Major LS Lowry Exhibition in the autumn

There is to be a major exhibition of the paintings of LS Lowry in the Autumn. 

The exhibition L.S. Lowry: The Theatre of Life marks the 50th anniversary of Laurence Stephen Lowry (1887 – 1976) and opens at MK Gallery in Milton Keynes in October.  It represents a culmination of a nationwide celebration and features over 140 works, including A Football Match (1932). 

• The new exhibition is the first major career survey of his work in over a decade. In addition to iconic “matchstick men” industrial scenes, the showcase will explore lesser-known works such as portraits and surreal pieces. 
• a rare overview of his career, bringing together lesser-known aspects of his practice, including pencil and charcoal studies from the antique and life, detailed urban drawings, and works in pastel and watercolour that reveal the breadth of his practice (MK Gallery)
• A key theme of the exhibition is a re-examination of the myths that grew around him, situating his life and career within the wider transformations of twentieth-century Britain, as the mills, terraced streets and working communities he depicted were bombed, cleared and replaced.

L.S. Lowry, Our Town (1943). Oil on canvas.

Purchased from the artist, 1944.

© Touchstones Rochdale, Rochdale Arts & Heritage Service.

Basics: 

• L.S. Lowry: The Theatre of Life
• When: 24 October 2026 – 28 February 2026
• MK Gallery, 900 Midsummer Boulevard, Milton Keynes MK9 3QA
• Tuesday – Sunday, 10am – 5pm. Closed Mondays
• You can book tickets on the MK Gallery website.

L.S. Lowry: The Theatre of Life is also accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue.

Why people like Lowry's art

Golden Oldie #1: Favourite watercolour artists

During August, I want to get on with some projects plus lots of you are on holiday so I'm going to be posting some reminders of "golden oldies" - otherwise known as posts from the last 17 years of Making A Mark which were well received at the time and have not aged.

Golden Oldie #1: Your favourite watercolour painters

Unsurprisingly, my first choice is a look back at favourite watercolour painters and dates back to dates summer 2011. 

• It started with the Watercolour exhibition at Tate Britain (shame on Tate Britain for not keeping links to info about old exhibitions alive!)
• which resulted in this post Watercolour - Who's your favourite painter? which generated a lot of comments at the time
• then this post Your favourite watercolour painters - which in turn generated yet more discussion on the same topic.

Overall, you favoured contemporary artists more than artists from the past - however those you picked from the past are classics. Winslow Homer and John Singer Sargent are certainly two of my favourites - and I have my John Singer Sargent calendar on my wall in from of where I'm sitting!

I posted a link to this on my Facebook Page and the discussion has started up AGAIN!  

If you have a Facebook Account, you can join it on this link

 

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

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.

Ken Howard (1932 - 2022)

The death yesterday of Ken Howard OBE RA PPNEAC ROI RBSA RWA HonRBA has been announced. 

He celebrated his 22nd wedding anniversary on Friday 9th September with his partner Dora Bertolutti in Mousehole in Cornwall. Sadly his life ended at Truro Hospital on Sunday 11th September 2022, age 89,  following a very bad fall at his home in Mousehole in Cornwall.

Anybody who has been visiting exhibitions in London over the last two decades will have come across the artwork of Ken Howard on multiple occasions. Despite being represented by a leading art gallery in Bond Street gallery he regularly exhibited with art societies - most of which he was a member of.

For me painting is about three things. It is about revelation, communication and celebration. By revelation I mean giving people a way of seeing, revealing the world around them in a way they have never seen before, opening their eyes.

Ken Howard website

He also taught and mentored a number of artists - many of whom are active in art societies and  doing well! (see the end of this post for some of their tributes)

Self Portrait with Merida (oil on canvas) by Ken Howard

Below you can find an overview of the life and work of Ken Howard - including:

• the timeline of his life
• awards and honours
• publications about him and his work - and by him
• membership of art societies
• commissions
• art collections

I'll add in links to other obituaries and tributes about him at the end as I find them.

Ken Howard - a timeline

Ken Howard at 22, Ken Howard at 80

by Ken Howard PPNEAC, RA RBA ROI RWS

Exhibited at Royal Society of Portrait Painters - Annual Exhibition 2013

Early Life

• 1932 Ken Howard born in London. He lived in Alder Grove, Cricklewood and went to Kilburn Grammar School
• 1953-55 National Service in the Royal Marines

Art Education

• 1949-53 Studied at the Hornsey School of Art

As a student he participated regularly in the Hampstead open air art exhibitions and was commissioned to paint watercolours of local buildings and features including Keats House and Whitestone Pond.

