 |
| Portrait of Tolstoy(1884) by Nikolai Ge. |
I spent an interesting day in London yesterday which split
into three separate parts.
Much of the morning was occupied by two small but very worthwhile
art exhibitions, one at the National Portrait Gallery and the other at the
National Gallery.
Russia and the Arts,
the Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky offers a rare opportunity to see
some wonderful portraits that normally hang in the State Tretyakov Gallery in
Moscow. Almost everyone who was anyone
in the arts in the pre-revolutionary era is on display in paintings of exceptionally
high quality.
The second half of the 19th Century was a period
of growing prosperity and also social complexity for Russia that saw a general
flourishing of the arts, music and theatre. The pictures of the three great
writers, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev, that are hung side by side in the show are
particularly evocative. It was amusing
to read that Turgenev’s rather sour expression was due to the fact that he did
not get on with the artist, Ilya Repin, who was sent specifically to paint his
picture in Paris.
I then went on to the one room show at the National Gallery
of around 25 Dutch flower paintings.
These were truly lovely as the picture below shows.
Both exhibitions are worth catching if you are in the area. The Russian Portraits Exhibition (small entrance charge) runs until 26th June and the Dutch Flowers (free) until 29th August.
 |
| Flowers in a Glass Vase (1614) Ambrosius Bosschaert the Elder |
No comments:
Post a Comment