Cathy's Art Diary

Interesting workshop at the National Gallery looking at Bomberg’s art education and how in turn he educated other artists. This day was to compliment the current exhibition “Bomberg and the Old Masters” and we opened the day with a talk by Richard Cork, the curator of the show, telling us about David   Bomberg’s early practice of studying and copying works in the National Gallery. This was followed by David Boyd Haycock looking at the training Bomberg would have got at the Slade under Henry Tonks and how he rebelled against this. We then had two talks by Kate Aspinall and Leon Betsworth looking at Bomberg’s time as a teacher at the Borough Polytechnic, the artists he trained and the style of painting he inadvertently established. Most interesting was that the latter speaker’s office is on the room in which Bomberg taught and that the college, now South Bank University, have a collection of the artist’s work which it doesn’t have on show. We ended the day with a talk...

Fascinating workshop at the National Gallery looking at the portraits of Lorenzo Lotto . This day, led by Caroline Brooke, was a good compliment to the current exhibition. She began by looking at what we know about Lotto’s life. She looked at why he traveled so much and how he picked up the styles of the cities he worked in. She also looked at some of his altarpieces as it was these commissions which brought him to the cities and it was while there that he then picked up the portrait work. She also pointed out that he wouldn’t have had a workshop because of his travels and would have to have found new artists in each city to work with him. We then put Lotto’s work in the context of other Renaissance portrait work. We talked about the importance of portraiture in Venice, where he trained, and the influence of Flemish art on his work. We also spent time in the exhibition with a list of questions to consider when looking at the pictures and were encouraged to discuss ...

Excellent one day workshop organised by the London Art History Society at Conway Hall looking at the life and work of Frida Kahlo. Led by Jacqueline Cockburn the day split neatly in four lectures. In the morning we looked at Kahlo’s life and how it was reflected in her art. The lecturer talked about Kahlo’s polio and the results of her terrible injuries from a bus crash which left in her pain throughout her life. She also talked about Kahlo’s two marriages to Diego Rivera. In the second lecture of the morning we looked at three contemporary surrealist female artists who all came from Europe to live in Mexico, Remedois Varo, Leonora Carrington and Kati Horna. I’d only heard of Leonora Carrington so found this fascinating comparison to Kahlo and a nice idea to broaden the day out. In the afternoon we took a detailed look at Kahlo’s diaries from 1944 until her death in 1954. These seem to be a mix of diary and sketch book and a place she worked out ideas about her life an...

Interesting workshop at Conway Halls organised by the London Art History Society looking at the current exhibitions on the collections of Charles I & II. The day was led by Clare Ford-Wille and took us through both exhibitions with an excellent hand out highlighting the main works to look out for and to use in the shows. However I’d hoped for more of the narrative behind the shows. For example I’d have liked to know more about Charles I purchase of the Matua collection and what it contained plus more on how Charles II went about reclaiming objects from his father’s collection. She touched on these topics but only where the shows did and not in a chronological way. I’ve not seen either shows yet but can’t wait!

Fascinating workshop at the Conway Hall organised by the London Art History Society looking at Russian art in the years after the Revolution. In the morning we looked at now the revolutionaries used art to create the Soviet myth. We discussed how many established artists fled Russia in 1917 so the Bolsheviks has to choose the avant garde to further their cause and these artists were inspired by the events. Kandinsky returned to Russia after 16 years in Germany. We also looked at the use posters to spread propaganda and the idea of Monumental propaganda with great parades for the anniversaries of the revolution. We then looked at the work of Malevich and Russian Futurism focusing on the work following the Black Square in 1915 and we explored the possible meanings of this work. We also talked about how a lot of his work was left in Berlin on a trip he was allowed to make outside of Russia which meant that he is one of the best know Russian artists of this period in the West....

Excellent workshop at the National Gallery in a series on unfinished pictures focusing on works by Gainsborough. We talked about why pictures, particularly by Gainsborough, were unfinished. I loved the story of a portrait of the actress Kitty Fisher by him which is unfinished as changed lovers so the original one who’d commissioned the picture no longer wanted it! The lecturer, Jacqui Ansell, is an expert on fashion so she was particularly interesting on when pictures were unfinished or changed because fashion changed while it was being painted. We spent a long time in the gallery with four pictures (Mr and Mrs Andrews, a self-portrait with his wife and a child and two of his two daughters)   taking a close look and thinking about what areas weren’t finished or were changed. We also talked about the idea of the finish of a picture and talked about how Gainsborough’s pictures took on a looser less finished look as he got older and more popular. Less finish means more sp...

Disappointing workshop at the National Gallery talking about how to look at a picture. I’d hoped the talk would focus particularly on the brush work of Rubens and Van Dyck as they were in the title and the description had talked about brushwork however this was just part of the afternoon. We did talk a bit about their style and had interesting photos of details to compare and then spot the works by these artists. However the bulk of the talk was about how to look at pictures and the elements to look at and think about when looking however the examples veered away from the named artists to compare different eras and styles. This looked at composition, subjects, clothes and much more than brush work. I’d looked forward to a more detailed session. It would have been a good introduction to looking at art but I was hoping for something a bit more advanced. We then finished with a fun session in the Italian 17th century gallery comparing photos of details of other works by ...

