Tag: Richmond

The latest post in my “stuff I like in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts” (and don’t worry anyone, I’ve nearly finished) is this piece of Roman glassware dating to the third or fourth century. It (the one in the middle of the photo, above the number 32) was made in Rhineland, which was one of the first centres of Roman glass making in the empire outside of what is now Italy, with the limitations being the raw materials that were needed by the industry.

It’s a bottle, or apparently it’s technically called a stamnium, but I think the former is a better word here and it’s one that I can spell. I don’t know what was in it, probably olive oil or something (and there’s a glass Roman bottle in Naples which still has the olive oil in it), but I like to think that it was beer. The Germanic people did brew beer in this period, although Tacitus complained about the quality of it, but we’ve all been there with our commentary on that.

As an aside, the bottle on the left above the number 31, is Byzantine and was made between the fifth and seventh centuries. There’s a little more knowledge about this one as it has Christian motifs, meaning that it could have been used by a pilgrim to carry either water or oil. I like the idea of someone taking part in a pilgrimage carrying that as I went on my own little pilgrimage to a brewery today in Chicago (this blog is being written a little retrospectively at the moment) and rejected the free glass I was offered and instead was given several branded plastic glasses which have rather less chance of breaking. But, I digress.

I didn’t see this artwork by Canaletto at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the only artist that I routinely hunt out at every gallery I go to, but that’s primarily because it’s not on display. Painted between 1746 and 1755, it’s the interior of King’s College Chapel in Cambridge and it was given to the gallery by Elizabeth Golsan Schneider, in memory of her mother, Florence Ramage Golsan.

This painting was once owned by Horace Walpole, the son of the first Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole and was displayed at his Strawberry Hill House at Twickenham (which is part of the Borough of Richmond, relevant as that’s where this city in Virginia is named after). The Lewis Walpole Library of Yale University has managed to ascertain that this painting was being displayed in the breakfast room of the house in 1774 and in the waiting room in 1784. It was sold at auction on 17 May 1842 and then it got a bit lost to the record, but it was given to this gallery in 2002. As a little aside, that sale was because George Waldegrave, 7th Earl Waldegrave, has spent all the family money and they had to flog everything off, and one of his distant relatives was the far more capable William Waldegrave, the former Conservative Cabinet Minister.

It’s a great shame that this artwork isn’t on display and there’s an argument that I keep reading about just how much stuff is in the collections of museums and galleries that the public can’t see. I know some galleries will make artworks available on request, but I can’t imagine that many do given the complexity of shunting stuff about. Perhaps this painting will make an appearance on display in the future, but it’s a shame that it can’t be despatched somewhere else that could display it, particularly if it was in Cambridge. I also find it slightly sad that someone has donated an artwork to a gallery in memory of someone else and it’s just stuck in a backroom somewhere and not on display. On the positive side, there is a huge expansion of the gallery planned which will give them more space, so this might alleviate some of the limitations they have.

This will have to be the last post about individual artworks in the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts or I’ll never catch up on this American trip blog. But, I do like to note Canaletto paintings and so I can’t miss this one out. It was painted in either the late 1720s or the early 1730s using the camera ottica technique which allowed a projection of the image to be used as a basis for the artwork. I very much like the detail in these paintings, they’re near photo realism as far as I’m concerned and the quality of them shines through. The artworks are also so accurate that they can be used to measure climate change over the centuries.

This artwork and around 80 others, are on loan from the Jordan and Thomas A. Saunders III Collection, although I don’t know how long they’ll be here for. A very similar artwork by Canaletto was for auction a few months ago, with an estimated price of $3 to $5 million, slightly beyond my art purchasing budget (which to be fair is zero).

I’ve already posted a few of my favourite things from this gallery in Richmond, which are:

Grand Canal: The Rialto Bridge from the South by Canaletto
Canaletto not on Display
Roman Glass
Irises by the Pond by Claude Monet
Pontiac in a Deserted Lot by John Salt
Gullscape by Roy Lichtenstein

But, in more general terms, this was a really quite wonderful gallery. There’s no admission charge and it feels very well funded with a $190 million expansion currently taking place, which isn’t a bad little sum to play with although two thirds of that is being provided by the Commonwealth of Virginia. The gallery is also open every day of the year, including Christmas Day, which is some commitment to accessibility for the communities which it serves. The staff and volunteers were pro-active, friendly and engaging, so it all felt well managed and professionally run. They’re also working through their inclusion and diversity programmes which seem sensible and inclusive.

It’s already an enormous building with plenty of space in the galleries, so they feel uncluttered and not overcrowded.

I spent a couple of hours at the gallery, but could have happily spent all day if I didn’t have other things that I wanted to see in Richmond in the limited time that I had.

The stone used in the galleries has plenty of prehistoric remnants in it.

It’s also clear from walking around the building where entrances have become a little redundant because new grand extensions have been added on. This was once the main entrance and is now tucked away to one side of the gallery.

This large space is now the main entrance to the gallery and where the shop, cafe and baggage storage (which is free and was very handy for me) is located.

There’s also a fine dining restaurant in addition to the cafe.

There are many exhibits that I would have liked to have written about, but I’m going to run out of time. This is one of the gallery’s collection of Faberge eggs.

This was one of my favourite things in the gallery, a Faberge polar bear which was made in the 1890s and donated by Lillian Thomas Pratt. I think it’s really quite lovely.

There are also Roman galleries, as well as East Asian art, English silver, African and South Asian art to mention just a few.

I wonder if anyone actually ever counts….

Some other things amused me about my visit, not least that there are some automated sensors which tell visitors to stand back if they’re getting a bit close to displays. A number of visitors, who were mostly elderly and struggling with eyesight, had been trying to peer at the information card and a couple of them got quite angry. One woman stomped off to find a gallery assistant to tell her that she hadn’t been too close, which was rather unnecessarily drawing attention to herself.

