I never really liked paintings with people in them – I always preferred landscapes, or city scapes. Art like the Group of Seven, or the Impressionists. But in my 20’s I read Josephine Tey’s The Daughter of Time, and it made me think about portraits completely differently. I still prefer non-representational work, and if any prints in my house do have people in them I prefer them to be somewhat indistinct or off in the distance, but since reading that novel, I will seek out portraits in an art gallery and really spend time looking at them, and thinking about them, about the subject, and about the artist.
There’s a wonderful British TV competition series called Portrait Artist of the Year (its companion series, Landscape Artist of the Year is equally wonderful). My sisters and I watch these shows and discuss the portraits we see in them. The winner each season is commissioned to paint a famous person (Alan Cumming, Hilary Mantel, Tom Jones), and the portrait is hung in Scotland’s National Gallery, or Ireland’s, or most often, The National Portrait Gallery (NPG) in London.
London’s NPG has been closed for over three years, but I found out last week that its re-opening was Thursday. So, slight change of plans – now Friday was to be a morning visit to the Portrait Gallery, and the afternoon to the National Gallery next door. After yesterday’s British Museum crowds I was concerned, but, I have to accept that major London venues aren’t going to change just for me. (How annoying)
OMG – it was wonderful. More than made up for yesterday, far fewer people, actual air conditioning, and room upon room of amazing paintings and sculptures. It was an absolutely great visit. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that after lunch (champagne & duck at the restaurant Ochre, a part of the galleries), I ditched my original plan and went right back into the Portrait Gallery for a second visit. I saw kings, writers, scientists (see below), the famous & the infamous. I also missed a great deal – I had really thought this would be my last visit to London, but after today I want to go back to the NPG and to the skipped-over National Gallery. BTW, all these museums and galleries are free – gotta love the U.K.
It was hands down the best day. Until I fell in the street and sprained my ankle.
