Noli me Tangere revisited

On Easter Sunday in 2017, I published a post about Noli me tangere - suggested to be the first words words said by Christ on meeting Mary Magdelene in the Garden of Gethsemane.

The Latin words 'Noli Me Tangere' mean 'Do not touch me', and refer to the episode of Mary Magdalene's first encounter with Christ after his Resurrection. National Gallery

There have been very many drawings, paintings, fine art prints of the biblical scene of Mary Magdelene recognising Jesus Christ after his resurrection. It's an iconic and artistic motif which has continued for centuries. 

On this Easter Morning I've reprised the post:

• Today I've found the images (mainly in Wikimedia Commons) and put them in an album on my Facebook Page - with the details of each image from the original blog post.
• plus I've found a new image - by two past masters of Netherlandish art

Artworks have been produced by very many notable artists. My blog post documented various of the artworks in chronological order. They include: Giotto, Duccio, Fra Angelico, Memling, Botticelli, Dürer, Titian, Holbein, Poussin, Lorrain

This is an additional - and unusual - image. It was painted by BOTH Jan Brueghel the Younger, Peter Paul Rubens. Rubens did the figures and Brueghel did the landscape and plants. One interesting aspect is that Christ is portrayed as a gardener and while flowers are still in bloom the vegetables are ready to be harvested— which I gather is an allusion to Paradise.

Christ Appears to Mary Magdalene on Easter Morning (Noli me tangere) c. 1626
Jan Brueghel the Younger, Peter Paul Rubens
59.0 x 100.0cm, oil on wood
Kunsthalle Bremen - Der Kunstverein in Bremen

In addition, this Wikimedia Commons Category:Paintings of Noli me tangere has the paintings ordered by century in date order.

Reasons not to see David Hockney: Bigger & Closer

I've been to every David Hockney exhibition in London for many years - and reviewed many of them over the last two decades - but I will NOT be going to the David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) lightshow xtravaganza at the Lightroom at Kings Cross.  

• First, because I've seen virtually all the original artwork first hand 
• Second because I'm NOT a fan of huge immersive "experiences"; and 
• Third, although I'm OK with a dark room and a video playing during an exhibition: 
• and I always watch those all the way through
• and I loved Hockney's videos of changing seasons in the Yorkshire Wolds. 
• But I'm not a teenager....
• and I don't want to spoil my memories of "the real thing".

However if you want to get a taste of what it looks like and what other people think see below.

This is a video of some of the 50 minute experience which I found on Facebook (Yorkshire Post)

The Reviews of David Hockney: Bigger and Closer

Seems like I'm not alone in NOT wanting a sensory overload in a crowded room.... I've not seen so many 2 star reviews of anybody for quite a while! 
(If you want to see my reviews of his 'real exhibitions - see the end)

The shorthand conclusion seems to me to be that if this were to be the last show of his work in his lifetime - this would be a major disappointment.

Two star reviews

Gigantic projections of the painter’s work fill entire walls in this immersive audiovisual extravaganza – but there is no real art to catch the memory or move the soul The Guardian

• David Hockney: Bigger and Closer review – an overwhelming blast of passionless kitsch | Jonathan Jones | The Guardian
• David Hockney at the Lightroom review: full immersion into the artist’s career produces mixed results | Evening Standard
• David Hockney: ‘Bigger & Closer’ | Time Out

there’s too much that disappoints and irritates. You don’t really get a feel for much of the best of his work. There are none of the marvellous paintings from the very early 1960s, the exquisite drawings of the 1970s. There’s limited art history, too, so there’s no explanation as to why so much of what we’re looking at resembles the work of Picasso. Neither do you get a feel for the materiality of the media he extols; somehow the luscious beauty of paint, its very stuffness, gets entirely lost when blown up this big. Evening Standard

Non-starred reviews

• I don’t need a lightshow to immerse myself in art | Jan Dalley | Financial Times
• ‘Affecting’ or ‘Passionless’? Critics Are Divided on David Hockney’s Newly Opened Immersive Light Show | artnet news
• David Hockney: Bigger & Closer, Lightroom, review: Colossal sensory overload | Florence Hallet | i

David Hockney at Lightroom

Photo by Justin Sutcliffe

More about David Hockney

I've written about David Hockney on a number of occasions on this blog. You can READ my posts BELOW - they're organised backwards by years. Plus see images of a lot of his artwork in proper exhibitions!

