13 May 2024: The National Gallery
A National Treasure
After The Last Caravaggio exhibition we decided to explore the rest of the gallery.
It turned out to be a great idea.
Dome of the National Gallery
One of the prettiest skylights you’ll ever see. Symmetry and elegance at their best.
Where’s Wally? (aka Greg)
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun: Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat (1782)
👉 My pick of the day.
Discovering this painting by Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun (1755–1842) was an absolute delight.
Beautiful detail and colours.
So sweet.
This self-portrait depicts Vigée Le Brun herself, dressed elegantly in a hat adorned with a feather and flowers. She is shown holding a palette and brushes, emphasising her identity as an artist.
Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun was one of the most prominent female artists of the 18th century. She was known for her portraits of European aristocracy, including Marie Antoinette. Her style is characterised by its graceful elegance and the sophisticated portrayal of her subjects. This self-portrait is notable not only for its technical skill but also for its depiction of a confident and professional female artist at a time when the art world was dominated by men.
Wikipedia has lots of images of her portraits
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun (wikipedia)
For example:
Fabric
I’ve always marvelled at the immense skill of 18th-century painters in their rendering of fabric. It makes me think of the 18th-century aesthetic ideal of beau désordre (beautiful disorder).
Beau désordre is usually used to describe the artful arrangement of elements in paintings to create an appearance of naturalness and spontaneity. It allows the artist to display their skill. In portraiture it can be seen in the intricate folds of fabric or elaborate hairstyles or shiny jewellery, all designed to enhance the elegance of the subject of the painting.
Here are some examples that blew me away and brought me great joy.
Élisabeth Vigée Le Brun
Self-Portrait in a Straw Hat (1782)
See earlier in this post for the full painting.
François-Hubert Drouais (1727-1775)
Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame (1763-4)
These are not photos (of photos). The detail is extraordinary and so lifelike, especially the lace.
The colours! 👍
Stunning. 👍 👍
Magnifique. 👍 👍 👍
And here’s the full painting.
Getting up close to see the detail really makes a difference.
Hyacinthe Rigaud (1659-1743)
Antoine Pâris (1724)
Antoine Pâris (1668-1733) was the eldest of the four Pâris brothers, major financiers in early 18th-century France. Antoine held lucrative appointments in connection with the army and the royal Treasury, but he was later exiled to Lorraine where he died. The opulent draperies and library setting suggest nobility and learning. The frame is the original.
Amazing. It’s more like a golden orchid than cloth.
Imagine making the original garment.
And the complete painting.
See also by Rigaud:
Gaspard de Gueidan playing the musette" - this one is over the top.
Portrait of Louis XIV – a famous portrait.
Animals
Walking around the gallery today I got very interested in the depiction of animals as supporting characters in paintings. They were often added to subtly balance the composition of a painting, but the artists still took as much care with them as with the main subject(s).
All of these are just wonderful.
👉 To see the complete painting with the animal in context, click the link. The return to the post just use the browser’s back button.
I thought this would be a fun way to encourage you focus on the animal rather than the people in each painting.
Pomeranian Sheep Dog
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
Mr and Mrs William Hallett (‘The Morning Walk’), 1785
Gainsborough portrayed William Hallett and Elizabeth Stephen shortly before their marriage on 30 July 1785. They may be wearing their wedding clothes. Mrs Hallett’s silk dress, the white fur of the Pomeranian sheepdog, and the foliage are rendered with the light brushstrokes Gainsborough used in the last phase of his career.
White Fluffy Dog
Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678)
Portrait of Cornelis van Diest (?) and his Wife, 1636-8
The sitters in this striking double portrait are probably Cornelis van Diest, a prominent citizen of Antwerp, and his wife Lucretia Courtois. She wears a gold cross on a chain at her neck, while he sports a red sash, staff and sword. The painting commemorates his military office as well as their marriage. The dog, parrot and vine all symbolise fidelity.
Red-billed Choughs
Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641)
The Balbi Children, about 1625-7
A young Van Dyck painted these three aristocratic boys while living in Genoa. Their intricately ornamented attire and elegant bearing suggest their high birth. Although traditionally entitled The Balbi Children, this refers to a former owner of the painting; the two choughs on the step indicate that the sitters may in fact be members of the De Franchi family, who had choughs as a family emblem.
Rhinoceros
In this one the rhinoceros is the main subject.
Pietro Longhi (1701-1785)
Exhibition of a Rhinoceros at Venice, probably 1751
The rhinoceros was brought to Europe in 1741; a decade later it was seen in Venice at the carnival. Exotic animals were often displayed in the city as a spectacle on festive occasions. The keeper holds up the animal’s horn; behind him stand several Venetians wearing masks. The woman holding a fan carries her mask in her hat.
