Lovely painting., We spent a delightful day there last year during our 'post-COVID' big trip home.. The central halls were vibrant with post-colonial colourful excess. And I communed on my own with a room full of Moore's women. I wrote about it here. https://www.dougieherd.com/post/coming-at-the-world-through-its-side-doors hope you're well. Dougie
There’s currently a brand new Gwen John exhibition at Pallant House gallery in Chichester, where she has sole billing. I’m really looking forward to it.
I share your sense of her steady gaze having a Rembrandt-esque feel to it. His self portrait at Kenwood seems to penetrate my soul with its unanswerable questions. That's certainly a favourite in London. I just had the great privilege of visiting the Vermeer show in Amsterdam, and that has confirmed my view, held since I first say it 20+ years ago, that his View of Delft, is, for me, unaccountably my favourite picture in the world. I say unaccountably, because nothing is happening in the picture! It is a somewhat idealised view of a town early in the day, no drama, no action, no personalities to understand, no obvious message, and yet, and yet, this time, I found that the question it asked me, with relentless force, was simply 'What is going to happen?' - it is vibrating with that pregnant 'not knowing'. It is increasingly the question that haunts me most in life (in my late 50s) - what IS going to happen...to me, my health, the rest of my working/playing life, my children as they approach adulthood, my ageing or sick loved ones, to our politics, to our climate, to migration and justice and all the other binfires raging. How and why a Dutch urban landscape should do this to me, I may never know, but the 40 minutes I spent with it recently were electrifying.
There was a really good BBC film about her in 1984 in which she was played by Anna Massey, brilliantly cast, whose interpretation seemed to be very much based on this portrait. She played her as very self composed. Quietly her own woman.
My own favourite picture isn’t in the Tate it’s in the Musee D’Orsay and is Les raboteurs de parquet (the floor scrapers) by Caillebotte. It’s both a beautiful portrait and has the qualities of a still life capturing the light falling on the men’s bodies and on the floor. He captures light and shadow almost as Vermeer does. (Although on reflection almost any Vermeer would make me very happy.)
There’s a nice little Gwen John in the galleries at the National Library of Wales. My best unexpected stumble across a portrait was an El Greco in a small local museum in Caceres in Extremadura. Absolutely extraordinary.
I recently went to the Galleria Degli Uffizi and saw a tiny portrait of Martin Luther. I was completely awestruck. To see the man I’d studied and learned about at university, responsible for such an epoch defining event, it was a really special moment for me.
I see humour there - as though her mouth is just about to turn up into a wry smile. Someone you wish you had known.
While not my favourite paintings, I’m fascinated by Rosetti’s depictions of Jane Morris, because she always looks so thoroughly bad-tempered, bored and completely fed up with the whole thing.
She didn't suffer fools, that's clear. It's a very fine painting. My favourite would be the Rembrandt in Kenwood House I think - the same cool gaze which draws you in. I would walk there from Hampstead with my friend Jo and the dog to visit the Dutch room there. In those days there was no glass, and Rembrandt occupied the wall opposite the entrance, pulling you in. I remember once, wandering through a gallery in, I think, Salzburg and feeling drawn to a tiny painting way across the room, almost physically. It was an exquisite portrait of his mother. I've never forgotten that.
Van Gogh's (not so well known) Sower - the one with the setting sun but with hope for the future implied by the planting of seeds. The composition is also rather splendid methinks.
Lovely painting., We spent a delightful day there last year during our 'post-COVID' big trip home.. The central halls were vibrant with post-colonial colourful excess. And I communed on my own with a room full of Moore's women. I wrote about it here. https://www.dougieherd.com/post/coming-at-the-world-through-its-side-doors hope you're well. Dougie
There’s currently a brand new Gwen John exhibition at Pallant House gallery in Chichester, where she has sole billing. I’m really looking forward to it.
Ymlaen! 🏴 Pembrokeshire’s finest
I think she’s saying “YOU try living with him…”
I share your sense of her steady gaze having a Rembrandt-esque feel to it. His self portrait at Kenwood seems to penetrate my soul with its unanswerable questions. That's certainly a favourite in London. I just had the great privilege of visiting the Vermeer show in Amsterdam, and that has confirmed my view, held since I first say it 20+ years ago, that his View of Delft, is, for me, unaccountably my favourite picture in the world. I say unaccountably, because nothing is happening in the picture! It is a somewhat idealised view of a town early in the day, no drama, no action, no personalities to understand, no obvious message, and yet, and yet, this time, I found that the question it asked me, with relentless force, was simply 'What is going to happen?' - it is vibrating with that pregnant 'not knowing'. It is increasingly the question that haunts me most in life (in my late 50s) - what IS going to happen...to me, my health, the rest of my working/playing life, my children as they approach adulthood, my ageing or sick loved ones, to our politics, to our climate, to migration and justice and all the other binfires raging. How and why a Dutch urban landscape should do this to me, I may never know, but the 40 minutes I spent with it recently were electrifying.
There was a really good BBC film about her in 1984 in which she was played by Anna Massey, brilliantly cast, whose interpretation seemed to be very much based on this portrait. She played her as very self composed. Quietly her own woman.
My own favourite picture isn’t in the Tate it’s in the Musee D’Orsay and is Les raboteurs de parquet (the floor scrapers) by Caillebotte. It’s both a beautiful portrait and has the qualities of a still life capturing the light falling on the men’s bodies and on the floor. He captures light and shadow almost as Vermeer does. (Although on reflection almost any Vermeer would make me very happy.)
Will the stuff about NatCon be free? I don't want to give the game away, but if it is not, you might just force me to upgrade ...
Death of Chatterton. Proto Romantic poet dies at 17. Becomes perfect subject for High Victorian love of the deathbed scene.
There’s a nice little Gwen John in the galleries at the National Library of Wales. My best unexpected stumble across a portrait was an El Greco in a small local museum in Caceres in Extremadura. Absolutely extraordinary.
I recently went to the Galleria Degli Uffizi and saw a tiny portrait of Martin Luther. I was completely awestruck. To see the man I’d studied and learned about at university, responsible for such an epoch defining event, it was a really special moment for me.
One eye is looking at me slightly more than the other. I don’t think the conversation that is about to start will be an easy one….
Favourite painting in the Tate? A hard one but many years ago I was very taken with Richard Dadd "A Fairy Fellows Masterstroke"
Next time I visit Tate Britain I must search it out to see if it lives up to my very much younger expectation but the Gwen John is wonderful.
I see humour there - as though her mouth is just about to turn up into a wry smile. Someone you wish you had known.
While not my favourite paintings, I’m fascinated by Rosetti’s depictions of Jane Morris, because she always looks so thoroughly bad-tempered, bored and completely fed up with the whole thing.
She didn't suffer fools, that's clear. It's a very fine painting. My favourite would be the Rembrandt in Kenwood House I think - the same cool gaze which draws you in. I would walk there from Hampstead with my friend Jo and the dog to visit the Dutch room there. In those days there was no glass, and Rembrandt occupied the wall opposite the entrance, pulling you in. I remember once, wandering through a gallery in, I think, Salzburg and feeling drawn to a tiny painting way across the room, almost physically. It was an exquisite portrait of his mother. I've never forgotten that.
My favourite (or one of them) is https://iiif.micr.io/PoVJv/full/1280,/0/default.jpg
Van Gogh's (not so well known) Sower - the one with the setting sun but with hope for the future implied by the planting of seeds. The composition is also rather splendid methinks.
She seems to be sizing us all up!
I hope you get a chance to visit the Gwen John exhibition at Pallant House, Chichester. Great museum, worth a visit.