Nous sommes a Paris. Our rental in Bloombury ended August 31st, and this morning we hopped the Eurostar to Paris for the beginning of a two month, more or less, rental in the 2e arrondisement. Rue Saint Denis. Much more to follow. But first I have to do the eight or ten posts remaining from London, a visit we very, very much enjoyed.
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| France: countryside south of Calais, 200 mph. Can't decide whether this is more Turner or Monet. |
We took the weekend off, but on Monday were back at what has become a favorite, the National Gallery of Art. Surprises were awaiting us, both outside and inside the museum...
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| Many things happen at Trafalgar Square, and this morning it was a demonstration/rally by the Extinction Rebellion...people who don't want to become extinct or don't want their species to become extinct...the whole concept of species is problematic, some say, particularly if you drop the morphological conception and embrace an evolutionary one; just FYI; anyhow, they were unhappy about lots of things, particularly climate and government; so are we |
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| Their messaging was not helped by the arrival of a loud group of drummers, same species, we think, who inadvertently (?) drowned out the rally's speakers; we repaired to the museum |
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| Picking up more or less where we left off, 17th and 18th centuries...this is Rembrandt's wife Saskia van Uylenburgh in Arcadian Costume; portraits in costume were a thing in 1635; or maybe they just sort of got off that way...Vicki asks, what's the point of being married to a great artist if he doesn't make you look beautiful? |
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| Rembrandt, Woman Bathing in a Stream, 1654; the National Gallery has a dozen or so Rembrandts, including the usual self portraits; I have posted this and the previous one to show that he did in fact paint other things than himself |
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| Franz Hals is one of our favorite painters...the subjects, the demeanors, the colors, the brushwork...in museums you usually see his single portraits, except in the Hals Museum in Haarlem, where many of his "men in black" group portraits reside; the National Gallery has a dozen or so Hals, too, but this non-"men in black" group portrait, Family Group in a Landscape, 1647, is a bit of a rarity; IMHO; the museum notes the landscape itself may not be by Hals; Vicki notes how tired the mother of seven looks... |
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| A more typical Hals, Portrait of a Man in his Thirties, 1633; we've seen a few serious or even sad-looking Hals paintings, but most are quite relaxed, happy, or even boisterous...the sitters knowing that, with his brush technique, it won't take very long... |
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| We are not much into still lifes--"daid thangs" we call them-- but this Still Life with Drinking Horn, by Willem Kalf, 1633, is beautiful and pulls out all the stops of Dutch still lifes... detail, vivid color, abundant symbolism, perspective, things hanging over the edge, reflections...plus it's seafood with, hopefully, a glass or two of pinot blanc or a muscadet... |
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| The National Gallery has a couple Vermeers (there are not very many), this A Young Woman Seated at a Virginal, 1670; not among the better Vermeer's we've seen |
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| Adrian van der Velde, Golfers on the Ice Near Haarlem, 1668; this is the game of kolf, which the Dutch played on ice; I had friends in Montana who always looked forward to spring golf, in heavy boots and down jackets, when the snow had melted but the water hazards were still frozen; "you can get a really good bounce off the hazard" they'd explain |
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| Yes, I know we've already seen the Canalettos, but this Regatta on the Grand Canal, 1740, is worth looking at because... |
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It shows Canaletto's lousy waves; maybe this lack of care for something nobody cared about is how he was able to do so many paintings... |
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Among the many Hogarths, perhaps the most notable is the 1745 set entitled Marriage a la Mode; this is only #1, where the marriage is being arranged; it's entirely downhill from there, so I'll spare you the remaining five; but it's an excellent example of Hogarth's social commentary |
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| So the big hall, where you get fully into 18th and 19th century British paintings, including some of the big format ones, was closed that day; and here I discover why: Stubbs' Whistlejacket had been taken down and now was being re-hung; the hall was open and back to normal when we returned a few days later; and Whistlejacket was probably the most conspicuously hung painting in the entire museum; it cost $18MM back in 1997 |
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| Not a Claude, not a Turner...Claude-Joseph Vernet's A Landscape at Sunset, 1773 |
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| Show-stopper: Elizabeth Louise Vigee Le Brun's Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat, 1782; alluding quite overtly to Rubens' portrait of Susanna Lunden 160 years earlier; there were few female artists, and they were not regarded well...one wonders how many treasures like this were lost, or never painted |
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| Francois-Hubert Drouais' Madame Pompadour at Her Tambour Frame, 1763; Louis XV's main gal |
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| Nicolas Lancret, Wardrobe Malfunction, 1739; aka The Four Times of Day: Morning |
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| Henri-Pierre Danlous, The Baron Besenval in His Salon de Compangie, 1791, Besenval had been military commander of Paris at the fall of the Bastille, imprisoned briefly, then retired to his estate to contemplate his art collection; he died before the Deluge really broke... |