• 1955-58 Studied at the Royal College of Art
• 1958-59 British Council Scholarship to Florence

Appointments

• 1973 and 1979 - Appointed official artist in Ireland by the Imperial War Museum 
• 2004-2012 - Elected Professor of Perspective at the Royal Academy Schools
• 2007 - Appointed Freeman of the City of London, Liveryman Painter Stainers
• 2017 - Appointed a Patron of the Turner's House Trust

Notable Exhibitions

• 1952 First exhibited at the Royal Academy
• 1959 First exhibited at the New English Art Club
• First exhibited at Richard Green at 147 New Bond Street

Ken Howard painting June Mendoza painting Ken by June Mendoza OBE RP ROI

Art Societies

One of the notable aspects of Ken Howard was his wide and active involvement with various art societies. At one point he was a member of a large number by competitive entry and election. Others elected him as an Honorary Member as they liked his work so much!

• 1962 Elected member of the New English Art Club
• 1966 Elected member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• 1979 Elected member of the Royal Society of Painters in Watercolours
• 1981 Elected member of the Royal West of England Academy
• 1983 Associate Member of the Royal Academy
• 1988 Honorary Member of the Royal Society of British Artists
• Honorary Member of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• 1991 Member of the Royal Academy
• 1998-2005 - President of the New English Art Club
• 2006 - Elected fellow of the Royal Institute of Oil Painters
• 2008 - Honorary Member of the Society of Graphic Fine Art

Ken Howard was considered by many to be an old favourite and stalwart of more than one society within the the world of the Federation of British Artists.

Latterly he began to become a Judge of many of the art competitions that such member artists entered.

Light effects I-VI, Calle Larga Galliana
a series of six oil paintings,
copyright Ken Howard RA, RWS, NEAC, RWA, ROI, RBA, RBSA, ARCA
exhibited at NEAC in 2009

He was so very popular that this led to a number of artists who sought to emulate him and his art. Towards the end of his career, I commented at one exhibition in 2018

I'm beginning to think that the successors to Ken Howard in terms of scope and style - are now outpainting Ken Howard....

but it took a very long time before that happened!

(Some of his) Prizes, Awards and Honours

• First prize Lord Mayor’s Art Award
• 1969 First prize Arundel Art Centre
• 1978 Prize winner John Moores Exhibition
• Prize winner John Laing Exhibition
• 1982 First prize Hunting Group Awards
• Prize winner Royal West of England Academy
• 1985 Critics’ prize, Sparkasse Karlsruhe
• 1986 Prize winner New English Art Club Centenary Exhibition
• 2001 - Critics’ prize New English Art Club 2001
• 2010 - Awarded OBE for services to Art in the Queen’s Birthday Honours

Ken Howard - Publications

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

An appreciation of Wayne Thiebaud (1920 - 2021)

I have long admired and loved Wayne Thiebaud's paintings, prints and drawings. So it was especially sad to wake this morning to the news that he had died, age 101, on Christmas Day, at his home in Sacramento. 

I've written about him before in 

• More Wayne Thibaud: "This for you is my world to look at" 

For me this is a bit of a click and salivate post! In all honesty written entirely for me - for looking at from time to time - rather than sharing with any of you - but you can look too! ;)

• Wayne Thiebaud working on etchings (video) 

This post is going to be an appreciation of the man and his artwork - with links to where online you can see and hear him and view his art. (Note: I'll probably add in more links to his artwork as I find them)

Installation view of Wayne Thiebaud: A Paintings Retrospective
(Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, New York, June 28–September 23, 2001).
Photography by Jerry L. Thompson 

But first click the arrow to the right of the pic in this link to see a slideshow of his work created by his gallery.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Acquavella Galleries (@acquavellagalleries)

About Wayne Thiebaud

Wayne Thiebaud. Photo: Gregory Urquiaga

For me he's an artist who is a luscious realist of the everyday - until you get up close and realise his artwork is also abstracted from reality and the artist relishes the media he used. 

