Galleries

Where is it?…#56

by exploringlondon

Where-is-it--#56

Can you identify where in London this picture was taken and who the statue represents? If you think you can, leave a comment below. We’ll reveal the answer early next week. Good luck!

No takers this week. This is a statue of John Flaxman (1755-1826), located on the facade of Burlington House in Piccadilly, home of the Royal Academy of Arts since 1867. The sculptor and draughtsman, a leading figure of the Neoclassicism movement, was made an associate of the RA in 1797. For more on the Royal Academy of Arts, see www.royalacademy.org.uk.

Around London – Borough Market’s new map app; Richard Dimbleby blue plaqued; Manet at the RA; and, Light Show at the Hayward…

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• Borough Market, which claims to be London’s oldest food and drink market (see our earlier entry on the market here), has introduced a new app which provides smartphone users with an interactive map of the market so they can get information on the go. The app loads automatically when people enter the market website on their phones. Further features of the mobile site are yet to be unveiled. For more information, see www.boroughmarket.org.uk.

• Broadcaster Richard Dimbleby (1913-65) has been honored with an English Heritage blue plaque at his former home in Cedar Court, Sheen Lane, East Sheen in London’s south west. Once the nation’s most famous broadcaster, Dimbleby, father of David Dimbleby, lived at the flat between 1937-39 – a time when he delivered some of his earliest radio reports including one on Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s return from Munich. Dimbleby’s career on radio and television spanned some 30 years and saw him reporting on some of the great events of his time. He was the BBC’s first war correspondent and was the first reporter to describe the horrors of Belsen concentration camp as well as being among the first reporters to enter Berlin where he reported from the ruins of Hitler’s bunker. Dimbleby was also commentator on television specials such as the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and Winston Churchill’s funeral in 1965. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/?topic=Blue%20Plaques.

• On Now: Manet – Portraying Life. This display at the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly’s Burlington House is the first major exhibition to showcase Edouard Manet’s portraiture in the UK. It examines the relationship between his portraits and his scenes of modern life and includes more than 50 paintings, gathered from public and private collections in Europe, Asia and the US, spanning his career from the mid 1800s to his death in 1883. The exhibition is arranged thematically with different sections looking at Manet’s family, his artist, literary and theatrical friends as well as his models. Highlights include The Luncheon (1868), Mme Manet in the Conservatory (1879), Berthe Morisot with a Bouquet of Violets (1872), Street Singer (1862), The Railway (1873) and Music in the Tuileries Gardens (1862). Admission charge applies. Runs until 14th April. For more, see www.royalacademy.org.uk.

• On Now: Light Show. This installation at the Hayward Gallery in South Bank “explores the experiential and phenomenal aspects of light” and brings together sculptures and installations that use light to sculpt and shape space in different ways. The artworks date from the 1960s to the present day and are the work of 22 different artists. Admission charge applies. Runs until 28th April. For more, see www.haywardlightshow.co.uk.

LondonLife – The Big Chill 2…

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Big-Chill2

Says the photographer, Ben Bibriesca: “Instead of spending another lazy weekend in, my flatmate and I decided to plan a trip to the Tate Modern. Unfortunately due to the snow, all our friends dropped out. We decided to still go but spent more time outdoors taking photos in the snow then at the actual museum. This shot was taken right before we crossed the bridge to get to our destination. I just loved the way everything was snow covered and white.” For more of Ben’s work, see www.flickr.com/photos/benbibriesca/.

Taken an interesting photograph of somewhere in London? We’re always looking for interesting images of the city so if you’ve got one you reckon captures a snippet of life in London, please contact us at exploringlondon@gmail.com or via Flickr at www.flickr.com/groups/exploringlondon/.

Around London – Duchess of Cambridge at the NPG; Imperial War Museum closed for now; and, Frozen London…

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• The controversial first official painted portrait of Kate Middleton, the Duchess of Cambridge, has gone on display at the National Portrait Gallery. Unveiled on 11th January, the portrait by Paul Emsley has already sparked considerable criticism. Emsley, the 2007 winner of the gallery’s BP Portrait Award competition, was chosen by the gallery’s director Sandy Nairne to paint the portrait which took three-and-a-half months to paint. It is now on permanent display in the gallery as part of Contemporary Collections in the Lerner Galleries in Room 36, on the ground floor. Admission is free. For more (including a film on the making of the portrait), see  www.npg.org.uk.

