Daumier (1808 – 1897): visions of Paris, Sackler Wing of Galleries, Burlington House, Royal Academy, 26th October to 26th January 2014

           The Royal Academy has amassed some 130 works of art by the legendary French artist and chronicler, Honore Daumier, who lived during a turbulent and pivotal time in French Nineteenth century history. He is an artist who had the capacity to respond to the events of his time with humour, empathy and satire and is explored in great detail in this exhibition – the first for over fifty years – focusing on his paintings, drawings, watercolours and sculptures.<p>

            Daumier was a meticulous artist who made drawings of his subject matter and then returned to his studio to draw from a combination of memory and from his notes. He did not employ models. One of his predominant interests was the life of the ordinary man and the role of the artist in society in portraying him as he tried to escape poverty, war and disease. He worked for two main French newspapers, La Caricature and La Charivari in which his satirical drawings of men, often political men, were showcased. On display are his real to life clay heads of different personages; one of them being Jacques Lefevre a pompous politician. You can see the pomposity in his haughty expression and the delicate way Daumier has copied his face. Daumier’s incredible talent, draughtsmanship and focus on detail is reflected in these small sculptures.  He was a prolific artist - he drew in total 4000 lithographs and 1000 designs for wood engravings which were published in both newspapers and from which he received his main income. Throughout the exhibition are information panels explaining different techniques, historical facts and reflections on society as it was then, such as the explanation of lithography, which are extremely interesting.<p>

Ecce homo, 1849, Daumier

 ‘Ecce homo’ which Daumier painted in 1849 is his largest painting and takes as its theme Christian art. We see the ambiguity of mood and meaning as Daumier portrays a mass of crowds as they view Christ.  The inherent danger and volatility of crowd mentality and ignorance is suggested. Christ can be seen as a figure who challenges the prevailing order of society. Daumier’s style is loose and free with less of a focus on detail and the crowds of people are painted mainly in profile. A hint of melancholy can be found in much of his work, for example, in his small painting called ‘The Watering Place’. This is a bleak portrayal of a man on a white horse with the suggestion of the city behind. His two mirror image paintings of a ‘Man on a Rope’ portray a working man suspended on a building. One can see the muscular form of the man with his use of browns, yellows and whites to portray the artist’s respect and concern for the ordinary worker. Similarly in ‘The Launderess’ we see a simple painting of a woman and child as they climb the steps from the Seine with their washing. Suffused in blues and greys the simplicity of the scene is amazing and we have a modern, evocative portrayal of poor people as they go about their daily life.<p>

            Daumier refused throughout his life to pursue more lucrative genres, for example portraiture or book illustration. Moreover much of his work anticipates other famous artists who took his work as a source of inspiration. For example his painting ‘The Muse of the Brasserie’ where the crowd is reflected in the mirror behind a central figure is a precursor to Manet’s famous painting,’ The bar of the Folies Bergeres’ which uses the same subject matter. The isolation of the individual in the city was a favourite theme of Daumier’s and in this he shared his interest with the photographer, Charles Negres’s who recorded people in photographs. One of Daumier’s most famous watercolours and the highlight of the show for me is the painting, ‘The 3^rd Class Railway Carriage.’ Here we see ordinary people in a crowded railway carriage, painted in warm hues of reds, browns and oranges. The central figure is an old lady hemmed in by a sleeping child and a nursing mother with the top hats and backs of men flanking her in the back. Her troubled face is lined with worry, and old age. It is as if you can feel the hardship of her life and the troubles she resolutely faces. The painting depicts all ages of man as old and young are portrayed together. Daumier fortunately was very popular with collectors which helped ease his life, particularly when he was faced with difficulty, for example when he was dismissed from Le Chaviravi. Degas owned 750 of his prints, 5 drawings and 1 painting and Van Gogh too talked about Daumier ceaselessly in his letters. Daumier’s later lithographs, located in the last room of the exhibition, depicted the political instability in Europe as the 3^rd Republic was shaped into being in France. All the conflicts of the twentieth century are anticipated as is the struggle of power within a world  where the increasing need for arms became a major reality.<p>

            If you want to learn much about France in the nineteenth century whilst also admiring a fine artist you should not miss this show. In Daumier is both past and present - much of his work is reflected in the art of contemporary artists such as Peter Doig, Paula Rego and Gerald Scarfe. He was a fine master of his art.<p>

By Larissa Woolf, arts editor, visitmuseums.com<p>

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Georges Braque, Grand Palais, Paris

Georges Braque, Grand  Palais, Paris, to January 6^th 2014<p>

            TheGrand Palais has organised a comprehensive and monumental exhibition of the work of the quintessential French painter, Georges Braque. This extraordinarily prolific twentieth century painter and artist is minutely revealed and explained. A huge range of important works of art have been borrowed from both private and public collections, such as the Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim and the Pompidou. Braque – a painter whose style has been described  as ‘material’, textural’,’ emotional’ and ‘architectural’ was hailed by Cezanne as the “world’s greatest living painter”.<p>

