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272 – Dressing up and making believe

Michaelina Wautier, Two Girls as Saints Agnes and Dorothy, c. 1655. Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp. Greetings from Vienna! I’ve just got back to my hotel having seen Canaletto & Bellotto – it’s superb, but more of that later. I also bumped into one of you first thing, which was delightful, if confusing (IContinue reading “272 – Dressing up and making believe”

271 – Drunk on light

Georges Seurat, Study for ‘The Shore at Bas-Butin (Honfleur)’, 1886. Baltimore Museum of Art. I’ve mentioned it a couple of times already, but The Courtauld’s enormously successful Seurat and the Sea is selling out regularly – but not too far in advance, fortunately (most days next week are still available, for example). I will beContinue reading “271 – Drunk on light”

270 – Don’t sing a nocturne just yet

Anders Zorn, Midnight, 1891. Zornmuseet, Mora. I am looking forward to paying a return visit to the wonderful exhibition I saw in Hamburg earlier this year for Anders Zorn (Part II) at 6:00pm on Monday, 16 March. This will be a second chance to enjoy the rich colour and painterly splendour of Sweden’s great artist,Continue reading “270 – Don’t sing a nocturne just yet”

269 – A – Z (II) – William Nicholson was an Artist

William Nicholson, A was an Artist, from An Alphabet, published by William Heinemann, 1897. UK Government Art Collection. A few weeks back I wrote a post From A – Z playing on the idea that the letters were Anders Zorn’s initials. I hadn’t remembered at the time that one of the earliest independent works byContinue reading “269 – A – Z (II) – William Nicholson was an Artist”

Freudian (time) slip

Lucian Freud, Painter and Model, 1986-7. Private Collection. When I first published this post I suggested that it was an unacknowledged sign of ageing that I am increasingly aware of a succession of artists’ retrospectives. For example, there was the exhibition to celebrate Lucian Freud’s 80th Birthday at the then relatively-recently renamed Tate Britain inContinue reading “Freudian (time) slip”

268 – Martini, shaken… and stirred

Simone Martini, St John the Evangelist, 1320. The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, Birmingham. I’m really looking forward to talking about The Barber in London this Monday, 9 February at 6pm and I can’t wait to go back to the museum itself. The Barber Institute is part of the University of Birmingham, and I’ve onlyContinue reading “268 – Martini, shaken… and stirred”

267 – From A – Z: All about Zorn

267 – From A – Z: All about Zorn Anders Zorn, Zorn’s London Studio on Brook Street, 1883. Zornmuseet, Mora. I would love to say that I planned this, but I really didn’t. Last week I was talking about Anna Ancher, who was born on 18 August 1859, and this week I’m moving on exactlyContinue reading “267 – From A – Z: All about Zorn”

266 – A Room of One’s Own

Anna Ancher, Evening Sun in the Artist’s Studio at Markvej, after 1913. Skagens Museum, Skagen, Denmark. Over the next two weeks I will be giving two talks about Scandinavian artists. This Monday, 26 January I’m starting with Anna Ancher, the wonderful but relatively little-known (as far as the UK public is concerned) Danish artist. HerContinue reading “266 – A Room of One’s Own”

265 – Dance of Death

Pablo Picasso, The Three Dancers, 1925. Tate Modern, London. Last year, Tate Modern was 25 years old, and Picasso’s The Three Dancers, painted in 1925, was 100. This has inspired an exhibition of Tate’s entire collection of works by the Spanish master – something which was notably lacking when the museum first opened. Indeed, asContinue reading “265 – Dance of Death”

The End of the Rainbow

John Constable, Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows, 1830-31. Tate Britain, London. Happy New Year! I’m looking forward to getting going straight away, and even before Christmas has officially ended. On 5 January 2026 at 6:00pm (which is the 12th Day of Christmas) I will be talking about Tate’s superb Turner & Constable exhibition, which is worthContinue reading “The End of the Rainbow”