National Gallery Talks

This afternoon I went to  talk, which they have at 2.30 p.m. every Sunday afternoon, at the National Gallery.  

Everyone meets by the entrance to the shop in the Sainsbury Wing, and an art expect takes the group to see just three or four pictures which they talk about in detail.

The guide today was a very enthusiastic lady called Rebecca Drew, who took us first to see a large Leonardo da Vinci cartoon, with one would normally miss, as it is hidden away in a small darkened room.   The cartoon is of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus and St. Anne and John the Baptist, and is a delightful picture, not completely finished, from approximately 1499.   It was never actually painted, or we would not have the cartoon.

From there we moved on to The Toilet of Venus, by Diego Valazquez, whcih is is supposed to depict the ideal female figure; personally I wasn't terriby impressed, but it is supposed to be wonderful.   Again, as our guide pointed out, it is unfinished, with things like the feet not completed.   It was presented to the National Gallery from one of her ancestors in 1906 - previously it had been in Rokeby Hall in Durham, where it was hung high up on the wall and hidden from general view by a green baize curtain.   In 1913, it was very badly damaged with an axe by Mary Richardson, protesting against the imprisonment of Emily Pankhurst, but it has been expertly restored, and no-one would notice the damage until it was pointed out - even close up, the cuts in it are barely visible.  

From there we moved on to Rembrandt's painting of his mistress, Hendrickje Stoffels.    Rembrandt's wife died leaving him with a small child, and in her will left him a  sum of money on condition that he did not remarry.     Hendrickje became his long-term mistress, bearing him a daughter, but in seventeenth century Netherlands, such behaviour was not tolerated, and both of them were completely ostracised.   Non-one would give him any commissions, and he eventually died a pauper.
Henrieckje died before him from the plague, which she was deliberately given by someone kissing her in the street.   The painting is a haunting one of a women sitting on a bed, with tears in her eyes, which no doubt reflected the life she lead - it must have been a real love match for them to have endured the complete disapproval of the community.  

Lastly, we looked at Van Gogh's Sunflowers.   I'm not a fan of Van Gogh, and somehow this painting, although it is so highly regarded, does nothing for me.    Rather, it reminds me of a painting by a child - big, bold and with lots of colour, but no real beauty.   It's not something I would hang on the living room wall.   But the talk about it was interesting, as we learned how other people see it.

The NationlalGallery have a number of different experts who lead these one hour tours, and even if they are talking about the same picture, they all give a different take on it.    But one thing they all seem to have in common is an enthusiasm for art and a large amount of knowledge about the various paintings.