            Braque was trained initially to be a house painter and decorator like his father but he then went on to study at the Academie des Beaux Arts in 1905. Starting as a Fauvist artist the exhibition begins with the beautiful and evocative “Port in L’Estaque” series with their bright points of colour and loose forms. These timeless landscapes are evocative and intimate and capture intense emotional responses.  The skies are full of vivid, rowdy blues, greens, yellows and pinks.  Braque was inspired by the works of Andre Derain and Matisse as well as from Primitives such as Van Gogh and Boudin.  He didn’t like Romanticism and his determined brush strokes and flamboyant colours set up Fauvism as the next artistic vocabulary of the time. He made several versions of the same scenes, for example there are thirty pictures of his South of France  paintings where he is conveying more than just impressions but also solid structures.<p>

            The show unravels how Braque’s styles evolved slowly and explains how he began to gravitate from Fauvism to Cubism from 1908 to 1913. In 1907 his friend, the poet Apollinaire, introduced him to Picasso which was to be one of the most important relationships of his artistic career. Braque described his friendship with Picasso as being “roped together like mountaineers” as they created together a new school of art and thought. They were both residents of Montmartre in Paris and saw each other intensely every night for a long period of time.  Picasso was interested in tribal masks, works from Cezanne and Iberian sculptures and these influences are reflected in their art.  We see Braque’s famous and large painting, titled, “Big Nude” which he painted in 1908. This large painting of a distorted lady with empty, mosque like eyes, and geometric shapes is at once beautiful and disturbing. It marks the beginning of Braque’s and Picasso’s move into Cubism and the complex patterns of faceted forms and monochromatic colour that was to develop.<p>

 It was the art critic Louis Vauxcelleds who invented the term Cubism or “bizarre cubes” in 1908 when he was describing one of Braque’s paintings and the name stuck. Braque was championed by his friend the German-Jewish art dealer, Daniel Henry Kahnweiler, and in 1908 there was the first Braques show in Paris. In “The Instruments of music” we see how Braque shatters traditional perspective into multiple visions of an object or the world.  Slowly his art became more and more Cubist, seen in his painting “House and tree” where the houses are reduced to geometric forms. In “The Castle at Roche Guyon” he renders the forms into even smaller facets with no horizon line so that all that is left is a cluster of walls and dislocated roofs where one can only recognise the landscape by its colour. Braque’s art was seen as revolutionary, daring and shocked many. He himself said ” I have made a great discovery. I no longer believe in anything. Objects don’t exist for me except in so far as a rapport exists between them or between them and myself.When one reaches this harmony one reaches a sort of intellectual non-existence. Life then becomes a perpetual revelation. This is true poetry. And indeed Braque new movement and its shattering of perspective and light eventually freed the Ecole de Paris to lead innovation in painting for the next half a century. The Cubist Movement spread quickly through Europe and Paris and in turn influenced other movements such as Fauvism and German Expressionism.<p>

            Braque’s move into papiers colle art shows him yet again playing with traditional viewpoints and perspectives as well as materials. His painting titled “Fruitbowl and Glass” is made up of strips of faux bois wallpaper that simulated wood grain and combined with paint to suggest a fruit bowl and glass on a table. His still lives were all about the relationship between objects and the space between them as he overlaps forms and uses supple arabesque and curvilinear shapes as can be see in his paintings “The Frying pan” which he painted in the 1940’s and “The Billiard Table”. We see his mastery of not just painting but also etching, lithography, aqua tint and woodcut. The advent of the Second World War stimulated the creation of more serious works reflecting the austerity of the war; such as his massive Theogomie de Hesiode series. The beautiful and captivating blues and swirls of Braque’s birds as you near the end of the exhibition are amazing. He painted these in the late 1940’s and we can see how they attest to his ability to capture the movement and lightness of birds. Two of the paintings in his ‘Birds” series adorn the ceiling in the Henry II room at the Louvre in Paris. The Grand Palais shows us a complete picture of Braque with photographic footage, films, letters interspersed with his fabulous works of art so that we also get a social, cultural and political idea of the times in which he lived.<p>

Braque was a giant of modern art as this exhibition proves; in fact he was the first living artist to have his works exhibited in the Louvre in 1961. The exhibition is big and to enjoy it at its fullest I would recommend you set aside at least one and a half to two hours to see it properly.<p>

Braque, by Larissa Woolf, Arts Editor, Visitmuseums.com<p>

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Jordaens – 1593- 1678 - Pride of Antwerp at the Petit Palais, Paris

Jordaens – 1593- 1678 -  Pride of Antwerp at the Petit Palais, Paris, 19^th September to 19^th January 2014.<p>

The Petit Palais in Paris has amassed a dazzling and extensive exhibition of the talented 17^th century Flemish painter, Jacob Jordaens. It is the first major French retrospective dedicated to this well renowned artist and includes 120 exceptional works from major public and private collections from around the world including The Prado Museum in Madrid, the Hermitage in St Petersburg and the Royal Museum in Brussels.<p>

            Jordaens was one of the three Flemish Baroque painters along with Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony Van Dyck to bring prestige to the Antwerpen school of painting. He represented the solid virtues of the bourgeoisie but was also a history painter of the sacred and profane and had a large aristocratic clientele. Interestingly Jordaens never travelled abroad to Italy – unlike his contemporaries - and he remained in Antwerp his whole life, except for short trips to the Low Countries. He breathed new life into classical and religious subjects and his art was full of emotion with Antwerp as the privileged backdrop to his painting. Although his father was a linen merchant there was a history of frame making in his family since the fifteenth century.<p>

