Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Category: London

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Laughing Cavalier by Frans Hals)

    This is perhaps the best-known artwork in the Wallace Collection, although I hadn’t even realised that it was there, so it was a pleasant surprise when I saw it. It was painted by Frans Hals (1582-1666) in 1624, although it’s not known who the figure in the artwork is. One thing that is known is that the sitter was aged 26 and we know this because Hals wrote it on the back of the painting, although perhaps he could have popped on the name of who he had painted as well.

    And, copyright of the Wallace Collection, is this much better image.

    It’s known that the painting was sold in The Hague in 1770, although unclear where it was before that, later being purchased by Comte de Pourtalès-Gorgier in 1822. It then came into the collections of Richard Seymour-Conway, who outbid Baron James de Rothschild at an auction in 1865. It was probably best he did win this battle, where the painting went for over six times its estimate, as he allowed it to go on display at Bethnal Green Museum between 1872 and 1875. It was there that it was talked about because of the enigmatic smile, although it’s more the moustache creating this jovial impression. The painting was then returned after its period on public display and came into the collections of Richard Wallace, from where it was donated to the nation.

    It wasn’t until 1888 that the reference ‘Laughing Cavalier’ was made to the artwork, although this is now what it is commonly referred to. All of this burst of activity in the nineteenth century also saw the reputation of Hals improve, as he had fallen a little into obscurity in the decades after his death.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Arabs Travelling in the Desert by Horace Vernet)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Arabs Travelling in the Desert by Horace Vernet)

    There are some rather lovely colours in this artwork, painted by Horace Vernet (1789-1863) in 1843 and exhibited in the Paris Salon in 1844. I like thinking that this was displayed in Paris with thousands of people looking at it, crammed as the walls were at this arts festival.

    The gallery’s version (copyright of the Wallace Collection) is much better. The painting was acquired by Richard Seymour-Conway (1800-1870) after it went on display in Paris, later being given to the nation by Lady Wallace in 1897. Vernet had the interesting claim to fame that he was born in the Louvre, where his parents were staying during the French Revolution. And he can also claim to be the first person to take photos of the island of Malta when he visited there in 1840, although, unfortunately, these appear to have been lost.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Beni Suef on the Nile by Prosper Marilhat)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection (Beni Suef on the Nile by Prosper Marilhat)

    This artwork is by Prosper Marilhat (that’s a wonderful first name incidentally) who lived between 1811 and 1847, painting this in the late 1830s following a visit to Egypt. The gallery doesn’t know when it was acquired, but perhaps the saddest part of this story is that the artist went insane and died in a lunatic asylum in Paris aged only 36.

    The gallery has kindly placed much better copies of the images on their web-site (copyright Wallace Collection) and they’ve done wonders here to bring out the colours on the artwork. Beni Suef is located around 70 miles south of Cairo, a city once made wealthy through its manufacture of linen. But, back to the artwork, it is one of those evocative paintings of a time gone by…..

  • London – Ealing (Borough of) – Sir Michael Balcon

    London – Ealing (Borough of) – Sir Michael Balcon

    I thought I’d visited every JD Wetherspoon outlet in central (well, centralish) London, but I’ve either missed this one or forgotten that I’ve been. Anyway, that wasn’t the reason I went, this is the only Good Beer Guide pub listed in the centre of Ealing, so another one to tick off the list.

    This former Slug & Lettuce venue was turned into a JD Wetherspoon outlet in 2008 and it’s relatively small. The steps up to the toilets are quite narrow and there’s not a vast amount of table space compared to many of their other pubs. Usually, these smaller outlets are from Wetherspoon’s expansion phase in the late 1980s or 1990s, but the quite vibrant carpet gives it a bit of character at least.

    I wasn’t on the hunt for beer, but the pub did have a few real ales on and their normal reasonably wide selection of craft beers in cans. The entirely non-alcoholic San Pellegrino, still at the competitive price of £1.09, sufficed for today.

    The staff member who brought the drink over was sufficiently engaging and helpful, there was a relaxed atmosphere and I’m guessing that most of the customers were locals. The pub is named after the film producer as he was involved with the nearby Ealing Studios and before the building became a pub, it was used as Bryant’s Furniture Store.

    Anyway, I had a little look at the on-line reviews and I’m moderately confused by the complaint from someone asked to leave at 19:00. The reviewer, who was most upset said:

    “Signage also only stated Families welcome until 6pm and children to order before 5pm”.