• The Imperial War Museum has closed its doors until July this year as the museum undergoes an extensive refurbishment. In July, the museum will launch a new exhibition –  Horrible Histories®: Spies, and also reopen of The Lord Ashcroft Gallery: Extraordinary Heroes, The Holocaust Exhibition, Secret War, A Family in Wartime and the Explore History Centre. The redevelopment, meanwhile, will continue until summer 2014 when the brand new First World War Galleries will be opened, marking the 100-year anniversary of the start of the First World War. For more, see www.iwm.org.uk/visits/iwm-london.

• On Now: Frozen London. This exhibition at the London Metropolitan Archives looks at the impact of some of the most severe winters the city has ever experienced which occurred between 1683 and 1895. A highlight is a look at the Frost Fairs which took place on the River Thames during that time. Runs until April 25th. Admission is free. For more, follow this link. Correction: Opened 21st January-25th April.

Around London – A West End institution reopens; Barnet’s Foundling Hospital under the spotlight; English landscape masters at the RA…

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• A West End institution which has hosted a who’s who of Londoners – including the likes of Oscar Wilde, Arthur Conan Doyle, Rudyard Kipling and Winston Churchill as well as, more recently, David Bowie, Mick Jagger and Princess Diana – has reopened its doors to the public after a four year redevelopment. Originally opened in 1865 by French wine merchant Daniel Nicholas Thévenon and his wife Celestine, Café Royal at 68 Regent Street – overlooking Piccadilly Circus – has been relaunched as five star hotel featuring more than 150 rooms, six historic suites and a variety of dining venues – including the spectacular Grill Room – as well as a private members club, meeting rooms and wellbeing centre. The redevelopment of this storied building, which centres on the original premises – retaining John Nash’s Grade I-listed facade, has seen the restoration of grand public rooms, originally dating from the 1860s and 1920s, as well as an expansion into neighbouring buildings – all under the watchful eye of David Chipperfield Architects and Donald Insall Associates. For more, see www.hotelcaferoyal.com.

 • One of six small hospitals set up by the Bloomsbury-based Foundling Hospital, the Barnet branch operated in Monken Hadley in west London from 1762-1768. It’s now the subject of one of two new exhibitions which opened at the Barnet Museum at the beginning of the month. The Barnet Foundling Hospital, Monken Hadley, 1762-1768, features a range of objects relating to some of the children placed in the hospital including identifying coin tokens left by mothers, and letters written by manager Prudence West. The exhibition initially runs until 14th January – after which objects will be replaced with prints – and then until 28th February. The second exhibition, Foundling Voices, is on tour from the Foundling Museum and features oral histories of some of the last people to be cared for by the Foundling Hospital in Berkhamsted which closed in 1954. This runs until 13th January. Admission to both is free. For more, see www.barnetmuseum.co.uk.

• On Now: Constable, Gainsborough, Turner and the Making of Landscape. This exhibition, recently opened in the John Madejski Fine Rooms and Weston Rooms at the Royal Academy of Arts, features works of art by three “towering figures” of English landscape painting – John Constable, Thomas Gainsborough and JMW Turner. The 120 works on display includes paintings, prints, books and archival material. Highlights include Gainsborough’s Romantic Landscape (c 1783), Constable’s The Leaping Horse (1825) and Boat Passing a Lock (1826), and Turner’s Dolbadern Castle (1800). There are also works by their 18th century contemporaries and artifacts including letters written by Gainsborough, Turner’s watercolour box, and Constable’s palette. Admission charge applies. Runs until 17th February. For more, see www.royalacademy.org.au.

Around London – Regicides’ rogues gallery; seeing London in extreme detail; Marilyn at the NPG; and, the Middle East at the V&A…

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• A “rogues gallery of regicides”  – six key parliamentarians who signed the death warrant of King Charles I – has been placed online this week by the National Army Museum to mark Parliament Week. The online gallery presents portraits and “potted histories” of the six men who include Oliver Cromwell (later Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, he died before the Restoration), Henry Ireton, John Hutchinson, John Hewson, John Okey and Thomas Harrison (the latter two were captured after the Restoration and rather brutally executed). In September, the museum placed 643 oil paintings from its collection online at the Your Paintings website – a collaboration between the BBC and the Public Catalogue Foundation. The paintings, which span 400 years of military history, can be viewed here: www.nam.ac.uk/your-paintings.