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| Goya's Duke of Wellington, 1812-1814; famous painter portrays famous general after the latter's victory at Salamanca, ousting Napoleonic forces from Spain |
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| Paul Delaroche's dramatic The Execution of Lady Jane Grey, 1833; huge, almost life-sized |
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| Not to end on a downer, Franceso Hayez, Susanna at Her Bath, 1850; where are the dirty old men in this picture?! |
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| After another exhausting day of art appreciation, we walked over to Leicester Square and then Covent Garden...encountering the Extinction Rebellion again, now engaged in a sit-in and lie-in (note top of van) |
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| More speeches, more drumming, lots and lots of police, but not that many demonstrators, really |
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| Yours truly, sporting his newly acquired Extinction Rebellion sticker (since discarded), enjoying an afternoon snack at Santa Nata; the nata every bit as good as one would get in Lisbon or Belem...that's one of the neat things about London...there are people from all over the world, doing their things, cooking their cuisines... |
Vicki had read of the George Inn as the oldest pub in London, and it bills itself as London's oldest coach inn. Located at the London Bridge, the only bridge across the river until the 18th century, it had a strategic location for travelers and merchants entering London from the south. According to records, there has been a public house on this site, called The George, at least since 1542, which suggests that Shakespeare, who worked in the neighborhood, might well have popped in now and then for a cool one. (This is Britain; they don't do cold ones). The present building dates in part from the later 1600s (fires and such), and Dickens himself was a regular; and wrote about it in the very famous Little Dorrit. It had been days since my last fish and chips, and we figured this was as good a place as any and also to complement our visit to the Tate. It was Friday afternoon, the place was a madhouse, tables already reserved, but we found one, and tried to blend in as well as people with cameras can. After a satisfying meal and touristic experience we headed out but were immediately drawn into the Borough Market, more or less across the street. The market is formed under the confluence of two or three major roads and railroad lines, converging at the London Bridge station (Waterloo is not far). Most of the London markets we have seen have been bric-a-brac and such, little in the way of food, but the Borough Market was very much about food, if a bit on the upscale side.
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| That George, not the ones from Hanover |
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| When you're this old you're entitled to have a history |
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| Will definitely be on the quiz |
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| Did you know the phrase "What the Dickens" actually goes back at least to Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor? And beyond that too? And that Little Dorrit has seen five different movie versions, its casts a veritable who's-who of British actors and actresses? |
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Neat place, neat experience; so-so fish and chips, but the Golden George ale was great |
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| A market has been on this site, where the bridge crosses the river, since at least the 11th century, and certainly before, and has been altered and added to many times, especially since the advent of railroads; we might not have seen the entrance but for the tiny 1932 art deco structure above |
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| 19th century rent control |
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| Aging |
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| Varieties of gluten-free, sugar-free, etc. |
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| Goat milk ice cream anyone? |
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| Another "must return" place |
After Tate Britain our plan was to walk the Southwark again, by a different route, all the way to London Bridge and the George Inn, which Vicki had read about as one of the oldest inns or public houses in London. The Southwark is not quite as densely built-up and historic as the other side of the river, but it is still a pleasure to walk. When we first visited, in the 70s, it seemed to us little more than a slum. Things have change and, indeed, throughout all of the central London, we have seen nothing like a slum. Some sights along the way...
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| View down river from Lambeth Bridge |
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| Main sight |
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| Almost all the way along the south side from Lambeth Bridge to Westminster Bridge... |
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| The very sad National COVID Memorial Wall |
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| Alas, still growing |
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| Many old historic buildings, some still in use, some not |
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| At a Thai bistro we still might get to |
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| Beer-bellied building |
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| Historic building or railway in the way? Just build over it... |
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| New development |
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| Passing by an urban resources office |
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| Rescue archaeology, we used to call it |
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| The beautiful old Hop Exchange, art nouveau to our eyes |
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| And just down the street, another old beauty, apparently abandoned |
