Tuesday 15 March 2011

Life, Legend, Landscape

A visit today to an exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery, entitled Life, Legend, Landscape: Victorian Drawings and Watercolours (closes 15 May 2011). The gallery was kind enough to provide me a ticket, so I went to explore, and ruthlessly exploit their generosity. I am not an expert art critic (or even an art critic) but I have to be honest and say that I found the exhibition itself too small - worth noting that many of the pictures are studies, not finished work - probably of technical interest to art historians &c. but not likely to appeal to the general public. There are, however, a couple of gems that might interest the average fan of Victorian art like myself: not least the sketch of a lion by Landseer, done in preparation for those in Trafalgar Square; likewise, a piece called 'Chaffinch Nest and May Blossom' by William Henry Hunt, which is beautiful for its detail.
    Is  it, therefore, worth a visit? Well, yes, for two reasons.
    Firstly,  there's a great room next door entitled Character & Caricatures : Late Victorian Illustration, which has a lovely series of watercolour illustrations for a telling of the fairytale of 'The Elves and the Shoemaker' and a couple of hand-coloured woodcuts by William Nicholson (after the style of Toulouse-Lautrec). The Nicholson woodcut of Queen Victoria (drawn for the New Review of 1897) is a great piece.
    Secondly, the Courtauld itself is worth a visit: the ornate interior of the historic Somerset house; the Impressionist collection has some nice works (including Manet's Bar at the Folies-Bergere); and there's other stuff too, including a Bacon on loan, Untitled: Crouching Figures. 
    In short, if you've never been to the Courtauld before (guilty!) this exhibition is not life-changing, but might just provide you with a great excuse to visit.

1 comment:

  1. Hello Everybody,
    My name is Mrs Sharon Sim. I live in Singapore and i am a happy woman today? and i told my self that any lender that rescue my family from our poor situation, i will refer any person that is looking for loan to him, he gave me happiness to me and my family, i was in need of a loan of $250,000.00 to start my life all over as i am a single mother with 3 kids I met this honest and GOD fearing man loan lender that help me with a loan of $250,000.00 SG. Dollar, he is a GOD fearing man, if you are in need of loan and you will pay back the loan please contact him tell him that is Mrs Sharon, that refer you to him. contact Dr Purva Pius, call/whats-App Contact Number +918929509036 via email:(urgentloan22@gmail.com) Thank you.

    ReplyDelete