• While we’re looking at things online, photographer Henry Stuart earlier this month placed a GigaPixel image of London as seen from the top of St Paul’s Cathedral’s Dome – more than 100 metres above street level – as the sun sets over the city. Gigapixel means extreme detail so you can zoom in to pick out the details of individual buildings in greater clarity that the human eye can see from such a distance. Landmarks visible include the Olympic Stadium, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and Wembley Stadium. The picture can be seen here. The image can be compared to a similar image taken at sunset earlier this year (you can see this one here). He’s also taken a GigaPixel image of the St Paul’s interior (see it here). To find out more about Stuart’s work, head to www.sphericalimages.com.

• On Now: Marilyn Monroe: A British Love Affair. This display at the National Portrait Gallery – coinciding with the 50th anniversary of Marilyn’s death – puts a spotlight on her links with the UK and features a range of photographic portraits as well as rare magazine covers, vintage prints, lobby cards and film stills. Monroe, then newly married to playwright Arthur Miller, spent four months in the UK in 1956 during which time she was making the film The Prince and the Showgirl opposite Laurence Olivier. Other events recorded include her meeting with the Queen and a private sitting with the film’s cinematographer Jack Cardiff. Among other images on display are Antony Beauchamp’s 1951 images of Marilyn in a yellow bikini and photographs taken by Cecil Beaton in New York’s Ambassador Hotel in 1956. There is also a selection of magazine covers ranging from a 1947 cover of Picture Post featuring then Norma Jeane Baker to the cover of Town magazine published three months after her death and featuring an image from her last official photo shoot. Runs until 24th March. Admission is free. For more, see www.npg.org.uk. PICTURE: Marilyn Monroe, artwork for The Prince and The Showgirl poster/Courtesy The John Kobal Foundation.

• On Now. Light from the Middle East: New Photography. Described as the “first major museum exhibition of contemporary photography from and about the Middle East”, this exhibition at the V&A features more than 90 works which show creative responses to events which have shaped the region over the past 20 years – including the recent revolution in Egypt. The display is structured around three themes – Recording, Reframing and Resisting – and as many as 30 artists from 13 countries are represented in the display including Abbas (Iran), Youssef Nabil (Egypt) and Walid Raad (Lebanon). Runs until 7th April. Admission is free. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk.

Famous Londoners – Sir Peter Lely…

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One of the most famous painters of his age, Dutchman Sir Peter Lely – currently the subject of an exhibition at London’s Courtauld Gallery – rose to become the foremost portrait painter at the English Court during the latter half of the 17th century.

Born to Dutch parents on 14th September, 1618, in Westphalia (now part of Germany) where his father was serving as an infantry captain, Peter – originally named Pieter van der Faes – studied art as an apprentice in Haarlem in what is now The Netherlands. While there he is believed to have changed his name to Lely based on a heraldic lily which appeared on the gable of the house where his father was born in The Hague.

Lely appeared in London in the early 1640s and, while he initially devoted himself to the sort of narrative-style paintings inspired by classical mythology, the Bible and literature he had been working on in Haarlem but having found no great success there, soon turned his hand to portraiture.

The death of court portraitist Anthony van Dyck in 1641 had left a vacuum he stepped into the gap, soon becoming the most in-demand portrait painter at the Royal Court, his sitters including none other than King Charles I himself.

However, Lely, who was made a freeman of the Painter-Stainers Company in London in 1647, managed to straddle the political divide and after the beheading of King Charles I and the end of the English Civil War in 1651, was able to continue painting portraits of the most powerful people in the land including Oliver Cromwell – whom he painted “warts and all” as per the Lord Protector’s request – and his Cromwell’s brother Richard.

Already renowned as the best artist in the country, following the Restoration in 1660, Lely became Principal Painter of King Charles II, placed on an annual stipend as van Dyck had been before him during the reign of King Charles I.