2019

• David Hockney: Drawing from Life (2020) at the National Portrait Gallery (May 2019)

2018

• Hockney adds another way of making art to his portfolio (September 2018)

2017: 

• About David Hockney and Watercolour

David Hockney Midsummer: East Yorkshire 2004 (watercolours)

2016: 

• A biography of Hockney on iPlayer first shown by the BBC in 2015 (and repeated in 2016)

2014

• Hockney, Printmaker (Review #2) - The Etchings - about Hockney Printmaker at Dulwich Picture Gallery
• The Arrival of Spring - David Hockney's latest exhibition - 85% of the digital drawings in The Arrival of Spring had been sold before this exhibition opened at Annely Juda Fine Art.
• Hockney is bigger than Van Gogh!- about my final and fourth visit to A Bigger Picture on the final night

2012

• David Hockney on sitting for Lucian Freud
• Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture

Woldgate Woods, 21, 23 & 29 November 2006, 2006 by David Hockney
Oil on 6 canvases, 182 x 366 cm
Courtesy of the Artist | Copyright David Hockney | Photo credit: Richard Schmidt

• 22nd January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week? "This post this week has rather a slant towards Hockney, digital art on an iPad and pastels - which pretty much reflects my week."
• 15th January 2012 - Who's made a mark this week? This has a lot of references to the publicity overdrive for the A Bigger Picture exhibition at the RA and includes references to interesting articles

2009 

• David Hockney - recent exhibitions - about various recent exhibitions in various countries
• Review: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture - about Bruno Wollheim's film David Hockney - A Bigger Picture
• David Hockney "15 sketchbooks" DVD - a further update

2007

• Turner Watercolours with Hockney and Shirley - about Hockney's curation of BP Summer Exhibition: Hockney on Turner Watercolours (11 June 2007 – 3 February 2008).
• Drawing, tea and DVDs at the National Portrait Gallery - another long slow look at the at the David Hockney Portraits exhibition before it closed

2006

• David Hockney: Fifteen Sketchbooks 2002-2003 - Update on DVD availability

• David Hockney and Shirley - sharing art and sketchbooks - about the David Hockney Portraits exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery and his Fifteen Sketchbooks completed in 2002-3003
• Two London exhibitions for David Hockney about 
• "David Hockney Portraits - Life Love Art" at the NPG and 
• "A Year in Yorkshire" in at the Annely Juda Gallery

and finally for other fans this is the David Hockney website - http://www.hockneypictures.com/home.htm

View the VERMEER exhibition at the Rijksmuseum - from your own home

The Vermeer Exhibition at the Rijksmuseum is not only iconic - having reunited 28 of his 37 known paintings in one place - it's also extraordinarily popular and has sold out! 

There are no more tickets available at the moment.

The Rijksmuseum is working hard to give more people the opportunity to see the exhibition. From 6 March, we will provide a new update via the Rijksmuseum website.

It says (bottom left) "There are no more tickets available at the moment"

The exhibition opened on the 10th February and continues until 4 June 2023.

• the museum is limiting tickets to make the artwork accessible
• there is no waiting list

We are continuously looking at ways to give more people the chance to see this exhibition.

Keep an eye on the website and social media channels for updates on ticket availability.

So I thought I'd highlight how you can see the artwork in the exhibition without a ticket.

How to see the Vermeer Exhibition without a ticket

I think the popularity of the exhibition has maybe prompted the Rijksmuseum to make the exhibition more accessible ONLINE to those who cannot get tickets and/or to those who live outside the Netherlands.

Here's how you can get a guided tour of the exhibition.

Rijksmuseum Website: there is a tour of the exhibition narrated by Stephen Fry in English

• Closer to Johannes Vermeer - it covers particular themes of his work and draws attention to a number of aspects which you might not be aware of - even if you know work by Vermeer well.

Rijksmuseum on Instagram: there are guided tours next week - in both Dutch and English

On Tuesday, Maeike, one the the Rijksmuseum's guides, will give a live tour of the VERMEER exhibition on the Rijksmuseum's Instagram channel and answer the most frequently asked questions.

• Dutch: Tuesday 28 Feb. / 6 - 6.30 PM cet
• English: Tuesday 28 Feb. / 6.30 - 7 PM cet

Plus this article on ArtNet has an image of every painting in the show - see In Pictures: See Every Single Artwork in the Rijksmuseum’s Vermeer Show, a Once-in-a-Lifetime Exhibition That Is Already Sold Out.

