Maria Merrian's Beautiful Butterflies, catch them now!

It is always a treat to stumble across a new artist, especially one who has a fascinating life story to amplify your interest in their work. Maria Merian is a perfect example of this, a little known botanical artist from the 17th century who changed what we know about the life cycle of the butterfly through her exquisite art. 

The Queen's Gallery in London has access to the Royal Collection and luckily for us George lll was a great collectors of Merian's work and their summer exhibition twins her nature drawings with a group of Scottish painters, but more about them later 

Born in 1647, Maria Merian  was encouraged to draw and paint by her step father and by the age of 13 was already painting insects and plants from actual specimens. She was fascinated by the metamorphosis of caterpillars to butterflies and in 1679 she published her first illustrated book focusing on insect metamorphosis. How did she gather her scientific knowledge?   She was a great observer, collector and documenter and as a child she had ready access to books on natural history and built on this background when she lived in Amsterdam, building contacts in the scientific community. 

What really made me see her as an admirable pioneer was that in 1699 at the age of 52 she set sail for Suriname in South America with her daughter. Can you imagine what that was like for a woman at that time? She had become frustrated with only being able to examine and paint dead specimens in collections,  so she went in search of live ones. She spent two years in Suriname, studying animals and plants and examining their life cycles, and although her plan had been to work there five years, illness cut this short. Her work from Suriname was published on her return and we can see her fabulous work bound into a large precious book in this exhibition. As a botanical artist she left work of great beauty but also scientific breakthroughs through her direct observation of species new to the old world. 

Her paintings are so bright, so detailed and feel so fresh that it was a delight to be able to see them. Here is a selection for you to enjoy too:

A copy of her illustrated book on insects from Suriname 

The headline exhibition at the Queen's Gallery is Scottish Artists 1750-1900 which has some fine paintings but they were more traditional and not as surprising as Merian's work, however, they are worth a visit. These paintings were collected by several royals from George lll through to Queen Victoria, a famous lover of all things Scottish. On display are  portraits of George and his family, Victoria's first meetings as a royal and a selection of lovely scenes of the Scottish countryside, commissioned by Victoria. The Scottish painters did travel outside of their homeland and a fine picture of Cairo from 1840 caught my eye with its timeless quality. 

George lll by Allan Ramsay

View of the gallery with George next to his family

Queen Victoria meets her Council  on her fist day as queen  by Sir David Wilkie

The cast list of Queen Victoria's Council 

'Bonnie' Prince Charlie by John Pettie

Edinburgh from 18 24, still recognisable today by Alexander Naysmth

Balmoral Castle by James Giles

Cairo by David Roberts

For information about tickets and opening times for the Queen's Gallery as well as more about these two exhibitions click here . 

Bye for now
Sue
@itsyourlondon
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk 

Full disclosure:  as is customary in the travel business, the entry ticket for this preview visit was provided free of charge.

Dutch life and great satire at the Queen's Gallery London

The Royal Collection is the British Royal Family's art collection and is one of the largest and most important in the world. This holds so many pieces that only a fraction can be on display at any one time in the royal palaces across the UK. The Queen's Gallery holds exhibitions throughout the year, curated to show a different range of these precious works. 

Their new exhibitions bring together Dutch art and Georgian caricatures  linked by kings George lll and lV who were art collectors and the subject of the cartoons. The Masters of the Everyday: Dutch Artists in the Age of Vermeer' presents 27 of the Royal Collection's finest Dutch paintings. My eye is always drawn to Rembrandt's paintings, there's something about his use of light to illuminate faces that is so powerful. I was rewarded with several in this show:

Rembrandt's Rabbi with a Cap. 

Rembrandt's Agatha Bas

Rembrandt's An Old Woman called the Artist's Mother

Desmond Shaw Taylor, the curator, explained how they had chosen to use plain walls, popular at the time, to display key painting in one of the exhibition rooms which certainly contrasts with the lush blue of the walls in the other display room.

Unusual plain grey walls 

We saw popular painters from the 17th and 18th century such as Gerrit Dou, Peter Bruegel the Elder and Jan Steen as well as Vermeer and Pieter de Hooch who both took Dutch genre painting to a new level of brilliance.  Genre paintings capture everyday life, ordinary scenes and these painters bring extraordinary detail to their work. 

Pieter de Hooch

Johannes Vermeer

Both George lll and lV were keen collectors, paying high prices to secure these works as well as Sevres porcelain and fine French furniture, examples of which are on display around the rooms. 

The accompanying exhibition at the Queen's Gallery is High Spirits: The Comic Art of Thomas Rowlandson showcases the brilliant work of Thomas who was one of the most popular and wittiest caricaturists of Georgian Britain, poking fun at the kings who collected the fine works we've just seen as well as the politics, fashions and mores of the time. Rowlandson was inspired by Dutch art and although seen to be a cartoonist was a fine artist as this exhibition shows. 

From showing the public criticism the Prince of Wales for his drunken behaviour during his father George lll's illness to laughing at the misfortunes of the Duke of York, these drawings give us a great insight into the gossip of the time. I loved the drawing of the Duke of York, who had been caught up in a huge love scandal and had to resign amid the public humiliation of his love letters being published. Here he is pleading with a whale that had been found in the Thames to help keep him out the headlines which feels very modern! 

