Painting of the Month
Goldfish
This is a painting that I have wanted to write about for a while now, the reason being a moment of revelatory remembering. Allow me to explain. As a child at primary school, I recall spending a considerable amount of time sitting outside the first aid room. During the summer months, I suffered…
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Judith and her Maidservant
If like me, you missed out on seeing the National Gallery’s Artemisia exhibition, you may have consoled yourself with the virtual offerings and brilliant accompanying catalogue. Mourning the loss of missing such a landmark show (the first in the UK dedicated to the artist), I have chosen March’s Painting of the Month to console me. Artemisia Gentileschi’s…
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Portrait of an Old Jew
Recently re-reading Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1596-97) has prompted me to think about Shylock. When I imagine him, I see the sitter in Rembrandt’s Portrait of an Old Jew (1654). Whether I knew the painting or the play first, I cannot say, but the two are inextricable in my mind. Thinking deeply about Shylock and what Shakespeare reveals…
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Beech Grove I
The relaxing and restorative power of nature has become indispensable to many of us this past year, and it has moved me to integrate some of my thoughts and feelings into ‘painting of the month’ posts. January’s uncharacteristic venture into the 20th century has been inspired by the effect the outside world has on my…
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The Deposition of Christ
Although Simone Peterzano (c.1535-c.1596) is most commonly encountered as the artist to whom a teenage Caravaggio was apprenticed, he was an esteemed painter in his time and, I think, worthy of more attention than is given to him. Supposedly a pupil of fellow Venetian Titian [1], Peterzano was a favourite of the formidable Carlo Borromeo,…
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The Broken Mirror
Renowned for his portraits and genre paintings, Jean-Baptiste Greuze (1725-1805) was popular in the 1760s but is quite unfashionable today. He had an astute sensitivity for capturing subtle emotions in his subjects’ faces, reproducing inner thoughts and feelings in such a way as to permit us as a viewer to participate in the scene before…
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Dante and Virgil
The selection of this artwork as Painting of the Month has been motivated by two occurrences; one good and one terrible. I’ll start with the good. Since lockdown began I have reinstated my former student status and joined in a weekly online seminar about Dante’s Divine Comedy, on which I took a module for my…
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The Memory of Your Touch
This month’s Painting of the Month (which is happily not a painting) has been selected and written by Anne Abouchar. Follow her on Instagram @mylondonpassion. I am delighted to be writing something for this wonderful blog. I admit, however, my preferences in art sit solidly in the 20th and 21st centuries. At times, these contemporary…
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The Little Street
Last month, I chose Arthur Hacker’s Imprisoned Spring (1900) as my Painting of the Month, a view of a young woman looking out at nature through a window. This month I wanted to pick something to reflect the slight easing of lockdown, inspired by walks around my neighbourhood. As we are all spending more time…
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Imprisoned Spring
We humans are connected to the natural world in a profound and innate way. We often seek to synchronise our bodies with the rising and retiring of the sun, we bask in its light and warmth, we crave fresh air and find joy in the sights, sounds and sensations of being outside. This month Winter officially…
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Death and the Miser
From a quick glance at some of the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch (c.1450-1516), you would be forgiven for assuming that he was mad. But you would be wrong. He was a highly intelligent man, a respected and successful artist who had many important patrons. While to our modern eye his peculiar and fantastical creations seem strange and surreal,…
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Love Steering the Boat of Humanity
For an artist who did not adhere to any dogmatic faith, many of the works by George Frederic Watts (1817-1904) is saturated in spirituality. Images of life and death, virtue and sin, the earth-bound and the otherworldly through religious and moral subject matter dominate his artistic output and were often utilised to reflect both universal…
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The Beheading of St. John the Baptist
The Beheading of St. John the Baptist by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio stands out from all preceding depictions of the scene in the history of art. It pauses on a strikingly specific moment; one in which John’s head is not fully severed from his body. The emphasis on the explicit details of the act of his killing is often read…
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The Temptation and Fall of Eve
I finally got around to reading John Milton’s Paradise Lost, and since finishing it I have found myself thinking about it often. Comprised of 645 verses, the poem is a deeply personal and epic retelling of the Genesis story, with which Milton set out to ‘assert Eternal Providence, and justify the ways of God to men’. Considered to be…
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Homage to the Square: Departing from Yellow
Colour has a profound effect on our lives; on our mood, the train of our thoughts, our mental associations, our outlook. When we see a tone or combination of tones, a mental and/or physical reaction occurs on some level, the trigger of which be a hugely varied and complex thing. As children, we have favourite…
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Jupiter Beguiled by Juno on Mount Ida
James Barry (1763-1806) is a brilliant anomaly in Britsh art history, but is also one of the most (if not the most) important Irish Neoclassical artists. I’ve wanted to choose one of his works for Painting of the Month for some time, but I have been torn between this one, a Self Portrait of 1803 in the National…
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Crucifixion
Seventeenth-century Spanish Catholic art has a distinct visual language, reflecting the traditions of religious theory and practice in that specific time and place. While Protestantism enforced the biblical commandment forbidding the creation of ‘graven images’, the Catholic Church both defended and promoted their use of art to inspire piety and strengthen faith. As one of the…
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Soft Self-Portrait with Fried Bacon
You may find it surprising to know that Salvador Dalí was my first favourite artist. I remember discovering at him when I was studying GCSE Art & Design, and feeling that his paintings had something to say to me – perhaps disconcerting for a 15 year old. Looking back, I think the main appeal was his ‘painted dream…
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The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew
You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven Matthew 5:43-45 The etymology of the word ‘martyr’ is derived from the…
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The Sower
For Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) his work was his life’s purpose, and through his art he explored themes that meant a lot to him. He saw the work of artists of the past as something to be learnt from, to absorb their lessons and apply them to his own time. Jean-François Millet (1814-75) was someone that van Gogh felt a…
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Snow Storm: Steam-Boat off a Harbour’s Mouth
I’m scared of the sea. I don’t like being in it or on it, or even miles in the sky above it. Watching programmes that explore the vast depths and the creatures that live there make me feel ill, and worse still is footage of tankers or container ships in the midst of a raging storm. Even…
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Nativity (Holy Night)
The birth of a baby is a common thing, something that we probably all experience in some way during our lifetime. We know the specific feeling of celebrating a new life and adoring a child. As the first scene of Jesus’ life on Earth it should actively inspire reflection and wonder, emotions far beyond the everyday and the physical….
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Susannah at her Bath
When I first discover a musician or band I seek out their entire back catalogue. I apply the same obsessiveness to artists, and such is the case with French painter Hughes Merle (1823-1881). Though he is often criticised as being sentimental, I find that his interpretations of literary and mythological scenes give much more than might first meet…
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The Inspiration of Saint Matthew
I have a print of this painting on my wall at home so I spend a lot of time looking at it, mostly from having my ironing board set up in front of it. It is an altar of sorts, which is apt because is at the centre of three paintings in the Contarelli Chapel of San Luigi dei…
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Still Life, Pink Roses by Samuel Peploe
Researching for exhibitions brings me in contact with art that I perhaps wouldn’t have discovered otherwise, which is usually a good thing. The Scottish Colourists were a group of fascinating artists, of which Samuel Peploe (1871-1935) was a leading member. The four members of the group, who were active in the 1920s, were from Edinburgh, and all were enormously…
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