             A rather delightful and playful music accompanies you throughout the exhibition which somehow adds atmosphere to the experience. His painting, called “The Pintor family”, is beautiful and is an autoportrait of him with his wife, Catherine Van Noot  and their daughter Elizabeth. Here he uses a carefully manufactured scene normally reversed for the noblesse with  sumptuous decoration and elegant, sombre costumes with white neck ruffles for the women. Jordaens portrays himself as an accomplished man with intellectual and artistic qualities; an artist who also takes himself very seriously! We see in another of his huge paintings, entitled “The Adoration of the Bergers”, that he concentrates with elaborate detail on the body of Jesus. It was at this time, in 1616, that he collaborated with Rubens and started to assimilate the art of his master. The exhibition rather cleverly puts the Jordaens ‘Adoration’ painting alongside the same painting by Reubens so that you can see the similarities and differences of both artists. We see how Jordaens copies Ruben’s Adoration whilst tightening the circle of people and he intensifies the emotions and the combination of colours.<p>

            In ‘La Sainte Famille’ Jordaens again uses his family to create a more intimate and personal work of art. It is the portrait of a saint and attributed to Caravaggio. His wife and daughter; Catherine and Elisabeth, are the faces of the Virgin and Jesus. The coral necklace on Jesus as a baby is an allusion to the blood running during the Passion and creates the strong sacred mood of the scene. The black background means the figures really impose themselves and the contrast of light and dark on their faces is amazing. Jordaens executed several scenes of the Town Hall in Antwerp and two paintings marked the pinnacle of his career ; “The Victory of Time “ and “The Triumph of Frederik Hendrik, Prince of Orange” which was intended for the ceremonial hall in the ‘House of Woods’ outside the Hague. We see how at ease Jordaens is with the baroque allegorical language adopted by Rubens. In fact after Rubens died in 1640 Jordaens became the most important painter in Antwerp for large scale commissions. He often created several variations of the same theme -  such as his scenes of uproarious festivity in the series of paintings, entitled “The King”. These paintings stem from the rich literary and proverbial heritage of the Netherlands which dates as far back as the Middle Ages.<p>  Jordaens liked to use proverbs as a way of educating the masses and his representations of everyday life normally had a moral message to convey. The opulence and elaborate detail in the paintings is incredible as scenes of great mirth, overflowing wine, bountiful fruit and food and youthful hilarity are played out for us. In each of the paintings the king is in the middle of the painting and he is crowded by other people of all ages and even animals such as dogs and parrots. Yet such a subject matter also had a hidden denunciation of the human excesses and decadence of the time in which Jordaens lived    One of my favourite paintings in this exhibition is Jordaens “Portrait of a Young Lady”, painted in 1639. It is probably a portrait of his eldest daughter, Elizabeth, born in 1617. She looks out at us with a straight, eloquent gaze and is dressed in beautiful, delicate, lacy clothes whilst holding an antique ornament. The delicate pink rose of her cheeks, the little pearl clip in her hair and the hint of a pearl earring together with her faraway expression completes an intimate and masterful portrait.  Indeed most of Jordaens models for his portraits were from his close circle of friends and family.<p>

The exhibition ends with a very effective and unusual ‘chest of curiosities’ where members of the public are invited to learn in even more detail about Jordaen’s techniques and art. A succession of different shaped drawers hide information on his style and techniques as well as the culture and lifestyle of the time. Certainly this exhibition is well worth a visit if only to admire the rich and evocative works of the Golden Age of Flemish seventeenth century painting. <p>

Jordaens, Pride of Antwerp at the Petit Palais, Paris by Larissa Woolf, Arts Editor, Visitmuseums.com<p>

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Masculine/Masculine - The Nude Man in Art from 1800 to the Present Day – Musee d’Orsay

The Musee d’Orsay has put on an extensive exhibition on every aspect of the male nude and its representations - from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Whilst the female nude has been commonly exhibited throughout the centuries the male nude has not had the same treatment. In fact the first museum to exhibit it was the Leopold Museum in Vienna and this was only last year. Drawing on the wealth of its own collections and other public French museums the Musee d’Orsay introduces -  sometimes quite playfully - a whole range of techniques of painting, sculpture, graphic arts and photography on this previously taboo subject.

The male nude was from the seventeenth to the nineteenth century the basis of traditional Academic art training and was considered to be the archetypal human form. Many male artists found in the nude a magnified, narcissistic reflection of themselves whilst in the nineteenth century the female body was established as an absolute object of male desire. The male sexual organ was even up to the middle of the twentieth century seen as rather embarrassing.  As you first enter the exhibition there is a beautiful and sensual painting of a male model’s back side by the French Neoclassical eighteenth century painter, Jacques Louis David. The detail of the muscles and the elegance of form is incredible. One of the most famous, and for me important, paintings in the show is ‘La Roue de la Fortune’, painted by the Pre Raphaelite artist, Edward BurneJones. Being a keen admirer of the pre-Raphaelite school I am always delighted when I can look at their paintings close up and this painting is truly magnificent. Based on classical mythology the painting depicts a lady in black flanked by three semi-nude men.