    Hmmm, seems quite clear, although it seems they thought if they were in before 18:00 then they could stay, well, until whenever. I’d have thought that the sign should have been a clue…

    And another customer who wrote:

    “We had just travelled all the way from central London after seeing a show at the theatre as my father wanted to specifically go here as he is a Wetherspoons fanatic. When we arrived, the manager immediately and abruptly asked my daughter for some ID and then told us that our daughters, 16 and 17 could not come in as it was past 6 O’clock. We told him we were there to celebrate my fathers 70th birthday by having a meal and that we had specifically come here from Central London. He then told us he would lose his license if he served us as it was gone 6pm. He would not listen to us at all and did not want to know.”

    I’m puzzled as to what the manager was meant to do if their license doesn’t allow under 18s in the pub, which is hardly rare…..

    Otherwise, the reviews aren’t particularly notable, but this is a worthy entrant into the Good Beer Guide, perhaps one of the slightly more quirky JD Wetherspoon outlets. I also know that the chain are making an effort with the hanging baskets and floral displays outside their pubs across the country, but this is one of the more notable attempts.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – Wallace Collection

    This is my first visit to the Wallace Collection in London, a free museum that’s a short walk away from Bond Street underground station. The collection was donated to the nation in 1897 and there are strong holdings of porcelain, armour and French art.

    The booking process was all very easy and there was a friendly staff member at the entrance to the museum who was welcoming visitors and showing them where to go. This is a challenging location to open to the public at the moment as it’s a former residential property (albeit a grand one) which wasn’t really designed for this purpose. However, they’ve created a one-way system and limited numbers in each room, making it a fairly easy collection to navigate. There were plenty of staff members on the route and they seemed helpful and engaged.

    There were numerous highlights, and I’ll write separately about some of these, but I was pleased to discover that the Laughing Cavalier is on display. Not that I’ve given much thought to where this artwork was actually located, I hadn’t expected it to be here. It’s not a huge collection compared to the national museums, but I was there for around an hour which seemed to be roughly how long people were generally staying for.

    The museum is very well-reviewed with only a handful of negative comments and those are mostly related to the on-site cafe. One of the most ridiculous from last year is from someone with a large backpack who complained that they were asked to place it in a cloakroom, not an unreasonable request. They have closed the cloakroom at the moment, but visitors can carry reasonably sized bags around with them.

    And the most ridiculous review of the lot:

    “We went to the wallace collection and were roped into a tour. This consisted of an over enthusiastic older lady telling us about the paintings in depth and the story behind them.”

    Hardly bad is it?

    Anyway, all very lovely, especially as there’s no admission charge.

  • London – Great Fire of London Walk

    London – Great Fire of London Walk

    Just photos in this post…. Above is the Monument to the Great Fire, a doric column designed by Christopher Wren and Robert Hooke. The stonework on the monument that said that Catholics were to blame for the fire was removed in the early 1800s, since it was never true in the first place….

    The photos are from my friend’s Des’s walk around the centre of London, pointing out some of the legacies of the Great Fire of London in September 1666.

     

  • London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Mikkeller Bar

    London – Tower Hamlets (Borough of) – Mikkeller Bar

    This is the UK outpost of Mikkeller, a Danish brewer who have become all rather on-trend. They’re located in what was the George & Dragon pub (although it was turned into a shop before Mikkeller took it over) which was rather smaller than I had expected.

    The selection of beers, beautifully well balanced to ensure something for most tastes. They’re not the cheapest pub going, but the quality of the beers is high and there are some interesting options. The service was friendly, engaging and welcoming, with the staff members being knowledgeable about the beers.

    Part of the pub’s interior, it was otherwise busy and I was trying to avoid getting too many people in a photo that they might not have wanted to be in. I mentioned that my phone was low on charge (I’ve managed to forget to bring my battery pack with me this week) and I was hopefully shown a table which had a power socket by it, so that was a relief as I’d find it a little hard to cope without my phone….. (perhaps I need to get out more). The decor is just a little bit harsh and utilitarian, probably not conducive to people staying for a long time.

    My two beer choices were the Dry Stout Centennial Mosaic from the Kernel Brewery and the Hallo Ich Bin Berliner Weisse Raspberry from Mikkeller. No prizes for anyone who guesses correctly which one the above photo is of. The stout is made by a small local brewery in London and had a smokiness and bitterness to it. The raspberry sour was piquant and flavoursome (that sounds pretentious I think, but there we go), both beers being very drinkable.