Lely’s workshop was large and its output prolific, with his students and employees – who at one stage apparently included scientist and architect Robert Hooke – often completing his paintings after he sketched out some details, only painting the sitter’s face in any great detail.

Among his most famous works are a series of 10 portraits known as the Windsor Beauties (currently at Hampton Court Palace), a series of portraits of senior naval officers who served in the Second Anglo-Dutch War, known as the Flagmen of Lowestoft (most of the works at are the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich) and Susannah and the Elders (currently at Burghley House in Cambridgeshire) as well as some of the paintings in the current Courtauld exhibition including Nymphs by a Fountain (usually found at the Dulwich Picture Gallery) and Boy as a Shepherd (also the Dulwich Picture Gallery).

Lely was also known as an avid collector of art and is credited as being the first artist in England to do so in any serious manner – among his purchases were works which formerly formed part of King Charles I’s collection. At the time of his death, he is said to have owned more than 500 paintings, although more than half of these were works of his or his studio.

Sir Peter, who never married but had two children who survived him with a common-law wife Ursula, lived at a house in the north-east corner of Covent Garden from about 1650 until his death in 1680 (some sources have him knighted in this year, others in 1679) but also had a house at Kew and owned property outside of London including in Lincolnshire and The Hague.

He was apparently working at his easel in the studio of his Covent Garden house when he died on 30th November, 1680. He was buried at St Paul’s Church, Covent Garden. The monument to him, the work of Grinling Gibbons, was destroyed by fire in 1795.

Peter Lely: A Lyrical Vision – which focuses on some of his early non-portrait works – runs at The Courtauld Gallery until 13th January. For more on the exhibition, visit www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/exhibitions/2012/peter-lely/index.shtml. Running alongside the exhibition is a display of some of the drawings from Sir Peter’s own collection, Peter Lely: The Draughtsman and His Collection.

Around London – Lord Mayor’s Show; Remembrance Sunday; Ansel Adams at the NMM; and, Mughal India at the British Library…

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• The 2012 Lord Mayor’s Show is just about upon us and while you may not have a grandstand seat, there’s still plenty of places you can stand and watch the parade of more than 6,500 people pass by. Saturday’s parade – which celebrates the election of the 685th Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Roger Gifford – leaves Mansion House at 11am and travels via Poultry and Cheapside to St Paul’s Cathedral where it pauses for the Lord Mayor and his officials to receive a blessing – before continuing on via Ludgate Hill and Fleet Street to the Royal Courts of Justice, arriving there at about 12.30pm. There the Lord Mayor gives his oath of loyalty to the Crown (while in the surrounding streets the participants and 125 horses are fed and watered) before the parade reassembles and sets off from Embankment at 1pm, heading back to Mansion House via Queen Victoria Street – the Lord Mayor arrives sometime between 2pm and 2.30pm. (The website has a terrific one page map of the route you can download and print). There’s no fireworks display after the parade – although there’s a host of other activities taking place in the City of London – but if you’re up and about early enough, you may want to watch the Lord Mayor as he boards the barge QRB Gloriana at the Westminster Boating Base in Vauxhall at 8.30am and, escorted by a flotilla, makes his way up the Thames to HMS President, just below St Katharine Docks, arriving at about 9.35am after Tower Bridge opens in salute. For more, head to www.lordmayorsshow.org.

• The annual Remembrance Sunday service – commemorating the contribution of British and Commonwealth servicemen and women in the two World Wars and later conflicts – will take place at the Cenotaph on Whitehall at 11am this Sunday. While no tickets are required to watch the event, the Department of Culture, Media and Sport, who organise the service, advise arriving early if you wish to secure a good viewing space (and leave time for security checks at the entrance to either end of Whitehall). Whitehall opens at 8am. For more details, see www.culture.gov.uk/what_we_do/honours/3333.aspx.