Interesting workshop at the National Gallery starting a season on unfinished pictures led by Chantal Brotherton-Ratcliffe. As this was the first in a series of talks the first section looked at the difference between an unfinished picture ie one which is not complete and the finish on a picture which can be described as unfinished ie loose. We then talked about why a picture might be abandoned. It might be that the artist dies while creating it and we talked about what is left in a studio. It might be that the patron changes there mind and we took Pope Julius’s tomb as an example. It might be that there is a problem with the work such as the Michelangelo Risen Christ where a fault in the marble was found where Christ’s face was going to be. And finally it might be that the work was too ambitious and was not achievable. In the second half we looked at what unfinished pictures can tell us about technique and Chantal look us through the process of painting a picture at this da...

Delightful day organised by the London Art History Society at Birkbeck College looking at the art and design of the Art Nouveau led by Ann Anderson. The day was divided into four lectures with plentiful breaks for coffee and lunch. In the morning Ann led us through a good overview of the main motifs of Art Nouveau style with really good visual examples from different countries and in different mediums. She also talked about the different between this style and the arts and crafts movement. The second talked looked at who this art was for and how people bought the objects. I had not come across Samuel Siegfried Bing, the owner of the Art Nouveau Gallery, the Liberty’s of Paris. Ann gave us a good overview of what we might have been able to buy there. She also talked about the Paris exhibition of 1900 and how that led and influenced style. In the afternoon we looked at two producers of this period. We began with Rene Lalique focusing in particular on his jewellery. Ann ...

Interesting workshop at the National Gallery looking at the life and work of Rosalba Carriera. One in a series of afternoon’s on women artists. The session was led by Lucrezia Walker and she was very good at putting the work of this acrylic portrait artist in the context of the time. She pointed out how Carriera’s background meant that she had to build a life for herself and how she approached her art in a very business-like way. I loved the idea that Carriera realised that sitting for a portrait could be boring so she encouraged people to bring their friends along and ran the studio like a literary salon. No wonder all the people in her work look like they are having fun. I was particularly interested in the idea of her going off to the French court to work taking with her most of her family. Her brother in law was also an artist and her sisters helped her in her work. What an exciting trip that most have been. In the second half we went to the gallery to look at the...

Excellent days’ workshop at the National Gallery looking at the work of Caravaggio and how other artists were influenced by it led by Sian Walters. In the morning we looked at the life and work of Caravaggio and how innovative it was in its own day. We looked at the main works and talked about how his circumstances at any given time may have affected them. We then looked at his influence on others both in his own life time and in the years soon after his death using works in the current “Beyond Caravaggio” exhibition at this gallery. In the afternoon we looked at a group of Dutch artists called the Utrecht Caravaggisti who visited Rome in the early 17th century and saw Caravaggio works. They took the ideas back to the Netherlands and how they are also responsible from the idea   of showing a candle as the source of light which Caravaggio did not do. We talked about their work and their patrons. We finished the day with the wonderful story of how the “Taking of Chr...

Interesting workshop at the National Gallery looking at the life and work of the Dutch flower painted Rachel Ruysch and using her to discuss the history of female artists. This was one in a series of workshop on women artists but I have only been able to get this one. It was led by Jacqui Ansell who is always good. The session began with an interesting look at why there are so few women artists represented in the National Gallery, whether this is just because there weren’t many or whether it is also because they have been forgotten by a male art historical world. We looked at the work since the 1970s to discuss this issue. We then went on to look at Ruysch’s work, how it was received in her own lifetime and what enabled her to be an artist at that time. A 75,000 gilder lottery win allowed her a certain amount of freedom in her work as she could work without money worries and take time over her work. He work was commissioned by the Duke of Tuscany which is why it is represe...

Excellent workshop at the National Gallery looking in detail at Botticelli’s Venus and Mars led by David Bellingham. We began by looking at Venus’s in art to this point, thinking about the role of the ancient statues in setting models for painted Venus’s. We also looked at other works by Botticelli with Venus’s in them. We then went to look at the picture in the gallery. We thought about its unusual shape and what it might have been used for. We also talked about the fact it’s not dated and how we can place it stylistically. We then talked about which sections used ancient models and which were contemporary. Back in the lecture room we looked at the layers of meaning in the paintings. Most fascinating was the idea that it shows a well-known contemporary couple Simonetta Vespuci and Juliano de Medici, friend and brother of Lorenzo de Medici. We also talked about how it may refer to another picture referred to in ancient texts o Alexander the Great and his wife Roxanna. ...

