Cathy's Art Diary

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the life and work of the 19th century artist Georges Seurat. Amy Mechowski, a freelance art historian, started by leading us though Seurat’s life and techniques. She outlined ideas of colour contrast, Pointillism and Neo-Impressionism clearly, then talked us through the main paintings which used these ideas. I n the second half she focused on Seurat’s works which would appear in the “Radical Harmony” exhibition at the Gallery. Since I listened to the talk I have visited the show and this was a useful introduction to what I saw there.

Fascinating online lecture from ARTscapades looking at how Rodin was influenced in dancers and in particular Nijinsky. Juliet Bellow, from the American University and the author of a book of the same title, talked us through three sources of dance influence for Rodin, the Art Nouveau solo dancer Lois Fuller, the Cambodian Royal Ballet who visited Paris in 1906 and Ballet Russe and Nijinsky. For this talk she concentrated on the latter and   looked in detail at a small sculpture Rodin made of the dancer in 1912. She talked about how Rodin was influenced by the ballet “Apres Midi du Faune” and in turn how the dancer looked to sculpture for inspiration for his choreography. She speculated on how the work was made based on recent studies of two versions and concluded that it was made to be held in the hand and turned and in doing so it took on various aspects of the ballet. She also broadened the lecture out to show how Rodin was a supporter of the republican cause and positio...

Useful online lecture from the National Gallery discussing the new still-life room created as a result of the recent rehang of the collection. Bart Cornelis, Curator of Dutch and Flemish Paintings 1600-1800 at the gallery and Sarah Herring, an associate curator there outlined the history of still-life painting and discussed the paintings they had chosen for the room to illustrate this. The room covers from the 17th to the 19th century. They then widened the talk out to point us at 20th century examples by Cezanne and Picasso in rooms 43 and 45. This was followed by a lively Q&A session ranging from the role of insects in these paintings, through the Roman frescos in Pompeii and a discussion of who bought this pictures.

Excellent online lecture from ARTscapades comparing the work of Anselm Kiefer and Vincent Van Gogh. Although the talk was instigated by the current exhibition of the same title at the Royal Academy, Ben Street made it more than a description of the show and instead developed a clear and well thought out discussion of the similarities in the artists work despite working about a century apart. He explained how Kiefer, the contemporary artist, has always responded to Van Gogh’s work from his first trip out of German using a travel grant to retrace Van Gogh’s travels in Europe. He spent time comparing works by both artists and tracing the links. He discussed the concept of ‘deskilling’ in art as well as how both artists view the role of artists. My favourite section looked at how we view older art with contemporary eyes bringing to it events which have happened since the work was painted. For example how can we look at Van Gogh’s painting of his boots without thinking of the image...

Interesting online lecture from ARTscapades introducing an exhibition at the Towner Gallery in Eastbourne on Modernism in Sussex. Hope Wolf, from the University of Sussex and also the author of a book with the same title as the talk and exhibition, outlined how the show came about. The idea had started with a previous exhibition at Two Temple Place in 2017 which I had been to, and had developed from the research she did for that show. She explored how the ideal of Modernism seem to be at odds with rural life in Sussex but how a number of artists settled in the area. She also looked at the idea of “New Regionalism” introduced by Clive Bell at the opening of the Miller Gallery in Lewes. Wolf introduced us to   a number of artists I hadn’t come across despite knowing the area well however I felt there were almost too many ideas to be encompassed in one show. Sadly I didn’t get to the exhibition to know how well it worked in its display and narrative.

Charming online lecture from ARTscapades looking at the life of Isabella D’Este, the Renaissance patron of the arts. Sarah Dunant, introduced her new novel on Isabella, based on her extensive research in the archives in Mantua which holdover 30,000 of her letters. She took us thorough Isabella’s life with readings from her book. Given her audience, Dunant, concentrated on Isabella’s art collecting and building projects including her studiolo. She explained how she liked a bargain and would look further afield that Rome to buy ancient artefacts. Since listening to the talk I have read the book and thoroughly enjoyed it. I’d been looking for a good biography of Isabella for a while and this format felt accurate and a novel format made it more approachable to read. I loved the way she gave Isabella a voice, both from using the real text of her letters and making her a ghostly voice in the archive. This gave Dunant the chance to also look at changing approaches to history and to Isa...