• A new exhibition of the work of US photographic pioneer Ansel Adams opens at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich tomorrow (Friday). Ansel Adams: Photography from the Mountains to the Sea, which comes from the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, will feature more than 100 original prints, many of which have never been exhibited before in the UK. It is said to be the first exhibition to focus on his “lifelong fascination” with water and the display features some of Adams’ finest images based on this subject including what are some of the most famous photographs of the 20th century. Highlights include the first photograph Adams’ ever image – taken at age 14 – which features a pool located at the Panama Pacific Exhibition at the 1915 World’s Fair, the three American Trust murals produced in the 1950s on an “unprecedented scale”, Adam’s favorite work – Golden Gate before the Bridge – which hung above his desk, and iconic images such as Clearing Winter Storm, Yosemite and Stream, Sea, Clouds, Rodeo Lagoon, Marin Country, California. There is an admission charge. Runs until 28th April. For more details on the exhibition, see www.rmg.co.uk.

• Also opening tomorrow (Friday) is the British Library’s major autumn exhibition – Mughal India: Art, Culture and Empire. The exhibition focuses on the Mughal dynasty – which once ruled over much of the Indian sub-continent – and is the first to document the period spanning the 16th to 19th centuries. Featuring more than 200 manuscripts and paintings, most of which come from the library’s own collection, highlights include Akbar ordering the slaughter to cease in 1578 – a work attributed to the artist Miskina in 1595, Abu’l Hasan’s early 17th century painting Squirrels in a plane tree, the historically important illustration Prince Aurangzeb reports to the Emperor Shah Jahan in durbar, and a portrait of Prince Dara Shikoh, favorite son and heir-apparent of 17th century Emperor Shah Jahan. Runs until 2nd April. Admission charge applies. For more on the exhibition and accompanying events, see www.bl.uk.

Where is it?…#48

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The latest in the series in which we ask you to identify where in London this picture was taken and who it’s of. If you think you can identify this picture, leave a comment below. We’ll reveal the answer early next week. Good luck!

Well done to Angelo (and, I suspect the correct location for Mike), this is indeed a bust of Sir Christopher Wren and is located in a loggia outside the Guildhall Art Gallery facing into Guildhall Yard. It and three other larger than life busts of notable Londoners – playwright William Shakespeare, statesman Oliver Cromwell and diarist Samuel Pepys – are all the work of Tim Crawley and were installed when the gallery was completed in 1999. Along with them is a full length statue of Dick Whittington and his famous cat – these are the work of Laurence Tindall.

Around London – Henry Stuart at the NPG; the Lord Mayor’s Show; prehistoric Japanese pots; and, photography at the National Gallery…

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• The first ever exhibition focusing on Henry Stuart, older brother of King Charles I, has opened at the National Portrait Gallery. The Lost Prince: The Life and Death of Henry Stuart features more than 80 exhibits including paintings, miniatures, manuscripts, books and armour gathered from museums and personal collections around the UK and abroad – with some of the objects being displayed in public for the first time. Opened on 18th October – the 400th anniversary of the Prince’s death, among the paintings displayed in the exhibition are works by Holbein, Nicholas Hilliard and Isaac Oliver as well as Robert Peake as well as masque designs by Inigo Jones and poetry  by Ben Jonson. Henry, Prince of Wales, was the eldest son of King James I and Queen Anne of Denmark, and died at the age of 18 of typhoid fever. As well as looking at his short life, the exhibition covers the extraordinary reaction to his premature death (and the end of hope that King Henry IX would sit next upon the throne). The exhibition runs until 13th January. An admission fee applies. For more, see www.npg.org.uk. PICTURE:  Henry, Prince of Wales by Isaac Oliver, c. 1610-12; Copyright: The Royal Collection Photo: Supplied by Royal Collection Trust / © HM Queen Elizabeth II 2012

• The Lord Mayor’s Show – the largest unrehearsed procession in the world – will be held on 10th November. This year’s procession – celebrating the election of the 685th Lord Mayor of London, Alderman Roger Gifford – will feature more than 6,500 people winding their way through the City of London in a three-and-a-half mile-long display including 22 marching bands, 125 horses, 18 vintage cars, 21 carriages, an original American stagecoach, a Sherman tank, a steamroller and a Japanese Taiko drum band. While there will be no fireworks after this year’s parade, following the success of last year’s trial there will be an early morning flotilla with the Lord Mayor conveyed in the barge QRB Gloriana from Vauxhall up the Thames to HMS President, just below St Katharine Docks, from where he will make his way to the Mansion House to join the procession as it heads first to St Paul’s and then on to the Royal Courts of Justice before returning (via a different route). There are no grand stand seats left but plenty of places you can watch it for free (for a chance to win free Grandstand tickets, head to the Lord Mayor’s Show Facebook page and ‘like’ it). We’ll be talking about this more next week, but in the meantime, for maps and details of a new smart phone app, head to www.lordmayorsshow.org.

