It is the first day of Lent – again – and somehow this year I appear to be busier than last. We must have been in some kind of lockdown. What this means is that I don’t have time for Lenten Penance (I know, that’s hardly the point, but…) so if you would like toContinue reading “RE: Lent”
Category Archives: Flowers
149 – Sunflowers
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888. National Gallery, London. There can be few artists more famous or more popular these days than Vincent van Gogh, and I must confess that each time I hear about a new exhibition my heart sinks a little. But I’m glad to say, I am often wrong! The last one wasContinue reading “149 – Sunflowers“
141 – a rose, By any other…
Allan Ramsay, Margaret Lindsay of Evelick: The Artist’s Wife, 1758-60. Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Edinburgh. Context is everything. You’re a very sophisticated lot, and I’m fairly sure that most of you will have completed the above quotation from Romeo and Juliet, that tale of star-crossed lovers. It comes from Act 2, scene 2: What’s in a name? That which we call a rose,By any other name would smell as sweet. ThisContinue reading “141 – a rose, By any other…”
135 – Say it with flowers
Carl Larsson, Azalea, 1906. Thielska Gallery, Stockholm. On Monday (6 September) I will be lecturing about two great Swedish artists from the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, Anders Zorn and Carl Larsson, both of whom (and I know I’ve said this before) deserve to be better known. Aside from their enormous technical skill, theContinue reading “135 – Say it with flowers”
126 – Mary Moser
Mary Moser, Spring and Summer, c. 1780. Royal Academy, London. One of the artists I won’t be able to cover in my admittedly brief series Three Women in the 18th Century is Mary Moser, which is a great shame. Her fame is eclipsed by her contemporary Angelica Kauffman (who will, of course, be the subjectContinue reading “126 – Mary Moser”
Lent 2
Three more plants today – and we shall ignore the delicate black slipper and the cloth of gold hem, although the scale at which they are depicted does suggest that we are not looking at a landscape painting, even if the landscape could still play a significant part. On the left is a broad-leaf plantain,Continue reading “Lent 2”
Lent
It is the first day of Lent, and this year I will be giving up abstinence. Well, I say, ‘this year’. To be honest, it’s a sacrifice I’ve been making for the past two decades at least, but there seems no reason to give up giving up now – so much has been given upContinue reading “Lent”
120 – The Colour of Virtue
Ambrogio Lorenzetti, Maestà, c. 1335. Museo di Arte Sacra, Massa Marittima. I’m giving a talk for ARTscapades on Wednesday afternoon (at 2pm) entitled Good and Bad Government, which would be fine, apart from the fact that it has a subtitle The Lorenzetti Brothers in Siena. What was I thinking? I will have plenty of timeContinue reading “120 – The Colour of Virtue”
An Advent Calendar – 7
‘The Floor’ – Looking down, we see that the floor is in the same condition as the walls – in a chronic state of decay, and in desperate need of repair. It is part of the setting of this religious drama, and, like the rest of the scenery, it is symbolic of the old orderContinue reading “An Advent Calendar – 7”
104 – Don’t touch!
Fede Galizia, Noli mi tangere, 1616, Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. Great news this week, which I know some of you will have heard already. But just in case you haven’t, I’m glad to let you know that the National Gallery has managed to completely re-schedule the Artemisia Gentileschi exhibition. And not only that, but theyContinue reading “104 – Don’t touch!”
dr richard stemp 