Intriguing online lecture from the London Art History Society focusing on a specific chapel in Avignon Cathedral. Geoff Nuttall led us through this chapel and specifically the fresco outside it from around 1430. He told us about the family to whom it was dedicated and specifically about the father, Carlo Spiafame who had come to the city in 1385 from Lucca as part of a banking family, to service the papal court which was based there at the time. He talked about how the court brought Italian artists to the city but he thought the fresco was by a French artist who was influenced by them, possibly Jacques Iverny. He also speculated that they may have seen the Belles Heures de Duc du Berry as the Baptism scene is very similar and the Spiafame family had been involved in valuing his possessions on his death. He discussed the strange iconography of including donors in a scene of the Baptism of Christ and said this was the only example of that that he knew. He also pointed out that don...

Enlightening online discussion from the National Gallery around Nicola Moorby’s book on Turner and Constable. Matthew Morgan interviewed the author examining her argument that the two landscape artists were not the rivals they have been made out to be. She argues that there were very different characters who would not have been friends but that the perceived competition between them actually encouraged them to become better artists. She chose a series of pairs of paintings to compare the two artists and to examine their different approaches. There was a lively Q&A session at the end covering their relative fame at the time, their approach to the slave trade and why Constable did full scale sketches for his 6ft paintings.

Interesting online lecture from the Royal Collection introducing an exhibition on James VI of Scotland and I of England at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery. Kate Anderson, from the National Galleries of Scotland, talked us through the narrative of the show and highlighted some key exhibits with an emphasis on items lent by the Royal Collection. The show divides into the king’s time in Scotland and England and his influence in Europe and the world. She talked about his regency, as he came to the throne of Scotland aged just 13 months when his mother was forced to abdicate, and there were some touching exhibits from his childhood such as a letter from him aged about 6 to the Countess of Mar. I was most excited to see that the portraits of his children, Prince Henry, Charles I and Princess Elizabeth, later Queen of Bohemia, by Robert Peake have been reunited and that seems to be just one of many reasons to try to get to the show.

Excellent online lecture from Geoff Nuttall looking in detail at the “Tres Riches Heures” of the Duc du Berry. The talk marked an exhibition at the Musee Conde in Chantilly which will only be the second time the pages have been displayed since being rediscovered in the 1850s. The manuscript was a large book of hours by the Limbourg brothers (Herman, Paul and Jean) and was left unfinished at the death of the patron in 1416. The first half of the morning looked at the Duc du Berry, focusing on his role as a patron. We looked in detail at the palaces, chapels and fortresses he built on his lands which are shown in the wonderful illustrations of the labours of the month in the manuscript. The second then looked at the work of the brothers highlighting other work done by them, a bible for Philip the Bold and a smaller book of hours for Berry. He placed them within the art of the period both in France and Italy before looking at the specific style of this work and where some of the ide...

Useful online lecture from ARTScapades describing the exhibition of drawings by Victor Hugo at the Royal Academy. I had visited this excellent exhibition a few days before so it was less of an introduction for me and more of a rediscovery. Sarah Lea guided us through the show’s layout highlighting some key works. I must admit didn’t get a lot from the talk which I hadn’t got from the show which was clearly narrated. I would like to have heard a bit more about how the show was put together and what she had learnt from doing it.

Comprehensive online lecture from the National Gallery looking at the life and work of Velazquez. Jo Walton led us clearly through the subject with excellent illustrations and an emphasis on works owned by the gallery itself. She started with his early street work which I love and talked about the symbolism in it as well as emphasising the delightful still-lives he included. We then talked about how he went to Madrid and became the court painter and we looked in detail at the work he did for them. Alongside this we looked at his mythical and historic works as well, of course, looking in more detail at the Rokeby Venus and Las Meninas.

Interesting online lecture from the Victorian and Albert Museum introducing their exhibition on the jeweller, Cartier. Helen Molesworth, Senior Jewellery Curator and Rachel Garrahan, a project curator and writer for Vogue, did a fun double act to guide us around the themes of the show and to point out key pieces. They outlined the early history of the firm and how it was developed by the grandsons of the founder outlining the roles each of them took. Then looked at the design choices of company was well as how they worked with clients to develop new pieces. They finished by showing us some of the 18 tiaras which close the show. I haven’t manage to go to the show yet but its definitely on the list and I can’t wait!

