Tag: National Gallery London

Picasso at the National Gallery London: Face to Face

Picasso Woman with a

For the first time ever, a painting by Pablo Picasso ‘Woman with a Book’, 1932 from the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California and the painting by Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, ‘Madame Moitessier’, 1856, which famously inspired it, will be shown side by side at the National Gallery, London as part of a special collaboration between the two museums. After debuts of the sensational and influential work by Artemisia Gentileschi, Picasso’s welcome to the halls of the Gallery comes at only too good a time, after the lockdowns of the world have ended and the doors of all public buildings have been thrown open. This exhibition is an opportunity to explore Picasso’s enduring affinity with Ingres, and his ability to reference or ‘steal’ previous artist’s work which he famously acknowledged when he said: ‘Lesser artists borrow; great artists steal.’* It will provide visitors with a unique opportunity to compare the two works and to engage with these masterpieces in a different way. Exhibition organised by the National Gallery, London and the Norton Simon Museum of Art at Pasadena. Following its display in London, the exhibition will be on view at the Norton Simon Museum of Art 21 October 2022– 30 January 2023. For more info and to arrange a visit, go to the National Gallery website

National Gallery London: get up close with Rafael

Rafael

He may have died over 500 years ago (as of 2020), but Rafael’s work lives on stronger than ever, especially this year at London’s National Gallery, where a new exhibition is on sale and ready to host his fans. The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Raphael celebrates the painter, draughtsman, architect, designer and archaeologist who captured in his art the human, the divine, love, friendship, learning and power. He helped define what the quintessence of beauty and civilisation through some of his most famous works, like Transfiguration, Three Graces and his renowned tenure spent with Pope Julius II in the Vatican. His career spanned only two decades, but in it he helped to shape the course of Western culture like few artists before or since. The National Gallery exhibition will examine his work while lifting the veil on his time spent as an architect, archaeologist and poet, with so much more. Find out more about the artist and book your visit at the National Gallery website The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Raphael 9 April – 31 July 2022First Floor Galleries, Rooms 1-8Admission charge. Members free.

Raphael is coming to the National Gallery London

Rafrael

From 3 October 2020 to 24 January 2021, the National Gallery London will host the work of Raphael. He was a painter, draughtsman, architect, archaeologist, and poet who captured in his art the human and the divine, love, friendship, learning, and power, who gave us quintessential images of community and civilisation: Raphael’s life was short, his work prolific, and his legacy immortal.  In the year that marks the 500th anniversary of Raphael’s death, the National Gallery will present one of the first-ever exhibitions to explore the complete career of this giant of the Italian Renaissance.  In his brief career, spanning just two decades, Raffaello Santi (1483–1520) shaped the course of Western culture like few artists before or since.  This exhibition will examine not just his celebrated paintings and drawings – but also his not so widely known work in architecture, archaeology, poetry, and design for sculpture, tapestry, prints, and the applied arts. The aim is to do something no previous Raphael exhibition has ever done – explore every aspect of his multimedia activity and in 2020, the Gallery will do just that. Find out more at the National Gallery’s website.

A 315 year first: The National Gallery London brings Titian’s work back together

National Gallery London Titian

The National Gallery in London is doing something that hasn’t been done in a very, very, very long time. They’re bringing five works by Titian back together for their latest exhibition, Titian: Love, Desire, Death from 16 March to 14 June next year. MORE: The National Gallery’s celebrating Artemisia Gentileschi What does it mean? Well, five of Titian’s greatest works – he was regarded as the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school – of large-scale mythological paintings, known as the poesie, will be brought together for the first time since 1704 at the National Gallery, which for fans of the period is quite the thing. The pieces were painted between around 1551 to 1562 and are amongst the most original visual interpretations of Classical myth of the early modern era and are touchstone works in the history of European painting for their rich, expressive rendering. The paintings that’re being brought together are: Danaë (1551–3, The Wellington Collection, Apsley House) Venus and Adonis (1554, Prado, Madrid) Diana and Actaeon (1556-9) Diana and Callisto (1556-9) Rape of Europa (1562) from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston.   The National Gallery’s own Death of Actaeon (1559-75), originally conceived as part of the series, but only executed much later and never delivered, will also be included in London. See more about the exhibition to come and plan your visit to the Gallery at their website. Feature image credit: Apollo

National Gallery London presents Leonardo’s Legacy: Francesco Melzi and the Leonardeschi

National Gallery Leonardeschi 1

It’s been a hot minute since Leonardo da Vinci died (500 years), so the National Gallery London is doing something to commemorate him. They’re presenting a bunch of work from artists called the Leonardeschi, who’re basically disciples of the famed artist. On loan, the Gallery has secured the work Flora by Francesco Melzi from the State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, which it’ll display close to The Virgin of the Rocks and The Burlington House Cartoon, both by Leonardo, that can be seen in Gallery 66 of the National Gallery. “We are excited to have loaned Flora by Francesco Melzi to the National Gallery and to see her as the central focus of this fascinating display which explores the work of Leonardo’s closest friends and disciples. This represents the first time that Flora has been seen outside of Russia since it was restored by Maria Shulepova, revealing details and rich colouring which had been lost for decades under layers of old varnish,” said professor Piotrovsky, director of the State Hermitage Museum. The painting is being displayed alongside ten other key works by the so-called ‘Leonardeschi’ from the National Gallery Collection in a free, month-long display in Room 12. This is the first time the painting has been seen in the UK and the first time it has been seen outside of Russia since its restoration. Its restoration was just what the work needed. Undertaken in Russia, it uncovered the picture’s true colours of ultramarine blue and hidden details like flowers growing from the walls of the dimly lit… Read More