More about the Vermeer Exhibition

• Vermeer review – one of the most thrilling exhibitions ever conceived | The Guardian (Laura Cumming)
• Vermeer will never look the same after Amsterdam exhibition | The Guardian (Jonathan Jones)
• How Hard Is It to Paint Like Vermeer? TV Contestants Find Out | New York Times

The Oxford Companion to Art (1950)

Yesterday we visited Fulham Palace and en route discovered the most amazing bookshop called Hurlingham Books at 91 Fulham High St, London SW6 3JS.  It has the most interesting approach to displaying books in the windows I've ever seen - horizontally with the title showing. 

Inside it's absolutely crammed from floor to ceiling with books and it's quite a skill to manoeuvre inside without sending a pile crashing to the floor. There are no categories. You just stare until you see something that looks interesting.

However it excels in that one stand-out feature of an excellent second hand bookshop - it has books you've never ever seen before. 

Hurlingham Books in Ranelagh Gardens

In it I found a pristine 1950 Hardback Edition of "The Oxford Companion to Art" - or rather JR did - and he reached it down for me from a high shelf.

It turned out to be a VERY big and heavy hardback book of 1,277 pages - which I got for £5.

The Oxford Companion of Art

I confess this blog post is actually mostly to do with me finding out a bit more about the book. 

It appears the book was updated after 1950 with subsequent editions appearing in 1970 aND 1985.

The Companion to Art was designed as a non-specialist introduction to the fine arts - with an emphasis on art (and NOT "Arts" - and not the practical arts and handicrafts. The Preface indicates that it is a handbook rather than an encyclopedia and covers:

• all human artistic endeavour through all time and throughout the world
• more variety of material than other Oxford Companions
• each of the articles is intended to be an introduction only - although I found most I've read (dipping into the book from front to back) to be very thorough and provides good summaries.

The entries cover four main groups of material

• biographies of important artists
• accounts of art movements and associations of artists
• explanations of specific terms relating to art - plus essays on a few technical topics
• Perspective
• Graphic Processes
• Colour
• historical explanations of the development of art in specific countries / regions.

Articles on technical matters have been kept to a minimum but a few longer and more detailed technical articles have been included when that subject seemed to be of importance for understanding and appreciation over a wide field of art. Preface

Overall, it struck me as a very useful handbook to have in one's art library and not really outdated so long as you understand it relates to an era prior to 1950!

In an era when so much that is published about art is either dumbed down or written by people who haven't had an adequate art education, I found the book a refreshing treat which I dipped into all the way home on the tube - and it's not left my side since!

You can find copies online - mostly of the later edition which you should be able to get for less than a £10 (although do watch out for the postage costs given the weight!). Or you can try rooting around in good second hand shops like me!

I do however have a reservation!  I found it was based on Osborne's own knowledge of specific areas of art and where he had none he makes no reference to that area.  Indeed he doesn't even acknowledge that it exists!

For example, there is absolutely no reference to botanical art or any of the famous artists such as those I've written about at length on Past Masters - Botanical Art and Artists. There again, Wilfrid Blunt had not yet published The Art of Botanical Illustration - it was first published in 1950 - the same year as the The Oxford Companion to Art.

Also, I think the main problem with it as a book is it is HUGE and generalist rather than specialist.  One source suggested 94 editions published between 1960 and 2002 in 4 languages! However it is now not in print - probably because it would be too big to make that possible.

• In my view, there are specific areas within it which would make a suitable book to update and republish in a new edition in future years. 
• As indeed has happened to Wilfrid Blunt's book which is now in its (I think) fifth edition - and boasting my reviews of it in its marketing material! 

Marketing image for The Art of Botanical Illustration
including review by ME!

The author

The book was edited by somebody called Harold Osborne (1905-1987) who is characterised in records online as a philosopher and civil servant. It reminds me of the way quite a few people who are world renowned authorities in aspects of art also had jobs which paid the bills.

So who is this man who wrote "The Oxford Companion to Art" ?

He appears to have been a diplomat who spent most of his career in South America - but was particularly interested in the philosophy of aesthetics. Apparently he was also a leading authority on modern art history and wrote books for the Oxford University Press.

• born in 1905, 
• educated at Wakefield Grammar School, Yorkshire. 
• undergraduate at Cambridge University, reading classics and philosophy. 
• Served in the Intelligence Service during the Second World War 
• Became a British civil servant in South America and then in the United Kingdom, becoming Principal Officer at the Board of Trade. While in South America he published two volumes, on Andean Indians, and Bolivia.
• an influential scholar and editor, and an active author throughout his life. 