As I mentioned, there’s a large expansion which starts in 2023 and is the fifth expansion since they opened in 1936. There’s more information about that at https://vmfa.museum/about/building-expansion-renovation-project/ and perhaps I’ll come back in a few years to see how it all went.

I accept that I did say that I had finished writing about the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, but I forgot this sculpture outside. But this will be the last post…..

Chloe was cast in one piece, which is in itself quite staggering given that it’s 24 feet in height, designed by the Spanish artist Jaume Plensa (1955-). It’s designed to always have a calm expression from whichever angle it is viewed from, giving the onlooker a feeling of peace and tranquility. Plensa is also the designer of the Crown Fountain in Chicago, which I might go and visit if I remember. The artist and the gallery gave great thought on where to place the artwork, settling on this spot as having the best light and location. Its size certainly makes it noticeable and at least it’s clear what it is, not some odd piece of rock which is meant to represent something that it looks nothing like.

Having safely arrived at Amtrak’s Richmond Railway station I had a 40 or so minute walk to my accommodation for the evening. I was pleased that the train hadn’t been delayed as that meant I should arrive before it got too dark.

More on this in a later post when I leave Richmond, but this is an impressive way to welcome rail passengers. In brief though, it’s an odd arrangement and this space is mostly used for conferences and the like, with passengers just walking through the middle of it to get out. Between the mid 1970s and 2003 the railway station wasn’t used by Amtrak, they solely used their facility at Richmond Staples Mill Road, but it’s a positive that this more central building re-opened for passenger usage. Incidentally, I wasn’t at all clear how to get out, I missed the steps which didn’t seem entirely obvious (although actually they are, readers can see them in the photo, but I think I was looking at the roof) and instead followed by mistake the group going to the ground floor by using the lift. There was only just space for me, but everyone kindly made room, probably wondering why I hadn’t just walked down the steps. Anyway, that fascinating tale to one side….

I took a slightly longer walk than necessary which took me by the Capitol Building, but more on that again in a future post (all this excitement that I build up!!!). The lighting worked quite well here I thought.

The United States often feels slightly strange in numerous ways, but not least these huge grand buildings and then acres of what I consider wasted space for car parks. There are some states in the country where building owners are legally mandated to have large numbers of car parking spaces, which causes problems for the zoning when every structure is surrounded by tarmac. The newer parts of Richmond felt like that to me and that’s perhaps evident in the photo.

Off down the back streets of Richmond, I was heading for the Fan District of the city.

I’ve mentioned that I needed to rely more on Airbnb on this trip, although this might have been the final night when I relied on it during this trip (I have a couple more nights left to book) and was able to get hotels for hereon in. The owner was friendly and engaging, although he had messaged earlier in the day saying that he had no water. I thought this was going to be just one big heap of confusion, but just before I got there I received a message that he had fixed the problem. All was well with the world….

The room was spacious, spotless and freezing cold because of the air conditioning, a situation that I very much liked. I know that there are environmental impacts from air conditioning, and I mention that because Stuart from the LDWA would expect nothing less from me, but I do like their cooling qualities given how much I hate heat and warmth….

And a very large en-suite bathroom, with the shower off to the right. This cost under £40 per night, which was a third of the price of hotels in the city, so another clear win for the Airbnb. The house is entirely let to travellers, but I think there was just one other person when I was there and the owner lives nearby. There was a comfortable vibe to the arrangement and I’ve started to be won over by Airbnb because of owners like this. Cost effective, clean and also easy to check-in as all the information to get through the doors and into my room are supplied within the app.

That was me safely in Richmond, where the following day I only had until the evening before I got the train out of there, which meant I was going to have a busy day trying to see everything that I wanted.

Hollywood Cemetery was just a few minutes walk from my accommodation and it also opened at 08:00 so I felt that I’d make an early start and head over. There are a couple of things evident from this map of the site, firstly there are two US Presidents buried here, and secondly, there is a lot of Confederate history and there’s some vandalism clearly visible.

The burial site of the Presidents intrigued me the most and there are seven former holders of the office buried in Virginia, more than in any other State. There are only three places where there are two Presidents in the same location, which include Quincy (which I’ve visited), Arlington (which I’ve visited but didn’t see the graves) and here. More about those burials, and others in a separate post though, to avoid this one becoming too long.

It’s all peaceful and calm, I can think of much worse places to be buried.

As I mentioned, there a lot of Confederate history at this cemetery and that’s of course challenging in a number of different ways. I’ll come to him in a later post, but there’s the burial of the only Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, and thousands of troops who died fighting for their cause.

Not looking entirely dissimilar from the CWGC graves, these are the gravestones of those who died fighting for the Confederate cause.

And they go and on for some distance. But I’ll return to this in the next few posts.

I thought that this was one of the most beautiful sculptures at the cemetery.

It would be wrong to describe this as jovial, but I assume that the deceased had something of a sense of humour with the “another step into Trinity’s great dance to which all are invited”.

There are vaults as well as graves, many built into the undulating ground.

A view back towards the city of Richmond.

The views are spectacular, there’s a footpath and railway line in the foreground, with the James River behind it (named after King James I).

The cemetery was designed by John Notman in 1847 and it opened for its first burial in 1849, with the location having been thought ideal as a final resting place. I can’t say that I disagree with that, there are 135 acres of land here in its grand elevated riverside location.

Dream Girl.

The cemetery is still open for burials today and there’s plenty of space left, along with the neighbouring Mount Calvary cemetery which is for Catholics.

The White family burials.

And after ninety minutes of walking about, I thought that I best go and explore the rest of the city.