• Two prehistoric Japanese pots have gone on display at the British Museum. Loaned from the Nagaoka Municipal Science Museum, the pots date from the Middle Jomon period (3,500-2,500 BCE) and consist of a ‘flame’ and a ‘crown’ pot which were excavated in Nagaoka city. The pots form part of the Asahi Shimbun Displays in room 3 and will be there until 20th January. Meanwhile, continuing the Asian theme, an exhibition of more than 100 contemporary carved Chinese seals by artist Li Lanqing is on display in room 33 until 15th January. Admission to both is free. For more, see www.britishmuseum.org.

• On Now: Seduced by Art: Photography Past and Present. The National Gallery’s first major exhibition of photography, the display looks at the relationship between historical paintings and photography, both its early days in the mid-19th century and the work of contemporary photographers – in particular how photographers have used the traditions of fine art to “explore and justify” their own works. Almost 90 photographs are displayed alongside a select group of paintings for the show. Admission is free. Runs until 20th January in the Sainsbury Wing. For more, see www.nationalgallery.org.uk.

Around London – Naval caricatures; James Bond; a Taliban motorbike; and Sir Peter Lely at the Courtauld…

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• Naval caricatures of the late 18th and early 19th century go on display in a new exhibition which opens at the National Maritime Museum today. Broadsides! Caricature and the Navy 1756-1815 features a small selection of the museum’s extensive collection of caricatures – one of the largest in the world, it features works by James Gillray, George M Woodward and Thomas Rowlandson. It explores the role the caricatures played in shaping public opinion during the period which included the American War of Independence and wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France. The exhibition features 20 prints with visitors able to see others in the museum’s collection via the website www.rmg.co.uk/collections. Admission is free. Runs until 3rd February. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk.

• Celebrate the 50th anniversary of James Bond and the premiere of the latest film in the franchise, Skyfall, with a look at a rare collection of James Bond posters and other memorabilia as well as the latest Bond vehicle this weekend. The Hospital Club in Covent Garden is hosting the event, in conjunction with Blue Robin, which features about 50 vintage posters from movies such as 1973’s Live And Let Die and 1963’s From Russia With Love. There’s also the chance to have your photo taken beside the double-cab Land Rover Defender which features in the opening chase sequence of Skyfall. Also exhibited will be M’s chauffeur-driven Jaguar XJ long wheel base and the black Range Rover driven by Bill Tanner, M’s chief of staff. The free exhibition is open to the public from 11am to 7pm from tomorrow until Monday (please call reception on 020 7170 9100 before visiting). For more, see www.thehospitalclub.com.

• A motorbike captured from Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan by members of the 1st Battalion The Rifles has gone on display at the Imperial War Museum in London. The Honda motorbike forms part of the interactive display, War Story: Serving in Afghanistan, in which visitors can delve into the lives of service personnel taking part in Operation Herrick through personal artefacts, photographs and video. The bike was recovered by soldiers after it was left behind by two insurgents during an encounter on 4th May last year. It is the largest item to be donated through the War Story project and is the only item of enemy equipment acquired by the project to date. The motorbike will be displayed until 18th December. For more, see www.iwm.org.uk.

Now On: Peter Lely: A Lyrical Vision. This newly opened exhibition at the Courtauld Gallery is the first to look at the group of large scale narrative paintings produced by Sir Peter during the turmoil of the Civil War in the 1640s and 1650s. Renowned as the principal painter of King Charles II and the “outstanding artistic figure of Restoration England”, Sir Peter apparently never wished to be seen principally as a portraitist and following his arrival in England in the early 1640s, initially devoted himself to paintings inspired by classical mythology, the Bible and contemporary literature. The exhibition centres on The Courtauld’s own work, The Concert, and features an important group of little known paintings from private collections. Runs until 13th January. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/index.shtml.