In the twentieth century there was movement away from traditional classicism and a new way of looking at the male body emerged which emphasized largeness, sensuality and crude nudity. Big men were playfully portrayed in life size paintings and photos with rippling muscles, seen for example in the photo ‘Vive La France’, by the two French artists Pierre et Gille. It is a provocative photo of three nude footballers and is curiously both fun and crude.  These two famous gay artists have been working together since 1977 and produce work that is both eye catching and a statement on the social and political ideology of this century. In contrast to this largeness there is a model of a shrunken naked male body created by Ron Mueck called ‘Pere Mort’. The rather ashen man is lying on his back with his arms at his side as if on a table in a morgue and it is quite remarkable in an eerie way. We learn that it is a representation of Mueck’s grief for his dead father. In Egon Shiele’s ‘Nude Autoportraits’ three distorted, emaciated figures are portrayed in a mixture of warm colours and angles. Perhaps nudity is made more palatable in these small but evocative self  portraits. Francis Bacon’s large and amazing painting, entitled ‘In Pain’, however is  psychologically loaded. Bacon in his life time produced a huge body of work that was predominantly focused on the male nude. We see how cruelty and torment characterises the painting and suggests a hidden violence. The naked body becomes demeaning and male virility itself is called into question. This is paralleled in LouiseBourgeois’ choice of a male figure in her sculpture ‘Arch of Hysterics’ It is a haunting but exceptionally beautiful bronze of a man hanging from a string attached to his stomach with his head cut off. Mental illness which is normally seen as something feminine has been made male by Bourgeois in a clever twisting of stereotypes.

Even more playful and sexually ambiguous is the art of the renowned artist, David Hockney, seen in his film ‘Bigger Splash’ and his painting ‘Sunbathing’. In the  painting -  which forms part of  his swimming pool series -  there is a feeling of freedom and sensuality as well as homosexual undertones. In the film too there is a sense of playfulness and eroticism as a number of young, virile naked men play and laugh with each other in the glistening sun and shine of the swimming pool.  In this last section of the exhibition Hockney teems with artists such as Andy Warhol and Angel Zarraga.

The exhibition mingles adroitly paintings with photos, sculptures and film footage and teems up many of the great artists of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is well worth a visit. By Larissa Woolf, Arts Editor, VisitMuseums.com

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MOORE RODIN until 27 October 2013

MOORE RODIN

GIANTS OF MODERN SCULPTURE IN MAJOR NEW EXHIBITION

FROM 29 MARCH – 27 OCTOBER 2013

Moore Rodin Exhibition

The Henry Moore Foundation will present Moore Rodin, a major exhibition which compares the work of Moore with one of the pioneers of modern sculpture – Auguste Rodin, running from 29 March – 27 October 2013.

 

This will be the first time that another artist has been shown alongside Henry Moore in the Gallery and 70 acres of gardens at Perry Green in Hertfordshire, Moore’s home for over 40 years until his death in 1986. 

 

This ground-breaking exhibition will include important loans from the Musée Rodin in Paris and from public collections in the UK, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge.  The Musée Rodin has generously agreed to lend Rodin’s Adam 1881, the third maquette for The Gates of Hell c.1881-82 and Walking Man, Large Torso 1906.  The exhibition also includes Walking Man 1899 lent by Musée Bourdelle Paris, a cast of which Moore owned. ‘Walking Man has everything that I love about Rodin, especially his wonderful sense of the human figure’, Moore once said. The exhibition also includes an extensive selection of drawings by both artists and the first ever showing of a set of photographs taken by Moore of his cast of Walking Man at Perry Green.  This is the first time that such a significant group of Rodin’s works has been presented in the British landscape.

 

Moore’s debt to Rodin was profound: ‘I began to realise that a lot of things one might be using and being influenced by are, compared with Rodin, altogether too easy. So that as time has gone on, my admiration for Rodin has grown and grown.’ He considered Rodin’s Monument to the Burghers of Calais, which Rodin himself sited in Victoria Gardens outside the Houses of Parliament, the greatest work of public sculpture in London.

 

The exhibition, Moore Rodin, is curated by Anita Feldman, Head of Collections and Exhibitions at The Henry Moore Foundation. To coincide with the exhibition, a fully illustrated catalogue will be published with an introduction and extended essay by Anita Feldman and an essay by Moore’s daughter, Mary, on Rodin and Moore’s collections of antiquities and other artefacts. The revealing interview that Moore gave in 1970 with Alan Bowness about Rodin will also be reprinted.

 

Anita Feldman said: ‘The relationship between figure and landscape is one of the key themes of this major exhibition, for the first time giving an opportunity to see the work of both artists side by side in Moore’s own surroundings.’

 

Richard Calvocoressi, Director of The Henry Moore Foundation, said: ‘We are proud and delighted that, through our close working relationship with the Musée Rodin in Paris, we are able to mount this once-in-a-lifetime exhibition juxtaposing the work of two great artists who changed the way we see sculpture.’

