Sagittarius
Apologies. I said that I would post about most of what I am doing while in London but the other day I received some news that knocked me sideways and any thoughts of writing about what I was doing were completely blown away. However, things seem to have got back on an even keel now so, while not as detailed as I had originally intended, here's my reaction to the "Rembrandt - The Late Years" exhibition at the National Gallery:
Where on earth do I start?! Monday morning Sandra and I went to the exhibition of late Rembrandts and it's difficult to describe what an emotional experience it was for me. Believe it or not, at the end of the exhibition I came out and met up with Sandra (we had gone our separate ways in the exhibition) and I was so emotional I was almost crying. Just going in to the first room was almost overwhelming. There were no less that five self portraits on the walls and to me the room seemed to vibrate with energy emanating from them. The exhibition covered ten years of his life from 1659 to 1669. Rembrandt never flattered. His portraits are probably the most honest depiction of the physical human as well as the emotional, psychological human and he was never more honest than when he depicted himself in his many self portraits. No one I believe, has ever dug deeper in to the human soul with more mastery than Rembrandt. It is not just the depiction of the person but it is done with such assuredeness and mastery by someone who, over the years had honed his technique to such perfection that he could, with a single brush stroke create any effect that he desired.
Although almost all of the portraits in the exhibition seem to be in tones of cream and brown, they are in fact full of the most dazzling array of colours. This exhibition contains only late works but I have seen self portraits painted when he was a much younger and really quite good looking man and over the years he painted the brutal truth about the ageing process so in his late years (he died when he was only 63) he is shown with deeply wrinkled skin and a bulbous nose (probably a heart condition), his small, dark eyes peering out from under deep, furrowed brows.
Intermingled among the painting were etchings, mainly of religious subjects, smaller and less clamouring for attention that the larger oil painting, but exploration of then is richly rewarding. One can admire his astonishingly sure hand; quick strokes of the pen or whatever he was using, that were never out of place and convey in small gestures things that lesser mortals would struggle with.
There were certains painting that stood out of course and perhaps it is unfair to single them out but all the same, his "Self Portrait with two Circles" could be considered one of his best. He is shown against a plain background with the exception of two semi-circles in the background. Various theories have been put forward as to what they mean and it seems the most common theory is that Rembrandt is recalling the famous Italian artist Giotto who, to win a comission, drew a perfect circle freehand and Rembrandt is saying in his way "I am a great artist also". However, although undoutedly he was and is a great artist, the two semi-circles are not painted in one sweeping stoke but by multiple brush strokes.
The most dazzling painting known as "The Jewish Bride" shows very clearly his use of the palette knife (The first painter to do so?) where it layers colour upon colour on the sleeve of the man to create a shimmering gold threaded brocade. An absolute masterwork.
Probably my favourite portrait if is is possible to pick one out of so many absolute masterpieces, is the Portrait of Margaretha de Geer, wife of Jacob Trip. This was shown together with the portrait of her husband. Apparently it was the custom then, when husband and wife were painted together, that the wife was painted in profile always looking to the right at her husband. Her husband died a few years after his portrait was painted and his wife succeeded him as head of their business. And doesn't she look the matriach? Looking straight out of the canvas, no sideways look for her, those steely eyes bore in to you and the very masculine left hand is placed so firmly on the arm of the chair. In the not too good reproduction I have attached she is wearing a very formal head dress that is hard to distinguish against the dark background.
"An Old Woman reading" is another to linger over. The indirect light coming from the left is reflected off the book she is reading and on to her face. It's a very striking image but don't think that any reproduction can do justice to the real thing.
I had always believed that the painting of "A Woman bathing in a Stream" was in fact of Saskia, his first wife, but I found out that this is not true. It was painted after she had died. Whatever, it came as a surprise to me that it was so small. I had always imagined it to be life size. Also, it appears to be unfinished, something I had never realised before. Her shift is painted in broad, swift strokes, just the underpainting of something that was to be and her right has dissolves in to almost nothing but such is the mastery of the painter that it fools you in to believing that everything is as it should be.
Tuesday, Sandra and I accompanied by another friend, Hilary, went to see "Rembrandt", a 90 minute film made in conjunction with the National Gallery and the Rijksmuseum. It went it to some detail about Rembrandt's life and of course in to some of the painting. It was quite funny that when someone was talking about the "Self Portrait with Two Circles", I whispered to Hilary "That has so much confidence" and almost immediately the woman commentating almost repeated my words. I'm glad that she also had doubts about the meaning of the circles that some say are a reference to Giotto's drawing of a perfect circle. Paula, another friend of mine wrote to me about this particular portrait: "How can he paint FUR and make it so convincing just by scraping some brown and red paint on the canvas? Genius."
They went in to some detail about the etchings and Rembrandt's use of dry point about which I knew nothing. Fascinating that he used dry point like no one else had done at that time so he was an innovator in so many ways.
The Curator of Dutch and Flemish painting at the Gallery said that her aim was that at the end, people would come out of the last room, fall on the floor and cry. Well, I didn't fall on the floor and I didn't give a public demonstration of my emotions but I had great difficulty in talking to Sandra at that moment because I was welling up inside. I can't remember any exhibition that has ever had that effect on me. I was impressed to the extent that I have insisted on paying the air fare for a friend to fly over from Spain for two nights just to see it. He couldn't pay the fare himself since very high winds have ruined his avocado crop. He's the only friend I have in Spain who has sufficient knowledge of art and the enthusiasm to appreciate the exhibition.