Fascinating online lecture from the London Art History Society looking in detail at a 14th century psalter. Michelle Brown from the British Library introduced us to his amazing work commissioned by Sir Geoffrey Luttrell which includes unique illustrations in the margins reflecting the life and issues of the time. She took us through what a psalter was and how it would have been used by a family before taking us briefly though the history of the Luttrell’s and Geoffrey’s place in the events leading to the Wars of the Roses. We then looked in detail at the illustrations, what they meant and how they reflected the family. She concluded that the work shows a world in flux in troubled times.

Excellent two week online course from ARTscapades looking at the Sienese artists of the early 14th century. Art historian Richard Stemp led us through the main four artists featured in the recent National Gallery exhibition, Duccio, Simoni Martini and Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti. In each case he guided us through their work both items in the show and ones which couldn’t travel. This was particularly useful as he could include frescos which added another dimension to the work. As ever Stemp brought a knowledgeable but wry eye to the subject bringing out the humanity of the images and yet placing them in the context of their time. This was a lovely way to revisit the exhibition which I had enjoyed and it led me to going again before it closed.

Comprehensive and fascinating four week online course from Paula Nuttall on the Sistine Chapel. As ever with Paula the talk was clear and well thought out with good illustrations. As usual she overran gloriously! Week one we looked at the early frescos after setting the scene and looking at the design of the chapel itself. I love the frescos but never thought about how the project was co-ordinated to give a consistency across the work of multiple artists. Paula’s theory was that Perugino was the master having already been working in Rome and as he painted the most prominent frescos and the altarpiece. Week 2 we looked up to the next stage of the decoration and Michelangelo’s ceiling. I had recently done a course on the young Michelangelo with Paula so this felt like an extension of that. We looked at how the artist painted this massive undertaking from its inception to its unveiling. I was particular interested in the section on his influences. Week 3 was Raphael’s tapestries a...

Excellent online lecture from ARTscapades looking at Vanessa Bell’s early Modernist works. I had assumed this would be a standard book talk as the speaker, Wendy Hitchmough, has recently written a biography of Bell but instead she decided to focus on Bell’s early Modernist works and to discuss how radical they were. This made it a lot more interesting and in depth that I had expected. She began by discussing how Bell encountered the Post-Impressionist via helping to organise the 1910 show of their work in London then looked at the effect this art had on her portraits, particularly of her sister, Virginia Woolf. She next focused on three major works “Studland Beach”, “Mother and Baby” (now lost)   and “Nursery Tea” all from 1912 talking about their radical composition and subject matter and how that was informed by Bell’s experience as a woman and mother. She concluded by talking about how Bell created spaces where women could meet and show art such as the Grafton Group and...

Interesting online lecture from the Victoria and Albert Museum on a display there on the designer Pugin and Hardman who manufactured his metalwork objects. Angus Paterson and Max Donnelly explained how the museum had acquired a cache of 700 designs by Pugin for Hardman in 2023 which formed the core of the display and were being shown alongside some of the objects made from them. The took us through the lives of the two men and their correspondence then explained the themes of the show with examples from each section. I was particularly interested to hear about Pugin’s house The Grange in Ramsgate along with its adjoining church and library which you can now visit so that’s on the list!

Interesting online discussion from the National Gallery focusing on posing. Aliki Briane, artist and art historian, interviewed two contemporary artists who make work by posing for images. Peter Braithwaite, opera singer and artist, recreates historical portraits of black figures, and Dominic Blake, is a life model at the Royal Academy as well as being an art theorist and has taken the modelling out of the studio into other spaces. I enjoyed their insights but I would have been interested to hear them talk more widely about the work of models over the centuries and about what it is like to pose for long periods rather than just posing as an art form.

Fascinating online lecture from the National Gallery on their current exhibition on 14th century Siena. One of the curators, Laura Llewelyn, guided us through the show and the four artists it features. She explained how the aim of the show was to look at a crucial moment in Western art where painting came to the fore as the major art form. I had been to see the show a few days before and loved it so this was a useful chance to fill some of the gaps I’d missed when I was there and to understand more about the objects which had been chosen and how, in many cases, multi-piece altarpieces had been reunited. Llewelyn was particularly helpful in setting the scene both in terms of history but also in explaining the non-painting pieces in the show used to show influences and give examples of the objects in the paintings and which would have been seen around them.