 

Moore Rodin 

The Henry Moore Foundation, Perry Green, Much Hadham, Herts SG10 6EE

29 March – 27 October 2013

Wednesday – Sunday &  Bank Holidays. Opening times 11.00-17.00 

+44 (0) 1279 843333

www.henry-moore.org

 

Must-See Museums in Kelowna

Must-See Museums in Kelowna, by Susan Varano contributing editor Visit Museums.com

Along the Okanagan Valley, in the heart of the Canadian mountains, is the small but thriving city of Kelowna. With lakeside views of the stunning Okanagan Lake alongside pine forests, gardens, vineyards, golf courses and a bustling city center, Kelowna is the perfect place to spend a family holiday. Like anywhere else in Canada, the Okanagan Valley and its communities have a proud and varied history. Here is a quick guide to Kelowna’s eclectic mix of museums which celebrates the region’s top pastimes and industries.

Okanagan Heritage Museum

Okanagan Heritage Museum

Discover the history behind the region’s current beauty at the Okanagan Heritage Museum. Every year, thousands visit the museum to explore its unique exhibitions and collections which give a fascinating look into Okanagan’s history – both past and present. Not only does the centre hold artefacts from past generations in British Colombia, collections from Central and South America, Asia, Africa and Oceania can also be found. With a walking tour and public Kelowna archives, which date back to the early 1800’s, visitors can gain a real insight into what has made Kelowna tick over the years. Located in Queensway, Okanagan Heritage Museum is in close proximity to the city center with its shops, restaurants and hotels in Kelowna.

 Okanagan Military Museum

Okanagan Military Museum

While Kelowna is a beautiful and often serene location, like the majority of cities today, it has a history which has been shaped by a darker past. The Okanagan Military Museum on Ellis Street is passionate about preserving the region’s military history and spreading greater awareness of the residents who served in the Canadian armed forces. Artefacts such as badges, uniforms and arms have been preserved to remember turbulent times during the Boer War, World War 1 and 2 and the Korean and Cold Wars. Groups here can request a guided tour of the exhibitions and the museum holds a special open house event every Remembrance Day.

BC Wine Museum and V&A Wine Shop

BC Wine Museum

The Okanagan Valley is well known for its high quality, premium wines, with more than 200 wineries spread across the whole valley. The BC Wine Museum and shop, also on Ellis Street, was opened 15 years ago to celebrate the area’s wine producing history. Alongside a tour around the museum to learn about growth and production of the premium wines, visitors can also choose from more than 600 wine listings from over 90 vineyards in the Okanagan Valley in its shop.

Central Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame Museum

Okanagan Sports Hall of Fame Museum

Sport is a huge part of the Canadian culture throughout the country. Since the 1800s, sport within Central Okanagan has flourished alongside its growing communities. Today, visitors can gain an insight into the region’s vibrant sporting history at this museum, on Queensway Avenue, which is constantly adding to its list of local inductees. Last year, its local inductees included rugby player, Glenn Ennis, volleyball player, Erminia Russo, and The ’88 Okanagan Sun – a dominant club during the 80s with several dream seasons. 

Victoria and Albert Museum, Treasures of the Royal Courts: Tudors, Stuarts and the Russian Tsars

Treasures of the Royal Courts, Victoria and Albert Museum

Enter a rich world of royal treasures and history come alive in this brilliant exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum! The exhibition, Treasures of the Royal Courts, celebrates 500 years of exchange between Britain and Russia and features priceless works of art ranging from jewellery, portraits, ceremonial armour and tapestries with detailed commentaries on the lives of King Henry VIII, Elizabeth I and Ivan the Terrible.<p>

The 200 years of fertile cultural, diplomatic and trading relations between England and Russia or Muscovy as it was then known are portrayed and we see how relationships between the two countries were nurtured by exchanging gifts. Some extraordinary gifts came out of English Tudor and Stuart courts including miniature coaches, guns, silver, portraits and jewellery. Contemporary paintings reveal the public excitement behind the diplomatic encounters that occurred between the two countries.<p>

Rather dramatically as soon as you enter the exhibition you are confronted with four enormous, life size beasts, called ‘The Dacre Beasts’ which were made to commemorate the Tudor soldier, Thomas, Lord Dacre (1467 – 1525) who fought for Henry VII against Richard III at the Battle of Bosworth. Carved from a trunk of single oak and since repainted, the four animals – bull, griffin, ram and dolphin –  are all holding flags to demonstrate Dacre’s loyalty to the crown and are a fitting example of the codes of chivalry and royal loyalty. In the same room is an impressive array of some of Henry VIII’s armour which demonstrates the sheer size and presence of this formidable British King who was 6 feet tall and clearly enjoyed all that was chivalry, knightly lore and jousting. The armour really emphasises the physical and political power of the king.<p>

As you walk through the show you can see art work that is in incredible condition. There is an oil painting of Henry VII for example that has weathered the years so well and which portrays the lavishness of his dress and jewellery. Similarly Elizabeth I would take enormous pride and care in her jewellery and dress to present herself in portraits showing her to be the regal, powerful and beautiful queen of England that she was as well as a fertile bride. We learn of the many gifts she sent to the Russian court including a stunning set of virginals that she gave to Tsar Boris Godunov. On display are intricate and stunning pieces of Elizabethan jewelry including ‘The Drake Jewel’ which was a gift from Elizabeth I to Sir Francis Drake; a gold jewel covered in enamel , rubies and diamonds which opens to show a portrait of Elizabeth I and a phoenix.<p>

