Paintings/Artwork in Galleries and Museums

[Courtenay]

Split from another topic.

I have got a few books and annuals, illustrated by Jolyne Knox, and they are very detailed and reflect a very unusual style which consists of lots of dots!!

That's called Pointillism. Georges Seurat was a master of it:






I'm not sure if Jolyne Knox is in the same league, though.

[Poppy]

That's called Pointillism.

Yeah, I knew that... My Grandad has done some amazing pictures using this technique: mainly of faces.

[Anita Bensoussane]

Last week after a hospital appointment in London, I went to the National Gallery and saw that top painting ('Bathers at Asnières'). There was a plaque at the side which said that Georges Seurat hadn't yet perfected his pointillist technique when he painted it, so he returned to the picture at a later date and added dots of colour in certain places, to give an impression of exuberance and radiance. The dog in the bottom left-hand corner caught my eye as it reminded me of Scamper.

[Courtenay]

Yes, it also looks a bit like a reddish version of our half-spaniel, Sandy!

Very interesting about the painting - I didn't know it was in the National Gallery. I'll have to go and see it for myself one day. I posted both those pictures because (as I only found out this evening) they're actually a pair, showing opposite sides of the same river and two very different sectors of 1880s Parisian society. The working class bathers enjoying themselves at Asnières are actually looking over at the very stiff, prim and proper rich people on the fashionable Island of La Grande Jatte! One wonders what the two groups are thinking of each other...

[Anita Bensoussane]

Interesting that the pictures are a pair. I notice that the lady in the purple skirt has got a pet monkey.

[John Pickup]

Wow. Your eyesight is amazing, Anita. I went back to the picture and it took me a while before I spotted the monkey.

[Rob Houghton]

we studied these two pictures for A Level art many moons ago. I particularly like the fact that the upper class side is somehow impersonal, while the lower class bathers are closer, and we feel more a part of them than their more well off counterparts. The artist was obviously more on the side of the poorer classes.

[pete9012S]

I somehow thought the pictures were from the 1920's from studying them in school in the early 1980's...the 1st pic reminds me of the River Thames at the bottom of Enid's lane at Old Thatch when you have crossed the level crossing.

[sixret]

You have a very sharp eyes, Anita! I thought it was somekind of weird dog!

Like Pete, the first photo reminds me of Bourne End( in the joke section) where you asked where was Fatty?

[Fiona1986]

I've seen those paintings before but I didn't know they were two halves of one scene, that's very interesting.

[walter raleigh]

Thanks for all the kind words about my Blyton collection everyone, even if it isn't a patch on Tony or Robert's massive hoards! [See the thread 'My Enid Blyton Bookcase!']

When I was up in London recently I too went to the National Gallery (for the first time, incredibly). "Bathers at Asnières" is one of my favourite paintings and I had no idea they had it in their collection. It was absolutely thrilling to walk round a corner and see it looming up in the distance. It's massive! (I got the same pleasure at seeing Stubbs' "Whistlejacket" too). They also had some of Seurat's sketches and studies for "La Grande Jatte" as well, and I didn't realise until then, that they were painted to complement each other either.

The National Gallery really has a fantastic collection, including some extremely famous paintings that I didn't know they had. Constable's "Hay Wain", Van Gogh's "Sunflowers", "The Arnolfini Marriage", Holbein's "Ambassadors". The one painter who really impressed me though was Canaletto. There were a couple of pictures of Venice that were absolutely stunning.

My absolute favourite painting though was Renoir's The Skiff (La Yole):



I couldn't get over the fact that when you stood close up to it, it was just a blur of colour, but from a distance it looks almost photographic. Incredible technique.

[Anita Bensoussane]

I also like to stand back from paintings to get the full effect, Walter. When my children were younger I took them to the National Gallery several times and I could hardly drag my daughter away from Stubbs' Whistlejacket (painted around 1762), which you mentioned in your post:



It's an enormous painting and the lack of background allows the viewer to focus completely on the beauty of the horse. Last month my daughter went to the National Gallery with one of her friends and sought out that painting, never having forgotten it. It's one of my favourites too.

Another one that always catches my eye is Bartolemé Bermejo's St. Michael Triumphs Over the Devil (1468) as the depiction of the Devil is quite amusing:



I also love this realistic painting by Joseph Wright 'of Derby' - An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
(1768):

[Lucky Star]

Another one that always catches my eye is Bartolemé Bermejo's St. Michael Triumphs Over the Devil (1468) as the depiction of the Devil is quite amusing:

He looks like a golliwog who's being tickled.

[Anita Bensoussane]

A good description, John!

He wouldn't look out of place on The Muppets or Sesame Street!

[Courtenay]

So gollies are officially diabolical as well as racist...