We've visited the Tate Britain several times before, mostly for the Turners and the special exhibitions, which are always superb. I'd hoped to refer to previous posts and avoid going through the scores of pix I took this time, but, alas, my previous posts from the Tate are less than representative nor comprehensive. The most recent is 2016, when we toured with grand-daughter Penelope, https://roadeveron.blogspot.com/2016/09/tate-britain.html, and it is mostly about the Rex Whistler dining room murals, wonderful place, which is closed now. So here is a brief sampling of the earlier bits of British painting history at the Tate Britain.
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| Old entrance to the Tate Britain |
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| But before getting to what you came here to see, you have to process through a massive multi-media installation, Heather Phillipson's Rupture No. 1: blow-torching the bitten peach |
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| The description here says it all...click to enlarge |
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| Homage to Dali? Except they're not all Michelins nor of the same size... |
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| Phallic halo? |
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| "We have lift-off!" Of course this all proceeds through two or three large halls and is accompanied by all kinds of sound, including, possibly, some music |
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| Still from a video of a rising and setting peach (not bitten) |
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| OK, right...take a deep breath...here, The Chomondaley Ladies, 1610, unknown artist...notable because they were twins, born the same day, married the same day, and giving birth to their first offspring the same day...definitely worth so documenting |
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| Nathaniel Bacon, Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables and Fruit, c. 1620 |
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| Peter Lely, Susanna and the Dirty Old Men, 1650 |
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| Thomas Gainsborough, Mr. and Mrs. Carter, 1747; critics hypothesize that Mrs. Carter's representation is perhaps a joke of some sort...maybe the one about "gimme a little head"? |
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| Evidently Canaletto wanted to be closer to his clients and so took some time off from Venice to do the Thames, at Greenwich, 1750 |
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| Vicki studying the painting below; notice the place isn't exactly packed |
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| John Singleton Copley's The Death of Major Peirson, 1781; this is from the battle for the defense of Jersey, which the French had invaded (other Jersey)...sort of a Falklands thing? |
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| There was a mini-exhibition on fairies in art, so Turner's Queen Mab's Cave (references from Shakespeare, Shelley, et al.), 1846, is on view |
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| George Frederic Watts, Sic Transit, 1891; not funny |
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| Charles Wellington Furse, Diana of the Uplands, 1903; the model was his wife, Katherine, who also carved the frame; Vicki sat through a mini- lecture on this; I played solitaire; turns out Furse painted brown over his wife's gold frame; she divorced him... |