I imagined he spent a lot of time while being a diplomat in South America reading very many art books!

Publications on aesthetics and art history included more than 20 monographs and 50 articles including

• Foundations of the Philosophy of Value (1933), 
• The Oxford Companion to Art (1950)
• Theory of Beauty (1952), 
• Aesthetics and Criticism (1955), 
• Aesthetics and Art Theory (1968), and 
• The Art of Appreciation (1970). 
• The Oxford Companion to the Decorative Arts (1975) - accessible via Internet Archive
• The Oxford companion to twentieth-century art (1981)
• He also edited the Aesthetics volume in the Oxford University Press Readings in Philosophy series
• Founding President of the British Society of Aesthetics.
• Founded the British Journal of Aesthetics.

About Hurlingham Books

It's very highly rated on Google - 4.7 stars!

website: https://hurlinghambooks.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hurlinghambooks/?hl=en

David Hockney on a personal virtual journey through 60 years

David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) opens at The Lightroom on 25th January 2023.

About David Hockney: Bigger & Closer

The difference about this new exhibition is it contains no drawings or paintings and yet it is all about drawing and painting and the processes Hockney uses and has used to create his art.

Using large-scale projection in a remarkable new space, David Hockney takes us on a personal journey through sixty years of his art.
Lightroom’s vast walls and revolutionary sound system enable us to experience the world through Hockney’s eyes.
His life-long fascination with the possibilities of new media is given vibrant expression in a show that invites us to look more closely, more truly and more joyously.

It features:

• the creation of a virtual reality using immersive audio and visual techniques to guide visitors into Hockney’s world
• a commentary by Hockney
• a specially composed score by American composer Nico Muhly
• six themed chapters

“I’m usually drawing or painting, it’s all I want to do now"

There are six main topics which are examined in this exhibition / experience which reflect his many and various interests and projects over the last 60 years or more.

• how he experiments with perspective
• how he uses photography as a way of ‘drawing with a camera’
• how he records the passing of time using:
• polaroid collages of spending time with people and 
• the joy of spring (on his iPad) in the Yorkshire Wolds
• why paint is the only medium to properly convey the hugeness of the Grand Canyon
• driving up his audio-visual Wagner Drive into the San Gabriel Mountains
• an opera which includes animated re-creations of his stage designs

VIEW an interview with David Hockney about this exhibition on the BBC website.

The BBC's Katie Razzall spoke with the 85-year-old as he put the finishing touches to his show at its new venue, Lightroom, in London's Kings Cross.

There's a huge team which has been working on this three year project - and you can find the credits on the webpage.

Exhibition details

• Website: https://lightroom.uk/whats-on/david-hockney/
• Dates: 25 January - 23 April 2023
• Venue: The Lightroom, 12 Lewis Cubitt Square, London, N1C 4DY (this is an 8 minute walk from Kings Cross and London St Pancras stations)
• this is their Your Visit Page
• Get Directions in Google Maps
• Get Directions in Apple Maps
• Nearest Station: King’s Cross St. Pancras (Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan, Northern, Piccadilly, Northern line; National and International rail).
• Tickets: £25 during the day; more expensive in the evening
• discounts for groups
• can be booked in advance - and some dates and times already have low availability (for those who like to have seen the "must see" show before everybody else)
• pre-booked tickets can be exchanged for a different time slot of a different date or a credit note
• ALL TICKETS ARE E-TICKETS AND EMAILED TO YOU

About The Lightroom

Lightroom is located in King’s Cross on Lewis Cubitt Square, adjacent to Coal Drops Yard and Central St Martin’s. It was designed by Haworth Tompkins as a sister space to the award-winning Bridge Theatre. Along with a generous Foyer and gift shop, the space also contains a bar and seating area run by St John.

Lightroom is

• a joint venture between 59 Productions and London Theatre Company.
• backed by a group of investors led by Danny Cohen, President of Access Entertainment, and Mike Sherwood, former CEO of Goldman Sachs International.

Who painted this? #66

This week's "Who Painted This (and the rest!) #66 is a painting has a tease in the title. 

That's because you should be able to work out what the title might be if you study the painting very carefully - and if you right click and open in a new tab you'll get a slightly larger version. 

HOWEVER there are a number of paintings which use that title - by completely different artists. I'd never realised quite what a popular theme this is until I started this post!

The other part of the tease is where I saw and photographed it (in London) is not where it normally lives! That's because it was 'on loan'.