Nicolaes Maes is the Dutch Master of the Golden Age coming to the National Gallery London

Nicolaes Maes National Gallery

From 22 February 2020, the work of Dutch Master Nicolaes Maes will grace the ground floor galleries of the National Gallery, right in the heart of London. It’ll make for what’s to be the first exhibition exclusively devoted to the man who died in 1693, taking on loans from private collections around the world. Made up of 35 pieces of work in paint and lead, the exhibition will take you on a journey through the life and learnings of a creative, considered one of the star pupils of renowned Dutch Golden Age Baroque artists, Rembrandt. What’s Maes known for? Maes was fond of works that depicted genre scenes, portraits, religious compositions and still lifes, many of which make up the bulk of next year’s exhibition. He was a pioneer of the theme of the eavesdropper; his carefully styled narratives often break the fourth wall, making the viewer a participant in the scene, as characters (often a maid) eavesdrop or point to illicit goings-on. To end the exhibition, it’ll focus on the period from 1673 when Maes settled in Amsterdam and abandoned domestic genre scenes to devote himself almost exclusively to portraits. A group of these lesser-known works will show how he brought a Van Dyckian elegance and swagger to the portraits.  The exhibition will run until 31 May 2020. See more from the National Gallery at the website.

Kids’ passion for art: National Gallery London puts on Take One Picture

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

What happens when you put kids in front of artwork? Well… generally nothing, but as it happens, not if they visit the National Gallery right in the middle of London. They’re putting on Take One Picture, a unique program to get kids into artwork in a particularly contemporary way: with their phones! Kids from around the ages of 1-6 are invited to focus on one of the paintings in the gallery and respond creatively to its themes and subject matter, historical context, or composition. Purposed to promote the visual arts across the curriculum and inspiring a lifelong love of art, this year the National Gallery chose An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump (1768) by Joseph Wright ‘of Derby’ as the kids’ inspiration and it’s easy to see why. The work An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump depicts a travelling scientist demonstrating the formation of a vacuum by withdrawing air from a flask containing a white cockatoo. Air pumps were developed in the 17th century and were relatively familiar by Wright’s day. It was chosen for the wide range of subjects that are explored: the depiction of a scientific invention and its entertainment value, the human drama happening in a night-time domestic setting, and the references to the Age of Enlightenment. The bird will die if the demonstrator continues to deprive it of oxygen, and Wright (1734–1797) leaves us in doubt as to whether or not the cockatoo will be reprieved. The painting reveals a wide range of individual reactions,… Read More

See Spain, eat Spain: National Gallery London celebrates Spanish art in more ways than one

National Gallery London fountain

For the Sorolla: Spanish Master of Light exhibition, the National Gallery has introduced some new menus to what’s on offer – read more about that here – but it’s the art on-show by Bermejo alongside it that’s one of the real drawcards. Dubbed the Master of the Spanish Renaissance, Bartolome Bermejo’s exhibition will star at the Gallery until 19 September 2019. On show, pieces of work by the master from the period of about 1440-1501 will be displayed, including six loans that have never been seen outside of Spain, including two of Bermejo’s masterpieces: Triptych of the Virgin of Montserrat and Desple Pieta. The latter was named after Lluis Despla, the archdeacon of the Barcelona Cathedral, where the painting has been since the 15th century. Also right at the centre of the exhibition, the National Gallery will have what’s widely considered the most important Spanish renaissance painting in Britain on display: Saint Michael triumphant over the Devil. Director of the National Gallery, Dr. Gabriele Finaldi said, “The National Gallery’s Saint Michael Triumphant is a supreme work of European 15th-century painting. The exhibition introduces the public to Bermejo, a great Spanish renaissance master with exceptional loans never before seen in Britain.” See more about exhibition, alongside the rest of the summertime exhibitions at the National Gallery at the Gallery’s website.

What to see at the National Gallery of London this English summer

National Gallery London

If there’s one place you visit in London for any injection of art, timeless history and culture that has influence so much of what we around the world consider influential art, then the National Gallery in London is it. And this summer the gallery that sits at the pinnacle of art in the English capital is putting on exhibitions that celebrate the life, time and work or artists Gaugin in The Credit Suisse Exhibition: Gaugin and Bartolome Bermejo in Master of the Spanish Renaissance. Until 26 January 2020 for Gaugin (which opens in October!) and 29 September 2019 for Bermejo, the Gallery is celebrating the life and times of both artists through their works, a testament to post-impressionist and Flemish renaissance art respectively. The Gaugin exhibition makes the first ever exhibition for the gallery, devoted to the portraits of Paul Gaugin spanning a whopping period from the mid-1880s to 1903, when he died. The exhibition features a collection of portraits of a sitter, which Gaugin had placed into suggestive contexts to help express meaning beyond their personalities. By bringing together a number of works of the same sitter for different collections, the exhibition lets you see how Gaugin interpreted a specific model in different media over time. Meanwhile for a shorter period, The National Gallery London will show works by Bermejo, the man hailed as the greatest Spanish artist of the second half of the fifteenth century. It’ll include some of his works like Madonna of Montserrat and Pieded Despla from the Barcelona Cathedral. They’ve… Read More