The number of silver gifts given to the Tsars by the English monarchs, such as a magnificent leopard ewer and a huge basin were many and often Elizabeth I would personally select them herself for Tsar Ivan IV. She would also give instructions that the figurative scenes wrought on the precious metal should be explained by engraved inscriptions. One of the most impressive items on show is an example of one of the earliest English coaches presented by the ambassador Thom Smith on behalf of James I to the Tsar. It is immaculately preserved and really portrays the incredible detail and workmanship of these English craftsmen. On specific parts of the coach can be seen carved decorations to celebrate Muscovite military victories. The Russian works on display are stunning; there is an immensely powerful painting of Prince Peter Potemkin who was a soldier and diplomat sent to London in 1681 by Tsar Fedor Alekseyevich. The rich details of his fur lined coat is made to give an impression of the grandeur and splendour of the Russian court and we learn often startled the English.<p>

The exhibition is keen to explain that if it weren’t for the Russian curators of the Kremlin much of this English heritage would have been lost. It is a stunning exhibition and a powerful record of 500 years of history. I recommend that you do not miss it. 

By Larissa Woolf, Arts Editor, VisitMuseums.com

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Tate Britain Review

            Just a quick boat trip across the Thames from the Tate Modern, the Tate Britain is England's premier institution of British art from 1500 to the present day. The museum itself is massive yet easy to navigate. The architecture of the museum is especially impressive when you compare it to the minimalist qualities of its sister museum the Tate Modern. The doorways are shaped like large archways, and there is a haunting room lit dimly where impressive pillars loom as a video on screen whisks you through a tour of the museum, as if you were a ghost. This is just one grand room of many, where you will primarily encounter notable works of art by some of Britain's most famous artists, including works by William Blake, FrancisBacon, Thomas Gainsborough, , J M W Turner and Henry Moore. When you enter the museum I suggest you first walk through the BP Walk Through of British Art.

Tate Britain, London

            The BP Walk comprises a large section of the Tate Britain's first floor, and it is the best way to see a variety of art from the museum's vast collection. The Walk is designed to ensure that pieces from the collection's full historical range (1545 to the present) are always on display. The gallery is laid out like a circuit around the perimeter so that the galleries blend into one another, with no rooms leading to a dead end. The museum says the walk causes you to “experience a cross-section that is representative of what we know as 'British art', meeting both well-known and less-familiar works.” The dates on the floors indicate the period of art you are viewing, and there is a noticeable progression from the royal portraiture art style that was prominent during the 1500s, to the more experimental art of the late 1800-1900's, and to the modern art of today.

BP Walk, Tate Britain, London

            Some of the most interesting art from early English history are the portraits of monarchs and their various members of Court. The background details behind the pieces give them life, as you can see what the monarchs wanted to emphasize about themselves. For example, Nicholas Hilliard's portrait of Queen Elizabeth I was painted according to her wishes. Elizabeth wanted her portraits painted in a near shadowless style that served less to show a likeness of her, but rather to show a symbolic representation of herself, the Queen. The painting is dominated by the rich images of Elizabeth's clothing and jewelry, and a jewel above her hand takes the image of a phoenix. The phoenix is symbolic both of the city, London, that is always eternally reborn, and also of the unmarried Queen's virginity. Most of the paintings from this era are portraits, ones that exhibit numerous similarities in style. The subjects are painted in modest fashion against a dark background, with a focus on their clothing and accessories that accompany them. One painting that puts an interesting twist to the portrait style of the time is The Cholmondeley Ladies.

Queen Elizabeth I, Hilliard, Tate Britain, London

            The Cholmondeley Ladies, by an unknown English painter, is a painting filled with mystery. In addition to the unknown identity of the artist, no one knows for certain who these two women are, or if they are even members of the Cholmondeley family. The two women are said to have been born on the same day and married on the same day, and their children can be seen held in their arms. While the women appear to be identical twins, a closer inspection reveals that one has blue eyes while the other has brown eyes. In addition, their clothing also shows minor differences that award viewers who pay close attention. The attention to detail here is really impressive, and the piece stands as a hallmark of British portraits.

Cholmondeley Ladies, Tate Britain, London

            As you progress through the walk, you will continue to see more portraits of note. One aspect of the style that you should notice is how the portraits grow more varied in color, composition, and pose. The standard image of a person sitting and framed in front of a black background from the waist up is replaced by a livelier portrait. Thomas Gainsborough's Giovanni Baccelli serves as a prime example of this. The titular subject is painted in the costume, make-up, and pose from a ballerina she performed in that season. Gainsborough manages to capture the woman's grace and her vivacity shines through as well. The colorful background, a forest path, also adds to the calm and poise of a ballerina that is reflected in this portrait.

Giovanna Baccelli, Gainsborough, Tate Britain, London

            In addition to numerous portraits, the walk also offers some stunning landscape paintings that are sure to command your attention. My favorite would be the trio of paintings by John Martin known as the Judgement Series. The subjects are the end of days from the book of Revelation. The paintings all depict landscapes either torn asunder by the wrath of God, or separated by the powers of good and evil. All three of the paintings are impressive in scope, vivid in color, and epic in their romantic vision of the end. The Great Day of His Wrath shows an entire city being destroyed and thrown into an abyss, The Last Judgement illustrates the titular event where God is condemning those on the right to hell and welcoming the saved on the left to heaven, and lastly The Plains of Heaven depicts a serene image of good and evil separated by a giant chasm in the Earth.

