Category: Art

Two Monkeys

Next time you pop into the Uffizi Gallery look out for this remarkable altar piece. It’s a busy picture so let’s zoom in on a detail.

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Lovely Lewes

Lewes has all the conveniences that are expected in a county town: a court house, a prison, a brewery, Waitrose and some rather fine architecture. Somehow the developers have done only minimal damage.

Sir Oswald

This portrait of Field Marshal Lord Alexander is by Sir Oswald Birley. As I am more familiar with his grandson, Robin, who I remember starting out selling posh sandwiches to me in the City before taking on his father’s business, running clubs for people with money in abundance but sometimes insufficient in other more desirable… Continue reading Sir Oswald

Famine

Van Gogh’s peasants, he painted them in 1885, are startlingly unattractive. His subjects were inspired by The Blessing before Supper by Charles de Groux; a more comely assemblage.

Trieste

The very name, Trieste, is redolent of sadness: I’m thinking of Françoise Sagan’s novel. I went for a Ryanair weekend in 2008 and, to avoid repetition, you can read about it in a post misleadingly titled Tahiti .

Windmills on My Mind

Exploring Wimbledon Common, it’s hard to miss the windmill. Some things never change. In 1799 an enterprising cove sought permission to build a windmill but he was refused because he didn’t submit plans.

British Baroque

The last exhibition I saw was at Tate Britain. British Baroque: Power and Illusion covers the reigns of the last Stuart monarchs, from the restoration of Charles II in 1660 to the death of Queen Anne in 1714.

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Hugh Lane

  In May 1915 a German U-boat sunk the Lusitania off the coast of Co Cork and 1,198 passengers and crew lost their lives. Hugh Lane was one of those passengers. He had been born in Co Cork in 1875.

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