Below you can find 

• The details of how to participate in this art history challenge  
• the rules of the challenge 
• the answer to last week re. Who Painted this #64 
• the names of all the people who got most or all of the answer correct
• who provided the best answer last week - which gives you an idea of what a good answer looks like

Your answers will be published next Sunday - before the next challenge.

How to participate in "Who painted this? #66

Tell me the story of this painting as best you can!

These are the for how "Who painted this?" works.

This is about using brains not technology - so please do NOT "cheat".

Briefly, in your comment ON THIS POST you must tell me ALL or as many of the following as you can:

• the title of the artwork
• the name of the artist who created this artwork
• the date it was created
• the media used
• where it lives now
• how you know all this eg how did you do your search
• anything else you can find out about the artwork and/or artist - tell its story!

The Winner of this week's challenge is the first identifiable person (i.e. no anonymous guesses) who, in my judgement, is 

• the first person to get to the answer by fair means 
• AND provides the best quality answer in terms of added details about the artwork and artist

Remember also

• no use of Google image search or Tineye to find the image allowed 
• this is a traditional web search of images using words only plus "hit the books" time
• I don't publish the comments until next week's post.

Comments on this blog post will only be published once a week - on the following Sunday.

(You wouldn't believe how many spam comments I'm having to identify and delete each week because of this challenge!!)

NOTE: You can find out more about the background to "who painted this?" and  THE RULES for participating in this challenge. on the Who Painted This? page at the top of the blog menu https://makingamark.blogspot.com/p/who-painted-this.html

Who Painted This #65?

Pommes et oranges by Paul Cézanne
Vers 1899
Huile sur toile; H. 74,0 ; L. 93,0 cm.
Legs du comte Isaac de Camondo, 1911
Musée d'Orsay 

The challenge last week was to work out which of the paintings of apples and oranges by a well known painter this one is - and where it is and other relevant details! 

Who painted this #65?

It looks like there's a decent number of people interested in this weekly challenge.

This next painting is one I photographed in the museum where it lives over a decade ago. 

Who Painted This #65?

I'm assuming that many of you will get the name of the artist pretty quickly. This week's challenge is reminder that the complete answer contains more details than literally who painted this

The challenge this week is to work out which one this one is - and where it is and other relevant details! Tell me the story of this painting as best you can!

Below you can find 

• The details of how to participate in this art history challenge  
• the rules of the challenge 
• the answer to last week re. Who Painted this #64 
• the names of all the people who got most or all of the answer correct
• who provided the best answer last week - which gives you an idea of what a good answer looks like

Your answers will be published next Sunday - before the next challenge.

PS I need to be upfront and say the time the "who painted this" post will get published every Sunday depends on the weather!! I'm now doing my daily walk outside again - as I did before my surgery - and had to head out this morning as I checked the weather forecast and realised it was going to start raining at midday - as indeed it did on my return home - 200 yards from my front door. I'm afraid my physio/recovery takes priority at the moment!

How to participate in "Who painted this? #64

Don't forget - there are rules to how "Who painted this?" works - and these are detailed in THE RULES for participating in this challenge.

This is about using brains not technology - so please do NOT "cheat".

Briefly, in your comment ON THIS POST you must tell me ALL of the following:

• the title of the artwork
• the name of the artist who created this artwork
• the date it was created
• the media used
• where it lives now
• how you know all this eg how did you do your search
• anything else you can find out about the artwork and/or artist - tell its story!

The Winner of this week's challenge is the first identifiable person (i.e. no anonymous guesses) who, in my judgement, is 

• the first person to get to the answer by fair means 
• AND provides the best quality answer in terms of added details about the artwork and artist

Remember also

• no use of Google image search or Tineye to find the image allowed - this is a traditional web search of images using words only plus "hit the books" time
• I don't publish the comments until next week's post.

i.e. comments are being opened up again - but ONLY for this weekly post and comments on this blog post will only be published once a week - on the following Sunday.

NOTE: You can find out more about the background to "who painted this?" and the RULES on this page https://makingamark.blogspot.com/p/who-painted-this.html

Who painted this? #64

Art on the BBC (Series 2)

I've just spotted that Art on the BBC is back for a Second Series of the television history of art tonight at 9pm on BBC4

Series 2 kicks off with 

• 3rd Jan: Episode 1 - The Great Salvador Dali - with David Dibbosa
• 10th Jan: Episode 2 - Van Gogh - Life and Art - with Kate Bryan
• but I can't work out what happens after these two. It looks like it might be just two episodes! 