Turner Collection, Tate Britain, London

            Overall, these beautiful works and many more can be seen in the Tate Britain. If you are especially interested in British art, then this is a museum you should definitely visit. It is easy to navigate, varied in art type and art from different time periods, and filled with masterpieces by the most skilled British artists.

            -By Phillip Storm, Arts Correspondent, Visitmuseums.com

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Museo del Prado Review

            The Museo del Prado, located in Madrid, Spain, is one of the finest museums of European art in the entire world, and most assuredly the best museum of Spanish art. The museum features four floors of over 7,600 paintings, 1,000 sculptures, and 4,800 prints. This is a massive museum, and that is an understatement. If you do not have at least a few hours to spend here there is much that you will miss, and even then it would take multiple trips to see and appreciate all the fine art here. The museum actually recognizes this, and if you visit their website they offer three different guides that suggest what you should see for those who are planning to only spend one, two, or three hours there. I would recommend taking in a variety of different art that the museum stores, as it separates the art by nationality (Spanish, German, French, Flemish, Italian, British, and Dutch).

Prado Museum

            First and foremost, you have to see the museum's extensive collection of Spanish art (after all, you are in Spain). Two of the most notable Spanish painters are Diego Velázquez and Francisco deGoya, whose works are amongst the most represented of any artist in any museum around the world. Velázquez, who was noted for his baroque art style, produced two masterpieces that hang in the Prado titled The Adoration of the Magi and The Surrender of Breda. The Adoration of the Magi is noted for Velázquez's use of chiaroscuro, where strong contrasts between dark and light affect the whole composition (usually light subjects are composed against a black background). The painting depicts the  biblical story of the three magi showering the baby Jesus with gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. Velázquez's The Surrender of Breda shows the Spanish general Ambrosio Spinola receiving the keys to the Dutch city Breda after winning the battle and preventing Dutch independence. The only image of warfare is the smoky scene in the background, and Breda instead chooses to focus on the peace being initiated by the two cultures in the foreground. The painting is primarily colored in tones of blue and brown, in sharp contrast to Velázquez's other baroque work and the many paintings of Goya.

Adoration of the Magi, Velazquez, Prado Museum, Madrid

            Speaking of Goya, the man who has over 140 paintings housed in the Prado, his paintings can be seen in rooms 64 to 67 of floor 0. Perhaps his two most famous works, The Second of May 1808 and Third of May 1808 hang side by side in one of the rooms. The two paintings were commissioned by the council governing Spain after the country was victorious in the War of Independence against Napolean. The former depicts the popular riot of May 2, 1808, where the common people of Madrid attacked the Mamelukes (Turkish soldiers in Napolean's French Army) who were attempting to take away the former King Carlos IV's royal children to France. The common people attacked the Turkish moors with crude weapons like knives in an event that sparked the Spanish War for Independence. The latter painting from Goya is perhaps his most famous, as it is a startling depiction of the horrors of war and one of the first truly modern and revolutionary paintings. In the painting, a group of French soldiers with their backs to us are shown executing a group of rebellious Madrid commoners by firing squad. Whereas most paintings of war before this usually took a serious and realistic style in depicting war, The Third of May is highly stylized. The contrast of light between the executioners and the victims allows us to see the emotion in the doomed man's face, and the pose of his arms recalls the image of Christ hanging on the cross. Overall, these two are stunning and emotionally powerful pieces of art, and it is very common for large groups of people to stand here in awe of these paintings for quite some time.

The Second of May, Goya, Prado Museum. Madrid

   

         The other really notable collection of paintings for me was the Flemish school of art. Here, you can view works by legends such as Hieronymus Bosch, Pieter Brueghel the Elder, and Peter PaulRubens. Bosch's Table of the Mortal Sins is a wonderfully unique religious work. The four corners show the final stages of life: Death, Judgment, Hell, and Glory, while the inner ring features an image of Christ looking down upon the wheel, surrounded by depictions of the seven deadly sins. A similarly harrowing painting (albeit much more violent), Brueghel's The Triumph of Death depicts a plane of warfare, where the skeletal armies of Death have razed Earth and the people on it. The painting serves as an allegory for the inescapable grasp of Death. Here, everyone except the pair of lovers in the far right corner (although they too are doomed) is being violently killed by living skeletons. What is most interesting about this painting is the detail and variety with which Brueghel afforded it; you can see skeletons looting, pillaging, and murdering all the way to the background of the picture, and the different methods of violence the skeletons use is startling. On a brighter note, Rubens The Judgement of Paris depicts the ideal version of feminized beauty in the image of Paris deciding between Venus, Minerva, and Juno over who to choose as most beautiful. The elegance of the painting recalls the works of the Italian school of painting, and the detailed nude images of the goddesses gives us an idea of Ruben's vision of female beauty.