    Anyway, all very lovely, although the bar was full soon after they opened, so I’m wondering whether they might be tempted to return to their more normal hours rather than the slightly more limited ones they’re operating with at the moment. The pub also has pizzas which are supplied from Yard Sale Pizza, a third party company, which did sound tempting and it’s a clever way of providing a food offering.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – National Gallery (Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Peter)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – National Gallery (Saint Mary Magdalene and Saint Peter)

    These two Saints (NG4491 and NG4492) are in the collections of the National Gallery, donated in 1930 in honour of Charles D Cumming. The two separate pieces are part of a larger altarpiece which has since been broken up, with other sections in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome and also in private collections. They date from around 1350 and it isn’t known where the altarpiece was from, or when it was broken up.

    The Mary Magdalene image is notable for, and I’ve taken this from the National Gallery web-site (I hardly knew this):

    “The artist has taken great care to paint the ointment jar so that it resembles white marble with pink and blue veins. Its surface has a soft luminosity, an effect achieved by painting a thin layer of white paint over a base of layer of bright colours. This technique is known as scumbling.”

    I’m not sure what look for Mary that the artist was intending, although it appears more grumpy than pensive. Anyway, that’s my contribution to the commentary on these artworks…

    They think that there was a main panel with the Virgin Mary in the centre, with the two pieces in the gallery’s collections having once been positioned to the right of that. The arched panels at the top are more recent, as they were at some stage turned into rectangular artworks, so they could be displayed on a wall.

    Although it’s not ideal from an artistic perspective, I quite like that the individual items that once formed part of a larger artwork are dotted around the world. It makes it more of a treasure hunt to locate them.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – National Gallery (Saint Sabinus by Pietro Lorenzetti)

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – National Gallery (Saint Sabinus by Pietro Lorenzetti)

    This artwork (reference NG1113) is in the National Gallery in London and they’ve had it in their collections since 1882, when it was presented to them by Charles Fairfax Murray. The full title of the painting is “Saint Sabinus before the Roman Governor of Tuscany” and the gallery thinks that it was painted between 1335 and 1342. Murray was an artist who spent some time living and working in Siena, in Italy, and it’s thought very likely that this might have been designed originally as part of an altarpiece for the city’s cathedral.

    The gallery’s web-site, which is gloriously detailed, has no end of information about this painting, but I like that there was once one central panel and four altarpieces, of which this is one. The central panel is today at the Cathedral Museum in Siena, two of the panels are at the Uffizi (so, I may or may not have seen them earlier this year) and the other is lost.

    The Roman Governor in the image is Venustianus and he’s sitting down on the seat with the strange-looking lions, demanding that Sabinus sacrifice one of his companions. Sabinus offered a statue, which seemingly wasn’t sufficient as Venustianus ordered his hands to be cut off. Now more commonly referred to as Saint Sabinus of Spoleto, he was later executed by Lucius, the Roman elected official. So, not exactly ideal.

    Pietro Lorenzetti (?1280-1348) is apparently (I’m reading this bit on an art site, I don’t know as I’m not an art historian) an influential forerunner of the Italian Renaissance movement and he was well-known in Siena. Given that he was painting 700 years ago, a surprising number of his works are still in museums and galleries around the world today.

  • London – Westminster (Borough of) – National Gallery

    London – Westminster (Borough of) – National Gallery

    I wasn’t enormously thrilled about how the British Museum handled their visitor flow yesterday, with people clustered together. However, the National Gallery, to quote a phrase of someone I know, surprised and delighted me with their arrangements.

    Visitors go to the Sainsbury Wing Entrance and the time of the ticket is clear, turn up no more than fifteen minutes before. There was a staff member guiding visitors and he was helpful, giving clear instructions to everyone and there was plenty of space for people to wait. I liked this, he was chatty and welcomed visitors with a smile and those without tickets were dealt with politely.

    The member of security staff was humorous, engaged and keen to welcome visitors. I admit that mine was the first bag of the day that he had to check, but nonetheless, he smiled and made conversation. And, the staff at the gallery were all engaging and they looked like they wanted to be there. Two staff were talking to each other about a painting, a moment which it occurred to me that I’ve never seen before. The staff were pro-active and welcoming visitors, giving the impression that their role was that of aiding the visit of someone new to the gallery (or someone experienced wanting help), rather than just being there for security.

    The gallery has information about every one of its artworks on-line, and this is useful and accessible. It added an extra dimension to the artworks, although that had the disadvantage that I stayed for three hours and still didn’t even get half-way round. I’ve booked another ticket on-line for in two weeks, but this experience reminded me that the National Gallery is, along with the Met in New York, perhaps the best gallery in the world.

    Impeccable and a perfect example of how to handle visitors during these uncertain times. And below, some photos of the galleries…