The Prince of Wales dancing at his father's sick bed

Pleading with the whale to keep distracting attention from the Duke

This cartoon lampoons the Duchess of Devonshire who was rumoured to be trading kisses for votes at a time when canvassing outside of ones family was considered unseemly for a woman. Here in this cartoon which was damaging to her reputation, she is kissing a butcher.  Given our own political scandals of votes for cash in parliament, these again feels very contemporary. 

'Most Approved Method of Securing Votes

His sense of humour shines through and the man himself was great company and a popular man in society which makes for an enjoyable exhibition.  He went to the Royal Academy school and his skill shines through.

One of the things I love about the Queen's Gallery is their education room where they bring fun and interest for younger visitors. One example of how they do this is shown below where they have picked out a section of painting to encourage the viewer to look at the detail not just the overall impression of a work.  Here the game in the corner of the painting is highlighted, something I had missed in the main gallery. 

The exhibitions are on until 14th February 2016 and for more information click here.

Bye for now,
Sue
@itsyourlondon
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk


Disclaimer:  I was invited to visit the gallery for free and the curator tour was part of this.

Painting Paradise at th Queen's Gallery London

The British are famous for their love of gardens and the Queen's Gallery has picked up on this theme to bring us their latest exhibition Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden. In these sumptuous rooms you are taken through 600 years of garden history through paintings, tapestries, books and even chandeliers. 

All the work comes from the Royal Collection, one of the world's great art collections, which our Queen holds in trust for the British nation. The Queen's Gallery showcases the Collection through its annual programme of temporary exhibitions. I was fascinated to read that following the execution of Charles 1 in 1649 the majority of the King's possessions were sold on the order of Oliver Cromwell, so the current Royal Collection has been formed since the monarchy was restored in 1660. Given the size of the collection, the royals have been very busy since then!

one of the sumptuous room

Another view of the gallery rooms

The exhibition follows the history of garden painting showing how gardens have changed over time and how they have inspired artists and craftsmen. Gardens as earthly paradise in Persian manuscripts is where we start our gallery tour and the theme of religion is clear in the wonderful Rembrandt on display. This masterpiece from 1638 shows Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene as a gardener.

Rembrandt

Leonardo da Vinci's plant studes are among the first botanical drawings ever made and their delicacy and accuracy are stunning to see in these two works dating from the early 1500s.

Job's Tears - a cereal

Seed heads of two rushes with notes

The large tapestries are impressive and this piece, woven in around 1650, depicts' boys among apple trees' and is one of a four-part series of The Playing Boys which adorned the new country houses of this age.

Tapestry with the curator in shot!

Gardens were becoming ever more elaborate as new species came in from all over the world and garden designers became famous and sought after. This painting of Hampton Court shows the layout and extent of the gardens, designed to impress visitors with the status of the owners; tho' no one would be in any doubt about the inhabitants of this grand palace!

Hampton Court 1703

Craftsmen took up the horticultural theme and in some cases possibly a little over the top as you can seen with this asparagus tureen from 1755 and the elaborate plate covered in flowers.

Glass chandelier makers also took up a flowery theme and produced this wonderful piece whose provenance is not completely known but dates from the mid nineteenth century.

The education room at the end of the exhibition has some fun activities for adults and children alike and we enjoyed checking out our ability to identify horticultural smells but with little success.  Once you start checking the little boxes and testing your sense of smell, you have to try them all!

The tray of smell boxes

You can visit the Painting Paradise: The Art of the Garden until 11th October 2015 and find out what you need to know here. 

(I was invited to view this exhibition by the Gallery but my views are not influenced by this)

Bye for now,
Sue
@itsyourlondon
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk

Face to face with a golden tiger at the Queen's Gallery!

All that glitters is definitely gold at the new exhibition at the Queen's Gallery, London. One stunning piece which keeps drawing you back is the golden head of a tiger which stares out at you with its rock crystal eyes  Tipu Sultan, an Indian rule,  said that it was 'better to live a single day as a tiger than a thousand years as a sheep' and used the tiger as a symbol of his power, decorating his throne with gold heads and as a motif on his guards' uniforms. This magnificent beast dates from the late 18th century and although the throne that he was part of was broken up, his head survived and was given to William lV so now part of the Queen's Collection in Windsor.

Staring into the face of the tiger

Beautifully decorated

The tongue is articulated so it can seem that he is roaring!

The original throne resting on the tiger

This new exhibition focuses on gold, its symbolism and beauty from the bronze age through to 20th century, displaying 50 items to tell gold's story.

One of the other really striking pieces is a crown from Ecuador, dating back to pre-Columbian times (1000-1400) and is made of beaten sheets of gold. As you walk past the stripes vibrate and shine, I can just imagine the delight of those who found this precious object near Cuenca in 1854. 

A more recent creation is the Coronation Girdle made in 1936 for the coronation of George Vl (our Queen's father), is made of gold cloth with gold thread, a silk lining and a gold (of course!) buckle. This girdle is a sword belt as the sword is one of the regalia used in the coronation ceremony.