The Judgement of Paris, Rubens, Prado Museum

            I've only listed a few paintings here, but there is so much more to see in the Prado. This has to be one of the most in-depth and amazing museums I have visited so far. You walk around and there are masterpieces everywhere from all over Europe and from throughout the ages. Some of my other favorites include Goya's Saturn Devouring His Son, Titian's The Fall of Man, Claude Lorraine's Landscape with the Embarkment of Saint Paula Romana in Ostia, Antonio Joli's Carlos III Embarking in Naples, Corrado Giaquinto's The Birth of the Sun and the Triumph of Bacchus, and Giambattista Tiepolo's The Immaculate Conception. For any art fan (or fan of culture really) visiting Madrid, the Museo del Prado should be at the top of your to-do list.

            -By Phillip Storm, Arts Correspondent, VisitMuseums.com 

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Museum of Childhood Review

            The V&A Museum of Childhood is both a historical collection of toys from the 18^th century to the present and a place that attempts to symbolize what it means to be a child. The first floor consists of a vast collection of toys, from optical illusions to dolls to puppets to pop culture toys and much more. The second floor looks at childhood over the centuries and how the concept has evolved through ideas regarding the home, baby care, clothing, and how children learn and play. This is an interesting museum as you will find all sorts of people coming here to explore childhood, whether it be the young kids coming to have fun with their parents, the young adults who come back to reflect on their recent days, or even groups of elderly people who come for the sense of nostalgia. One of my favorite recurring images from this museum is seeing kids running around playing with toys while their parents rest on the couch. When you arrive here you should start by exploring the first floor.

Museum of Childhood, London

            Although we now live in an age where moving pictures and cinema are more readily available than ever, it was only recently that this came to be. Some early examples of moving picture toys are the zoetrope (designed in 1870 by Milton Bradley) and the praxinoscope. To use the zoetrope you simply spin the drum and look through the slits. To use the praxinoscope you spin the drum and look at the mirrors. When spun the praxinoscope presents a humorous image of a guy jumping through a ring. The remainder of the section showcases early toys based around optical illusions, including lenses, kaleidoscopes, and panoramic slides. Some panoramic slides featured (from 1850-1880) show the same scene of a logger in the woods during the winter and spring seasons. Slides like this show how entertainment could be derived from images and illusions.

Zoetrope

            The next section worth visiting is the section devoted to clockwork, or more specifically toys designed to move through internal mechanical devices. One of the largest and most notable objects you will see is the Wave Machine from 1980. Powered by a motor that activates a turning rod attached to a series of cams, the machine creates the image of a rippling effect as the wooden waves rise and fall. Other types of clockwork toys, called “automatons,” featured in the museum include many animal inspired creations and other objects that were capable of complex movements. Despite the innocence of many of these toys (for example, one of my favorites is called “Monkey Musicians”), they were actually quite expensive to make and were made for wealthy adults to impress and entertain their friends, not for young children to play with. Other similar toys are toys based on friction movement. If you remember those mini Mattel cars then you will know what I am talking about. The wheels wind up and store energy that is released when you let the car go. The museum offers a large sample of these cars for you to view.

Wave Machine

            Moving on you will see galleries featuring some of the most popular types of toys: rocking horses and marionettes. The earliest rocking horses were from 1600, and only three ones from that time period remain today. The earliest one in the museum's collection, a large unrealistic rocking horse from 1800-1850, is distinctively different from the rest in the museum that were designed to look like elegant real horses. From about 1700, rocking horses were traditionally carved from wood by expert craftsmen, and in addition were hand-painted and fitted with saddles and bridles made from real leather. Another type of toy with a long and storied history is the marionette. Puppetry is said to have originated in the far east, with drawings showing children playing with puppets coming from as far back as 1100. Some of the most fascinating puppets to view are the Japanese bunraku puppets and the Chinese shadow puppets. These puppets hail from a tradition of oral storytelling that was an important part of east asian culture. One of the most impressive objects in the museum's collection is the giant baroque puppet theatre from the 18^th century. Likely built in Vienna, the massive theatre was probably owned by a wealthy nobleman and used to entertain his family and guests. The theatre features two different backdrops and is incredibly impressive in its scope and size.

Bunraku

            The remainder of the museum offers much more to see, from galleries on video games to board games, famous sci-fi and fantasy toys (Star Wars and Lord of the Rings anyone?), and even impressive dollhouses and Chinese Rock Gardens. However, you should make sure you travel up to the second floor to see the galleries there. Here you can see the progression of children's fashion from the 1700s to the present day. While children's clothing was initially very formal and handmade, often consisting of dresses and multiple layers, the style eventually shifted to more mass produced clothes with the industrialization of the 1800s. Nowadays, children's clothing comes in a wide variety of styles with a focus more on brand names. The remainder of the second floor examines childhood by looking at the concepts of the home, baby care, and learning and playing and seeing how these concepts have changed over time. Last but not least, there is an in-depth exhibit on child war games that looks at gender differences, competitiveness, and dress up, among other things that question the controversy that surrounds children and war games.

            No matter your age, this museum will have something to offer you. If you have kids, bring them along and you will have free entertainment for them for the day. The museum offers lots of interactive exhibits and sections where children can play with toys, create their own drawings, or even learn how certain toys work. For adults, the museum brings back a lot of memories of days long past, and with it a warm sense of nostalgia. Although a smaller museum, this is one where you can still spend a good couple hours.

            -By Phillip Storm, Arts Correspondent, VisitMuseums.com

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