JD Fergusson, Jonquils and Silver, 1905. Fleming Collection. I first got to know the Scottish Colourists, about whom I will be talking this Monday, 31 August at 6pm, when I spent seven months in Pitlochry, ‘The Gateway to the Highlands’, nearly twenty years ago. Not far away was the city of Perth (Scotland, not Australia),Continue reading “281 – Definitely flowers, definitely real”
Category Archives: Still Life
Clara Peeters: Second Breakfast
Clara Peeters, Stil Life with Cheeses, Almonds and Pretzels, c. 1615, Mauritshuis, The Hague. You may be familiar with the concept of ‘second breakfast’ from the writing of J.R.R. Tolkien – he popularised the idea by suggesting that it was popular with Hobbits. However, even before Tolkien took it to Middle-earth, the second breakfast was standard practiceContinue reading “Clara Peeters: Second Breakfast”
277 – How do you know that?
Francisco de Zurbarán, A Cup of Water and a Rose, about 1630. The National Gallery, London. Zurbarán at the National Gallery has been open for some time, but I’m only just getting round to talking about it this Monday, 15 June at 6pm. There are various reasons for that, not least of which was preparingContinue reading “277 – How do you know that?”
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”
264 Caravaggio: If music… (b).
Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, The Musicians, 1597. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. The two one-painting exhibitions in London at the moment have a lot in common, and so do the artists who are represented. Apart from anything else, music and love are major themes, and in my blog last week I quoted theContinue reading “264 Caravaggio: If music… (b).”
231 – in Waiting
Michael Craig-Martin, (title in waiting, read below), 2001. Gagosian. I’m just back from a fantastic week in Italy following The Piero della Francesca Trail – and looking forward to doing it all again next March (go right to the bottom of the page). I’m also looking forward to picking up on Van Gogh’s idea ofContinue reading “231 – in Waiting”
Sunflowers – a repetition
Vincent van Gogh, Sunflowers, 1888. National Gallery, London. In 1924, a hundred years ago, The National Gallery acquired Vincent van Gogh’s Sunflowers. It was the centenary of their foundation. This year, the bicentenary, they are celebrating this acquisition – together with that of Van Gogh’s Chair, bought in the same year – with an exhibitionContinue reading “Sunflowers – a repetition”
222 – Potentially singing
Carel Fabritius, The Goldfinch, 1654. Mauritshuis, The Hague. Some paintings are so simple they seem obvious, while others simply defy explanation. I feel certain that today’s painting falls somewhere between the two: a painting of a bird that has somehow become an international celebrity, with an expression as inscrutable as the Mona Lisa, or, closerContinue reading “222 – Potentially singing”
Doggedly re-posting
William Hogarth, The Painter and his Pug, 1745. Tate Britain, London. I’m not much of a dog person, but I have developed a fondness for William Hogarth’s pet pug, not least because it rejoiced in the name of Trump (no relation). This portrait – if that’s what it is – belongs to Tate, rather thanContinue reading “Doggedly re-posting”
206 – ‘The cat will mew…’
Agnes Miller Parker, The Uncivilised Cat, 1930. The Fleming Collection. My visit to Glasgow is rapidly drawing to a close, but my Scottish September still has one last blast: an introduction to the Fleming Collection’s rich and rewarding exhibition Scottish Women Artists: 250 Years of Challenging Perception, which you can catch at Dovecot Studios inContinue reading “206 – ‘The cat will mew…’”
dr richard stemp 