Material is drawn from the BBC Archives

I wonder when it's going to occur to the BBC that to have archives you also have to keep making new programmes?

Some of you may recall my blog post last year What happens to art after the demise of BBC Four?

100 Famous Painters and Their Studios

The other day I came across this video of Famous Painters of the 19th and 20th Centuries in their studios (or at least most of them are!) and really enjoyed viewing it.

I can't say I know every single one of the artists but I knew most of them - but I like art history, so maybe that makes a difference.

What was interesting is that I knew a lot of the names and the art without knowing what the artist looked like. 

I'd certainly seen very few images of their studios and how they like to work, so most of the content was new to me.

If you're a fan of art history do take a look - it's 12 minutes long and for many people it will be a video they bookmark to share with others.....

For the record, I've no idea who"LearnfromMasters" who created it is. he/she/it certainly take pains to hide their ID.

You can see more videos on their YouTube Channel

Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr resumes with Monet's Water Lilies

Series 2 of Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr - opens with Monet's Water Lilies

A year ago, back in the first lockdown in 2020, Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr on Channel 5 was a new programme which was a bright spark for all those bereft of visits to art galleries and museums. (see Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr 22 June 2020)

...and then it stopped after Episode 3!

So I did some digging about what had happened and was able to report back in Good news re Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr - in which 

• I reported that Channel 5 had told me that it would resume later in the year.
• reviewed the series to date and how it had been received
• commented on the need for museums to make more art available online
  

Presumably that statement from Channel 5 was made with the idea that nothing much would happen after the first lockdown. In other words, the events of the latter part of 2020 and first part of 2021 had clearly NOT been anticipated.

Which is why we are only now seeing (what I hope are) the next three episodes of this series.

Series 2

I'm absolutely certain one of the future programmes is going to be about Monet's Water Lilies at the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris (because of the pics for the series). These paintings absolutely overwhelmed me and filled my eyes with tears the first time I saw them. I was incredibly lucky to see them for the very first time incredibly early one Saturday morning in the late 80s with nobody else in the room. I'd arrived in Paris on the Motorail from Provence (a service which is no longer available!). My visit to the water lilies was followed by a very nice lunch near the L'Orangerie and my driving out to Giverny to visit Monet's garden - and then to Calais for the ferry and back home to London.

A day I will never ever forget - I've got a very clear visual memory of it even now!

Series 2 comprises:

• Episode 1 - Water Lilies - by Claude Monet
  
• Episode 2 - The Hay Wain - by John Constable on Friday 18th June 2021
  
• Episode 3 - ??

I don't know if there are going to be more episodes after the Hay Wain as there's nothing on the website. As indicated in one of my earlier blog posts about this series, the introduction to the series suggests the following are in the pipeline

• Sandro Botticelli's The Birth of Venus (Le Galerie degli Uffizi, Florence)
• Rembrandt van Rijn's The Night Watch (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam)
• Diego Velázquez's The Toilet of Venus (The Rokeby Venus) (National Gallery)
• John Millais's Ophelia (Tate Britain)

READ MORE about Water Lilies by Monet on this blog!

• Gardens in Art: Monet's final Nympheas (30 September 2007) 
  
• Gardens in Art: Monet and the water garden at Giverny (29 September 2007) 
• Gardens in Art continues - with Monet (4 September 2007)

You can also take a virtual visit to Monet's Waterlilies in the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris

Plus see my videos of them - as seen back in September 2009. The first is a proper video - of each room at the Musée de l'Orangerie devoted to "The Grand Decorations"

The next one is a slideshow

Series 1

This covered the following paintings and is available on demand on Channel 5. These were:

• EPISODE 1 - Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci
• EPISODE 2 - Sunflowers by Vincent van Gogh
• EPISODE 3 - The Fighting Temeraire by JMW Turner

Note that on the Channel 5 Page for the episodes, they've got the wrong paintings with every Episode!  

 

Images for every episode are WRONG!

 

I love the fact Channel 5 is getting involved with Art on Television - and this is a good series - but a bit more attention to presentation online would not go amiss!
 

Good news re Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr

Good news for all of you who were expecting to see the next episode of Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr on Channel 5!

It will be continuing... just not yet.

Andrew Marr in the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris - in the room with Monet's 

We were all stumped when no Episode 4 appeared in the schedules or on Channel 5.

I thought it might be deferred for a week - but next week came and still no episode.