LondonLife – Pre-Raphaelites at the Tate…

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Laus Veneris (1873-8) by Edward Burne-Jones was inspired by Algernon Swinburne’s poem Laus Veneris which relates the tale of a knight who falls in love with Venus (shown in red) but then decides to leave her. Usually found in the Laing Art Gallery in Newcastle upon Tyne, it’s among the 180 or so works on display at Tate Britain on Millbank as part of its recently opened exhibition, Pre-Raphaelites: Victorian Avant-Garde. The exhibition, the largest survey of the group in almost 30 years, locates the Pre-Raphaelites as the UK’s first modern art movement and traces the group’s development from its formation in 1848 through to their Symbolist creations of the 1890s. Other works on show, some of which have been rarely seen in the UK, include John Everett Millais’ Ophelia, William Holman Hunt’s The Lady of Shalott, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s Found. There are also works by Madox Brown and William Morris and as well as paintings, the display includes sculpture, photography and the applied arts. Runs until 13th January next year. Admission charges apply. For more, see www.tate.org.uk.

Around London – Cecil Beaton at the IWM; a night of bicycles at the Design Museum; and, Dickens and the Foundling…

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• A major new exhibition featuring stunning images captured by the late renowned society and fashion photographer Cecil Beaton during World War II opens at the Imperial War Museum in Lambeth today. Cecil Beaton: Theatre of War features some of the 7,000 photographs the photographer took between 1940 and 1945 with many of them exhibited for the first time. The photographs were taken in an array of locations – from Britain and Europe to the Middle East and Africa, India, Burma, China and the US – and depict everything from “ordinary” people in civilian life through to some of the era’s most famous military leaders. The exhibition will also look at how the war affected Beaton personally including his own brushes with death including in a major air crash and suffering from the likes of dengue fever and dysentery. Admission charge applies. Runs until 1st January. For more, see www.iwm.org.uk.

• A celebration of all things bicycle will be held at the Design Museum tomorrow (Friday, 7th September) night. Bike V Design, which kicks off at 6.30pm, will feature talks exploring the design of bikes, a mini cinema and live performances including BMX stunts and circus trick cycling as well as a demonstration of saddle manufacturing. Visitors are encouraged to bring their own bikes or enjoy the selection of bespoke bicycles on display. The night is being held to coincide with Designed to Win, the museum’s current exhibition exploring the tension between sport and design. An admission charge applies. For more, see www.designmuseum.org.

• On Now: Dickens and the Foundling. In case you’ve missed it, this exhibition at the Foundling Museum in Bloombury explores the relationship between the writer and the Foundling Hospital through a series of objects selected for display by six people with an interest in Dickens including actress Gillian Anderson, Dickens’ descendent Mark Dickens, comedian Armando Iannucci, Camden councillor Tulip Siddiq, poet Lemn Sissay and journalist Jon Snow. Among the objects on show are a letter from Dickens to the editor of The Times in which he objects to public hangings, the writing desk at which Dickens wrote what we have of the unfinished The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and a manuscript page from Oliver Twist, written when Dickens lived in a house at nearby Doughty Street. The exhibition runs until the end of October. Free with museum admission. For more, see www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk.

What’s in a Name?…Trafalgar Square

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It wasn’t until some time after Admiral Lord Nelson’s victory over the French fleet in the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain on 21st October, 1805, that the large public space in Westminster we now know as Trafalgar Square took its name.

Prior to the development of the square, much of the area it covers was occupied the King’s Mews – stables linked to the Palace of Whitehall – and was simply seen as part of the district known as Charing Cross (named for the memorial cross which stood close to where the equestrian statue of King Charles I now stands – for more on this, see our earlier post and follow the links).

Following the relocation of the Mews in the early 19th century, plans were drawn up by architect-of-the-age John Nash to redevelop the area while the square itself, completed in 1845, was designed by Sir Charles Barry (best known for his work on the Houses of Parliament).

The final design incorporated a statue of Admiral Lord Nelson atop a column, known as ‘Nelson’s Column’, in the centre – apparently against Barry’s wishes (see our earlier post for more on Nelson’s Column).