His art started from observation and might more accurately termed be realist when it was a drawing. However artwork developed from his memories and those drawings could become a very different sort of realism.

He's perhaps best known as the painter of cakes, pies, ice cream, boiled sweets and Americana - but he was a lot more than that. He was also a very accomplished figurative and portrait painter. 

By the early 1960s, Thiebaud had begun painting the works for which he is best known, depicting quintessentially American, everyday objects in bright colors—such as cakes and pies, hot dogs and hamburgers, gumballs and lollipops, and jackpot machines. Rather than painting from life, Thiebaud represented these objects from memory, drawing from nostalgic recollections of bakeries and diners from his youth and contemporary commercial imagery. Working with thickly applied paint, Thiebaud often spotlights his objects against pale backgrounds with the well-defined shadows characteristic of advertisements. In order to heighten their chromatic intensity, he outlines his forms in radiant colors to achieve a halo-like effect. In addition to his still lifes, Thiebaud also painted portraits in the same style, depicting solemn figures set against light, empty backgrounds.

His urban and Californian landscapes often took on a new perspective are very striking - and make you look at landscapes with a fresh eye. To me they often seemed to involve tilting or looking up and the optical mixing of colours in both application and positioning on the support which just makes you LOOK at the artwork!

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

'The Hay Wain' by John Constable - with Andrew Marr

I thoroughly enjoyed watching Andrew Marr on "The Hay Wain" by John Constable last Friday night. This is the second episode of the second seasons of Great Paintings of the World Programme on Channel 5.

I was particularly struck at the end by the thought that this is precisely the sort of programme BBC4 should be making - rather than the BBC relegating BBC4 to becoming an archive channel!! 

It appears to me that we now need to look for quality programming about art on channels other than those 'allowed' us by the BBC.

Anyway, back to the programme......

Episode 2: The Hay Wain by John Constable

 

John Constable (1776 - 1837) believed in the importance of working from life and was dedicated to the way he wanted to paint and basing his paintings on his drawings of the landscape, skies and 'weather'.

I thought I knew quite a bit about John Constable, having seen a number of exhibitions of his work and written about him. However, I was surprised by some content included in Andrew Marr's excellent, well researched and cogent story of his life, family and development as an artist.

He came up with a number of things I either didn't know or hadn't appreciated properly before. Such as

• The site and size of his father's home in East Bergholt (the link is to Constable's painting of it - not featured in the programme)
  
• his experience of being shown at the RA Summer Exhibition - and the decision to "go bigger" to get more wall space and a better position (a sentiment not lost on many of those entering competitive exhibitions today!)
  
• His work experience prior to becoming a painter which led to him being a pre-eminent painter of weather and clouds
• the fact that he was a great success at the Paris Salon and sold many more paintings in France before he became a popular artist in the UK.
  
• His preparation for painting The Hay Wain - including the full scale study for the painting
  
• the historical socio-economic context for the 'The Hay Wain' in terms of the movement of people - from living in the country to the cities

Do watch the programme on catch up if you can. You won't regret it if you enjoy landscape painting! 

I also commend to you the National Gallery page about The Hay Wain - which allows you to see the painting full screen and also zoom in different parts of it.

The Hay Wain (1821) by John Constable (1776 - 1837)
oil on canvas, 130.2 x 185.4cm

 

Plus for those unable to view Channel 5, here's a video by the National Gallery about The Hay Wain.

 

More about John Constable

These are my blog posts 

• 'Constable, Gainsborough, Turner and the Making of Landscape' at the RA (2013) 
• Constable Portraits: The Painter and his Circle (2009) 
• BritArt in History - RA exhibits admirable collections of British drawings (2007)

Plus these blog posts from my Travels with a Sketchbook blog 

• Hampstead - Flask Walk, Burgh House and John Constable (2009) 
• Sketching Constable in the V&A (2011)

My sketch of Constable's "Boatbuilding near Flatford Mill"
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

 

Plus some links to works by John Constable 

Some excellent summaries can be found on

• Wikipedia - John Constable
• The Artchive - John Constable 
• The impressive exhibition of his landscapes at Tate Britain focused on the relationship between his sketching and the production of six foot canvases.
  

I highly recommend the collection of his work at the V&A

• these are links to work by John Constable in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum - and the articles about them 
• plus do take a look at the very many artworks by John Constable in the V&A Collection
  

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!