times Guardian Daily Telegraph Evening Standard

Lecture at the National Gallery to accompany it’s current exhibition “ Painting History: Delaroche and Lady Jane Grey ” . The lecture was given my Leanda de Lisle the author of “The Sisters who would be Queen” a joint biography of Lady Jane and her sisters Catherine and Mary. It was a romp through Jane’s life painting her, not as the victim seem in Delaroche’s picture, but as a politically aware, religiously committed young woman.