Meanwhile the traffic to my last blog post Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr was ROCKETING while everybody was looking online to see what was happening - and asking the question WHERE IS THE NEXT EPISODE?

So in the end I annotated my last post with what had NOT happened and wrote to Channel 5.

I got a response and here is the formal version

Due to Covid-19 affecting production for the full 10 parts of the series Great Paintings of the World with Andrew Marr, Channel 5 only intended to show the first three episodes in June 2020. The rest of the series will follow later this year" Channel 5 Spokesperson

So blame Covid-19 for the non-appearance of Episodes 4-10 - but they will be along later in the year.

I've asked Channel 5 to let me know when the dates when they plan to start broadcasting again so I can let you all know to start watching again!

Below you can:

• read about the research behind the programme - which found that young people know very little about art history
• view Monet's Waterlilies in the Musée de l'Orangerie in Paris via
• the museum's virtual visit
• my video
• my slideshow
• read the reviews by TV Editors and one decent art critic/journalist

Leonardo da Vinci - a Life in Drawing finishes on Sunday

I made a deliberate decision not to go to the Leonardo da Vinci - a Life in Drawing exhibition when it opened at the Queens Gallery as I knew it would be packed.

However, whenever I do this, I then have the unhappy habit of forgetting to book a ticket......

Last night I suddenly realised I'd STILL not booked to see the exhibition.

Today I realised I still had time.

Which is why I have only just booked my ticket and will finally get to see the exhibition tomorrow morning! Better late than never!

You have JUST FOUR DAYS LEFT until Sunday 13th October to see the exhibition.

Many of you will remember my blog post earlier this year Where you can see the Leonardo da Vinci drawings which was about all the different places where you could see drawings by Leonardo dan Vinci to mark the 500th anniversary of his death

The exhibition at the Queens Gallery is the big one - with all the drawings now assembled in one place.

Marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, this exhibition brings together more than 200 of the Renaissance master’s greatest drawings in the Royal Collection, forming the largest exhibition of Leonardo’s work in over 65 years.

With so much of his life’s work never coming to fruition, Leonardo’s greatest achievements survive only in his drawings and manuscripts. Providing an unparalleled insight into Leonardo’s investigations and the workings of his mind, the exhibition features drawings selected to reflect the full range of his interests, including painting, sculpture, architecture, anatomy, engineering, cartography, geology and botany.

More about Leonardo da Vinci on this blog

• "Experience, Experiment, Design" - drawings and notebooks by Leonardo da Vinci (2006) - at the Victoria and Albert Museum
• Digital Da Vinci Drawings and Notebooks (2007) - a new online website
• The Da Vinci Queue (2011) - at the National Gallery
• Leonardo da Vinci sets new record for the most expensive painting ever sold at auction (2017)
• The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt - review (2017) - at the National Portrait Gallery
• Where you can see the Leonardo da Vinci drawings (2019)
• Leonardo da Vinci: Drawings as Visual Knowledge (2019)

Lucian Freud - new books and exhibitions (Autumn 2019)

More on the famous painter Lucian Freud - this blog post covers

• two books - about his plants and early life
• two book reviews - of the latter
• an article in today's Observer by William Feaver his biographer 
• a talk at The London Library by William Feaver on 24th October, and 
• an exhibition of self-portraits at the Royal Academy of Arts opening 27 October 

In fact a perfect surfeit for Lucian Freud fans!

Lucian Freud Herbarium

Lucian Freud's Herbarium by Giovanni Aloi - Published last week by Prestel

Yesterday I received a copy of Lucian Freud Herbarium from the publishers.

I've long been a HUGE fan of Freud's paintings of plants. The book reveals that's painted a lot more than I've seen and includes some of my absolute favourites - of which more when I review it on my Botanical Art and Artists News blog later this week

UK Book Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Prestel (5 Sept. 2019)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 379138533X
• ISBN-13: 978-3791385334
• Product Dimensions: 25.7 x 2.3 x 31.4 cm

The Lives of Lucian Freud by William Feaver

I've been waiting since Lucian Freud died and the announcement that William Feaver would be publishing his biography for news of the book's publication.

Well it arrived last week - and it's not book but books - with a series title of The Lives of Lucian Freud. The subtitle for this first volume changes between the UK and the USA. In the UK it's called "Youth" and in the USA, I think they reflected on the fact it takes him up to the age of 50(!) and they've sub-titled it "The Restless Years".

We now have the first edition of what is obviously going to be a work of multiple volumes - and I have an addition to my birthday present list for "he who must not be bored".