Excellent workshop at the National Gallery looking in detail at Diana and Actaeon by Titian as part of a new series on pictures whose subject is myths and legends. We began by looking at the source of the story, Ovid, and how the poem was reflected in the picture. We also looked at the fact it was part of a commission from Philip II of Spain for a series of myth pictures or Poesies and how these were late paintings by Titian which gave him a lot of freedom in their composition. We spent a lot of time at the painting itself discussing the composition and listening to reading of the section from Ovid and discussing what was included and left out. Finally we returned to the seminar room to talk about the greater meaning of the story and larger themes in in such as the difference between about sight and the act of looking, a popular theme with artists. I came away with a much greater understanding of the work and felt I had looked at it in much more detail than befor...

Excellent workshop at the National Gallery looking at the influence of circus and music hall on art in the later 19th and early 20th centuries. The morning focused on France and the circus taking Degas’s “Miss La, La and the Cirque Fernando” as a starting point. Jo Rhymer from the gallery talked about the picture and why it was so ground breaking. She also talked about the Cirque Fernando and its influence on other artists then introduced us to Miss La, La herself. In a second talk she looked at how Toulouse-Lautrec had also depicted this circus. Cultural historian, Fern Riddell, then talked about other aerial acts and the phenomena of these performances both in France and England. She also talked about the strong position held by these female performers in society as they outstripped male performers in salary and this gave them independence. In the afternoon we focused more on the British music hall with the novelist Essie Fox talking about her novel the Somnambulant...

Fascinating workshop at the National Gallery led by Ben Street looking in detail at Van Gogh’s “Two crabs”. Ben began by putting them into the context of still lives by other artists from the Dutch Golden Age to Courbet and Manet and then into context with other Van Gogh still lives such as Sunflowers and The Chair. We talked about the fact he painted this picture on his return from hospital after the ear incident when he was trying to get back into painting but couldn’t; take on big works or go out. There is a real sense in this work of someone needing to paint. He then talked about the spiritual dimension to Van Gogh’s work and how and why he asks you to look in detail at something you might not otherwise look at. There is a sense of finding beauty in the ordinary. We also discussed the influence on his work of Japanese prints. Finally we spend some time with the picture. This was not easy in one of the busiest galleries in the museum! We had to be almost war like w...

Excellent morning workshop at the National Gallery looking in detail at the Canaletto picture of the Feast of St Roch in Venice. We began by looking at the picture in detail and the tutor, Steven Barrettt, had some wonderful enlargements of various bits of the picture. It really helped you see the detail. And appreciate Canaletto’s skill. There was much discussion about whether he had used any devices such as camera obscurer to help him. We then looked at Canaletto’s place in Venetian art and in particular the other vedute artists at the time and discussed why and how the British were acquiring these works. We also looked at Canaletto’s time spent in England and his influence on later artists. We ended with time in the gallery looking at the picture in the flesh and at other Canaletto’s in the collection as well as other vedute pictures. I’m hoping to spend some time in Venice next year so this was a nice reminder of how beautiful the city is.

Interesting workshop at the National Gallery looking at the Rococo artists and trying to define what the Rococo style was. The talk was given by Jacqui Astell, who is also an expert on the history of costume, so the talk was particularly interesting on the clothes and textiles in the pictures. We started by looking in detail at “Psyche showing her sisters her gifts from Cupid” by Fragonard and talked about all the different attributions it had had over the years and the different subjects it had been thought to show. We also talked about the style of the picture and what made it Rococo. After coffee we looked in detail at Madame de Pompadour and how she not only epitomised Rococo style but also encouraged and commissioned it. I still don’t warm to this era but I do now feel I understand it better.

Fascinating workshop at the National Gallery focusing on “Madame Moitessier” by Ingres led by Jacqui Ansell. We started off in the gallery looking at the picture and talking about the context in which it was painted and other contemporary works in the gallery. We also looked in detail at the picture and talked about how it had taken him 12 years to paint and how the work changed in that time as fashion changed. The figure had started off in a round chair in a narrower yellow dress by the time this was finished this would have looked old fashioned and of course a lady wants to be shown in her best new clothes! The frame is its original and has the same flowers on it as on the dress. Back at the seminar room we talked more about Ingres’s career and how this picture fitted in. We talked about his exile in Rome and the exquisite drawings he did of British tourists. We looked at other portraits of fashionable women by him and compared the techniques and also at other pictures i...

Excellent morning’s workshop at the National Gallery led by Dr Richard Stemp looking in detail at the gallery’s Annunciation by Crivelli. We began by talking about who Crivelli was and where he was working then spent a nice long time at the picture looking at it in detail and talking about its meaning as we spotted things in it. The session had a feeling of discovery about it rather than following a set lecture type pattern. I was fascinated with why certain anachronistic items such as the gourd and apple seemed to come out of the painting towards you. It was also interesting to hear why the painting was produced and what it celebrated. I have always been fond of this picture with its odd mix of a real scene and city but with a mystical event happening in the middle of it. The morning made me look at it afresh and with the added knowledge to inform my viewing.