The Coronation Girdle

The oldest and one of the loveliest gold pieces in the exhibition is the Rillaton Cup dating way back to 1700-1500 BC showing that Bronze Age people also knew about fine gold working.The ridges were probably made using antlers so the delicacy is astonishing.  It is amazing that it has survived at all and is testament to gold's enduring properties. It is fashioned from a single ingot and was found in Cornwall and is now on long term long to the British Museum. 

The Rillaton Cup

If you want to gaze on just solid gold, head for the large tray which is made of 8.5 kgs (19lbs) of the pure stuff. At that weight it can only be for decorative purposes as lifting it even empty would need several servants. The designs has the badges of the Order of Knighthood and celebrates George lV's chivalric credentials, although whether he was chivalrous is another matter....

 

A more delicate item that caught my eye was a fine cross which was an early 15th century reliquary, for keeping precious religious relics, in this case a piece of Christ's cross was believed to be housed inside the gold framework. 

You can also enjoy a number of paintings and to finish I'll show you a different view of gold, with a 16th century Dutch work called The Misers. Here we see the greed and ugliness of the pursuit of gold on the faces of these men counting money in the light of a candle, symbolising the shortness of life.

These are just a few of the many items on display from the Queen's Collection. Most of the works are kept in Windsor Castle so it is a great opportunity to see them here in London, until 22nd February 2015. For more information click here.

Bye for now,
Sue
@itsyourlondon
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk

It's a good year for Georges!

George is a popular royal name and we have a potential future King George, baby Prince George, making a big impact on the world. Britain has had 6 King Georges so far and one day he will most likely be number 7!  This year London is celebrating all things George as it's 450 years since George 1st ascended to the British throne in 1714 and started off the Georgian era.  Many of major museums in London are holding exhibitions which are marking this event and it's a great opportunity to learn more about how the first King George came to the throne and how he and his descendants lived. 

Firstly a quick word about how George from Hanover who was 50th in line managed to become King of Great Britain and Ireland!  The previous monarch, Queen Anne, didn't have any children to follow her (despite 17, yes 17 pregnancies!) and the nearest heirs to the British throne were all Catholic and had been banned from inheriting by the Act of Settlement. So the great and the good looked around and came up with George's mother, Sophia, who was a grand-daughter of James 1. She died before Queen Anne so didn't take the throne herself so it passed to George, the last British monarch to be born outside of Great Britain.

One exhibition worth a visit is at the Queen's Gallery where they are holding 'The First Georgians: Art and Monarchy 1714-1760', focusing on George 1 and 11. The Queen owns a vast amount of art and treasures which form the Queen's Collection and over 300 objects from her palaces across the United Kingdom have been brought together to give us insights into life and tastes of the early Georgians. We were extremely fortunate to be invited to visit and to be shown round by the curator, Desmond Shawe-Taylor, whose enthusiasm and deep knowledge were a delight.

Grand approach to the Queen's Gallery

Imposing entrance to the exhibition

We can see the faces of the key players through the portraits in the first room of the exhibition:

George 1

George's mother Sophia who was the blood line for his inheritance

We can see how impressive Georgian rooms would have looked through the period layout used with large paintings on all the walls, tables and chests along the walls and highly decorated items around the room.  This room is packed with old masters as the Georgians were keen collectors and we can enjoy several works by Rubens.

A grand Georgian room

A wonderful Rubens with a statue in front of a horse and rider to mirror it

Rubens with our guide, the wonderful curator

The  collection of miniatures is beautiful

This was a time of great social change and Britain was developing into a world power through war and trade, with increasing prosperity at home. Britain at this time can be described as the world’s most liberal, commercial and modern society which was free, enlightened and diverse with considerable wealth on show.  Two paintings by Canaletto show London's development but the collection also has Hogarth's famous 'Marriage a la mode', a satire on contemporary life exposing its hypocrisy and poverty.

Canaletto's London looking west

Close up looking west towards Westminster

Canaletto's London looking east

Close up looking east

 

Hogarth's Marriage a la Mode

Success in war was important to these Georges and in a section dedicated to this you can see some fascinating items from Culloden, an infamous victory of George 11 against the James, the catholic heir to the throne. There are battle plans and orders to spies and lists of dead and wounded one both sides, telling part of the story of this dreadful day. 

Battle plan for Culloden

Hand drawn plans

Spies everywhere!

 A further room has more wonderful furniture and paintings. We see their love of excess through the extravagant dining table and extraordinary tableware.

Fine furniture and regal paintings

Impressive dining table and furniture

A glorious harpsichord

Very over the top salt cellar in the form of a crab and shell

More tableware!

As we left we bumped into huge crowds gathering for Changing the Guard at Buckingham Palace, no doubt enjoying this spectacle against the blue skies

Busy morning at Buckingham Palace

There a a great deal more to see in this exhibition than I can bring you here, so do go along and find out more about our first King Georges. 

Bye for now,
Sue
@itsyourlondon  
www.itsyourlondon.co.uk