Whistlejacket
In this one the horse is the main subject. In fact it’s the only thing in the painting and it’s a very large canvas.
George Stubbs (1724-1806)
Whistlejacket, about 1762
Whistlejacket, the second Marquess of Rockingham’s prize racehorse, is presented full-size and rearing in the levade position usually used in equestrian portraits of military commanders. A specialist horse painter, Stubbs deliberately depicted Whistlejacket without a rider against a blank backdrop, making the viewer focus solely on the majestic beauty and unrestrained power of the Arabian stallion.
English Springer Spaniel
Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788)
Portrait of the Artist with his Wife and Daughter, about 1748
Gainsborough married Margaret Burr in 1746. The child is probably their first-born daughter, Mary, who died in March 1748. A second daughter, born in 1750, was also named Mary. The hands of Mrs Gainsborough are unfinished and the paper held by the artist is blank. This is the only known portrait of the artist with his family.
Gainsborough was better at painting dogs than his own daughter. Cathy says a cabbage-patch doll looks better.
Macaw
Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723-1792)
Lady Cockburn and her Three Eldest Sons, 1773
Lady Cockburn, aged 24, is posed with her infant sons James, aged two, on the left, George, aged one, on the right, and William, the baby, on her knee. Reynolds’s composition was inspired by depictions of Charity, traditionally represented as a mother with children.
The large macaw is the artist’s pet bird, added to balance the picture.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this
What a lovely songbird.
What an alert cat.
I neglected to photograph the wall text for this painting but my AI buddy thinks it’s Still Life with a Sparrow Hawk, Songbird, and Cat by Jean-Baptiste Oudry (1686-1755). He was a French Rococo painter, known for his detailed and vivid depictions of animals, particularly hunting scenes and still lifes.
I haven’t been able to confirm this, so it might be a hallucination.
The depiction of the animals certainly is vivid.
COMPLETE SCENE – a detail from the painting
Springer Spaniel
George Stubbs (1724-1806)
The Milbanke and Melbourne Families, about 1769
Elizabeth Milbanke (left) married Peniston Lamb (far right), later First Viscount Melbourne, shortly before this group portrait was painted. She is shown seated in a carriage, perhaps because she was pregnant at the time. The other sitters are (from left) her father Sir Ralph Milbanke and her brother John Milbanke.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this too
White Cockatoo
For God’s sake don’t look!
Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797)
An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump, 1768
A lecturer demonstrates the creation of a vacuum to a family. A white cockatoo (an exotic bird, unlikely in fact to have been used for this experiment) is imprisoned in a glass flask from which the air is being extracted by a pump.
The candlelit setting is characteristic of Wright’s interest in dramatic contrasts of light and shade.
He’s murdering the cockatoo! Only the children seem to realise how brutally horrible this is. I wonder what the father (?) could possibly be saying to comfort the girl?
Goldfish
The painter intended this to look like a greyscale print! Another display of skill.
Louis-Léopold Boilly (1761-1845)
A Girl at a Window, after 1799
The girl looking at us looking at her, the telescope and fish bowl all play on ideas of vision and illusion. The picture as a whole is made to look like a mounted print.
The subject may derive from a (now lost) painting by Boilly exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1799.
Toy Spaniel (?)
François-Hubert Drouais (1727-1775)
Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame, 1763-4
Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson (1721-1764) was made the Marquise de Pompadour soon after becoming Louis XV’s mistress in 1745. She is shown working at her embroidery frame. One of her pet dogs is beside her. The marquise’s head was painted separately in April 1763 and the painting finished in May 1764, a month after her death.
A tambour frame is a tool used in embroidery to hold fabric taut while stitching.
Donkey
Orazio Gentileschi (1563-1639)
The Rest on the Flight into Egypt, about 1620
The Holy Family enjoys a peaceful rest on its journey into Egypt. The figures are based on real models, and Orazio combines their vivid realism with a characteristically refined colour palette.
The donkey’s fluffy head protrudes from the formal structure of the crumbling wall, which acts as a theatrical backdrop.
As you’ll see when you look at the complete painting, the composition is not what you might expect from the description.
Joseph is totally flaked out and I doubt the artist has ever seen anyone breastfeeding.
We think this is a very weird painting.
Sheep
Jusepe de Ribera (1591-1652)
Jacob with the Flock of Laban, probably 1638
Jacob was forced to care for the sheep of his dishonest father-in-law, Laban. It was agreed that any speckled lambs that were born were Jacob’s to keep as payment. Deceiving Laban, he placed cut branches near the strongest ewes, which caused them to have speckled young (Genesis 30: 37-38).
Stay tuned for more adventures on our European Odyssey!