Where on earth do I start?! Monday morning Sandra and I went to the exhibition of late Rembrandts and it's difficult to describe what an emotional experience it was for me. Believe it or not, at the end of the exhibition I came out and met up with Sandra (we had gone our separate ways in the exhibition) and I was so emotional I was almost crying. Just going in to the first room was almost overwhelming. There were no less that five self portraits on the walls and to me the room seemed to vibrate with energy emanating from them. The exhibition covered ten years of his life from 1659 to 1669. Rembrandt never flattered. His portraits are probably the most honest depiction of the physical human as well as the emotional, psychological human and he was never more honest than when he depicted himself in his many self portraits. No one I believe, has ever dug deeper in to the human soul with more mastery than Rembrandt. It is not just the depiction of the person but it is done with such assuredeness and mastery by someone who, over the years had honed his technique to such perfection that he could, with a single brush stroke create any effect that he desired.
Although almost all of the portraits in the exhibition seem to be in tones of cream and brown, they are in fact full of the most dazzling array of colours. This exhibition contains only late works but I have seen self portraits painted when he was a much younger and really quite good looking man and over the years he painted the brutal truth about the ageing process so in his late years (he died when he was only 63) he is shown with deeply wrinkled skin and a bulbous nose (probably a heart condition), his small, dark eyes peering out from under deep, furrowed brows.
Intermingled among the painting were etchings, mainly of religious subjects, smaller and less clamouring for attention that the larger oil painting, but exploration of then is richly rewarding. One can admire his astonishingly sure hand; quick strokes of the pen or whatever he was using, that were never out of place and convey in small gestures things that lesser mortals would struggle with.
There were certains painting that stood out of course and perhaps it is unfair to single them out but all the same, his "Self Portrait with two Circles" could be considered one of his best. He is shown against a plain background with the exception of two semi-circles in the background. Various theories have been put forward as to what they mean and it seems the most common theory is that Rembrandt is recalling the famous Italian artist Giotto who, to win a comission, drew a perfect circle freehand and Rembrandt is saying in his way "I am a great artist also". However, although undoutedly he was and is a great artist, the two semi-circles are not painted in one sweeping stoke but by multiple brush strokes.
The most dazzling painting known as "The Jewish Bride" shows very clearly his use of the palette knife (The first painter to do so?) where it layers colour upon colour on the sleeve of the man to create a shimmering gold threaded brocade. An absolute masterwork.
Probably my favourite portrait if is is possible to pick one out of so many absolute masterpieces, is the Portrait of Margaretha de Geer, wife of Jacob Trip. This was shown together with the portrait of her husband. Apparently it was the custom then, when husband and wife were painted together, that the wife was painted in profile always looking to the right at her husband. Her husband died a few years after his portrait was painted and his wife succeeded him as head of their business. And doesn't she look the matriach? Looking straight out of the canvas, no sideways look for her, those steely eyes bore in to you and the very masculine left hand is placed so firmly on the arm of the chair. In the not too good reproduction I have attached she is wearing a very formal head dress that is hard to distinguish against the dark background.
"An Old Woman reading" is another to linger over. The indirect light coming from the left is reflected off the book she is reading and on to her face. It's a very striking image but don't think that any reproduction can do justice to the real thing.
I had always believed that the painting of "A Woman bathing in a Stream" was in fact of Saskia, his first wife, but I found out that this is not true. It was painted after she had died. Whatever, it came as a surprise to me that it was so small. I had always imagined it to be life size. Also, it appears to be unfinished, something I had never realised before. Her shift is painted in broad, swift strokes, just the underpainting of something that was to be and her right has dissolves in to almost nothing but such is the mastery of the painter that it fools you in to believing that everything is as it should be.
Tuesday, Sandra and I accompanied by another friend, Hilary, went to see "Rembrandt", a 90 minute film made in conjunction with the National Gallery and the Rijksmuseum. It went it to some detail about Rembrandt's life and of course in to some of the painting. It was quite funny that when someone was talking about the "Self Portrait with Two Circles", I whispered to Hilary "That has so much confidence" and almost immediately the woman commentating almost repeated my words. I'm glad that she also had doubts about the meaning of the circles that some say are a reference to Giotto's drawing of a perfect circle. Paula, another friend of mine wrote to me about this particular portrait: "How can he paint FUR and make it so convincing just by scraping some brown and red paint on the canvas? Genius."
They went in to some detail about the etchings and Rembrandt's use of dry point about which I knew nothing. Fascinating that he used dry point like no one else had done at that time so he was an innovator in so many ways.
The Curator of Dutch and Flemish painting at the Gallery said that her aim was that at the end, people would come out of the last room, fall on the floor and cry. Well, I didn't fall on the floor and I didn't give a public demonstration of my emotions but I had great difficulty in talking to Sandra at that moment because I was welling up inside. I can't remember any exhibition that has ever had that effect on me. I was impressed to the extent that I have insisted on paying the air fare for a friend to fly over from Spain for two nights just to see it. He couldn't pay the fare himself since very high winds have ruined his avocado crop. He's the only friend I have in Spain who has sufficient knowledge of art and the enthusiasm to appreciate the exhibition.
"You can be young without money but you can't be old without money"
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
Maggie the Cat from "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof." by Tennessee Williams
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