Here are two reviews of the book:

UK Cover

• The Lives of Lucian Freud by William Feaver review – youth: 1922-1968 | The Guardian
• The Lives of Lucian Freud: Youth by William Feaver, review: a gossipy guide to the artist's wild years | The Telegraph (5 stars)

I've not seen it, I can't tell you anything about it - but do know that it's:

• based on very many discussions between Lucian Freud and William Feaver (on most days) since 
• full of the "voice of Freud" - which is unsurprising given the tale of how he gathered his material - revealed in the article below.

BUY THIS BOOK (UK)  The Lives of Lucian Freud Youth from Amazon UK:

UK Book Details

• Hardcover: 704 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing (5 Sept. 2019)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1408850931
• ISBN-13: 978-1408850930
• Product Dimensions: 12.8 x 6.6 x 24.1 cm

USA Cover

ORDER THIS BOOK (USA): The Lives of Lucian Freud: The Restless Years, 1922-1968 from Amazon.com

USA Book Details

• Hardcover
• Pages: 704 Pages 
• Product Dimensions:  6-1/4" x 9-1/4"
• ISBN 9780525657521
• Published by Knopf / Penguin Random House
• Publication date: Oct 29, 2019
• Price: $40.00

UPDATE: After finishing and publishing the blog post I learned (from the FT) that there is also a THIRD new book - of photographs of Lucian Freud - due to be published next week titled Lucian Freud: A Life Edited by Mark Holborn and David Dawson.

There's a great article about it on the FT - Looking at Lucian Freud: photographic portraits of the artist - with LOTS of photos!

Book Details

• Lucian Freud: A Life - ORDER/BUY from Amazon UK | from Amazon.com
• Hardcover: 250 pages
• Publisher: Phaidon Press; 1 edition (12 Sept. 2019)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0714877530
• ISBN-13: 978-0714877532
• Product Dimensions: 28.4 x 3.6 x 36.3 cm
• Price: £150 | $200

Article by William Feaver (his biographer)

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED: ‘I was Lucian Freud’s spare pair of eyes’ by William Feaver  | The Observer 8 September 2019

This is an absolutely fascinating article which tells the story of how Feaver first met Freud and how come he's writing his "authorised" biography - in the sense that he was banned by Freud of publishing anything in his lifetime - but could do after he was dead.

I guess it is also something of a taster for the first volume of Feaver's biography of Freud which was published last week.

I've saved it for reading again and referencing it in the future.

William Feaver on the Lives of Lucian Freud

Based on the above article, I've also just booked my ticket for the talk by William Feaver at the London Library on 24th October (6.45pm - to 8.30pm)

Check out Eventbrite for more details
William Feaver on the Lives of Lucian Freud 
Date: Thu, 24 October 2019
Time: 18:45 – 20:30 BST
Location: The London Library, 14 Saint James's Square, London SW1Y 4LG

Non-members are £15 per ticket

Lucian Freud: The Self-Portraits

This autumn there is an exhibition of self portraits by Lucian Freud at the Royal Academy of Arts.

Crop of "Self Portrait, Reflection" (2002) Lucian Freud

I have on my iMac a wonderful folder full of the photos I took at the press preview for the retrospective exhibition of portraits by Lucian Freud at the National Portrait Gallery in 2012.

As an exhibition it had the major advantage of:

• having been organised in close collaboration with the late Lucian Freud (these sort of exhibitions take years to come to fruition) 
• focusing on paintings of the artist's lovers, friends and family, referred to by Freud as the 'people in my life' - as well as self-portraits
• including 130 works from museums and private collections throughout the world, some of which have never been seen before.

It was an amazing exhibition - and one which has remained inside my memory.

Hence I'm rather puzzled as to why the Royal Academy of Arts is hosting a second exhibition - within 7 years of the first.

However I do suppose its focus on his self-portraits does provide some sort of justification.....

When asked if he was a good model for himself Freud replied, “No, I don’t accept the information that I get when I look at myself, that’s where the trouble starts”.

.....were it not for the view of Lucian Freud that all or most of his paintings were, in effect, autobiographical

'My work was purely autobiographical. It is about myself and my surroundings. It is an attempt at a record. I work from people that interest me and that I care about, in rooms that I live in and know.'

Lucian Freud: The Self-Portraits is at the Royal Academy, London, 27 October to 26 January 2020

Interestingly if you put "Lucian Freud portraits" into Google, the NPG microsite for their exhibition (see above link) outranks the RA Exhibitions microsite!