Originally designed with an upper terrace and a lower piazza linked by stairs at the eastern and western end of the terrace, the square contains two fountains on either side of the column – the current fountains were designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1937-9 and replaced earlier ones.

It was originally suggested that the square be named King William IV Square but it was apparently architect George Ledwell Taylor who provided the alternative of Trafalgar Square in honor of Nelson’s great battle.

Bordered by significant landmarks including the National Gallery to the north, the church of St Martin’s-in-the-Fields to the north-east, South Africa House to the east and Canada House to the west, the square stands at the confluence of a number of major roadways including Whitehall, Strand, Charing Cross Road and The Mall.

Aside from the aforementioned statue of King Charles I, monuments within the square include Nelson’s Column along with plinths set in the four corners of the square. These bear statues of King George IV, Victorian military figures General Sir Charles James Napier and Major-General Sir Henry Havelock while the fourth plinth, located in the north-west corner, was originally intended to bear an equestrian statue of King William IV.

Instead, it was left empty for many years before the advent of the Fourth Plinth project under which a variety of contemporary artworks – most recently a massive sculpture of a boy astride a rocking horse – have occupied the space (you can see a picture of the current work in our earlier post here).

The square, once known as the home of thousands of pigeons before these were banished midway through last decade to allow greater public use of the space, also features the busts of three admirals – John Jellicoe, David Beatty and Andrew Cunningham, located against the north wall under the terrace.

There are also two statues on a lawn in front of the National Gallery – these are of US President George Washington and King James II. Curiously, the square also features a small pillar box in the south-east corner, referred to by some as the smallest police station in London.

A renovation project in 2003 pedestrianised the roadway along the north side of the square and installed a central stairway between the the upper and lower levels along with lifts, public toilets and a cafe.

For some more on the history of Trafalgar Square, see Jean Hood’s Trafalgar Square: A Visual History of London’s Landmark Through Time.

Where is it?…#40

by exploringlondon

The latest in the series in which we ask you to identify where in London this picture was taken and what it’s of. If you think you can identify this picture, leave a comment below. We’ll reveal the answer early next week. Good luck!

Well done to Angelo – this is indeed located outside the Tate Gallery, just to the left of the main entrance. The statue is The Death of Dirce, a work by Sir Charles Lawes-Wittewronges, and was one of a several copies of the same work he made in the early 1900s (this bronze version was made in 1906), including a couple of bronze versions and a colossal marble version. The sculptural group, based on the Hellenistic sculpture known as the Farnese Bull (which is indeed in Naples), depicts Dirce, the wife of the King of Thebes who was tied to the horns of a bull by Amphion and Zethus as a punishment. Sir Charles was something of a noted athlete in a range of sports as well as a sculptor who exhibited 12 works at the Royal Academy. He was also involved in a famous libel case in the 1880s. The statue was presented to what was then the National Gallery of British Art by his widow after his death in 1911.

LondonLife – The 2012 Serpentine Gallery Pavilion…

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The 12th in the Serpentine Gallery’s annual architecture series, this year’s Serpentine Gallery Pavilion in Kensington Gardens has been designed  by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei, the design team behind for the Beijing National Stadium, star of the 2008 Olympic Games and commonly known as the “bird’s nest”. Twelve columns – each of which represents one of the 12 annual pavilions created so far (including this one) – support a floating platform roof standing 1.5 metres off the ground. The interior is clad in cork and the pavilion designed to “inspire visitors to look beneath the surface of the park as well as back in time across the ghosts of the earlier structures”. Open until 14th October. For more information, see www.serpentinegallery.org. PICTURE: Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2012. Designed by Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei © Herzog & de Meuron and Ai Weiwei. IMAGE –  © 2012 Iwan Baan.

Around London – Celebrating the Olympics; Camden Lock’s night market; and, images of London at the Tate…

by exploringlondon

We’ll kick off this week with just a few more of the plethora of Olympic-related events which are happening around town:

• Tower Bridge, site of some spectacular fireworks last Friday night, is currently hosting an exhibition celebrating the 26 cities which have hosted the modern Olympics. Cities of the Modern Games, located on the bridge’s walkways, runs alongside an interactive exhibition looking at the bridge’s construction. Follow the link for details.

• The Guildhall Art Gallery is showcasing sculpture and art inspired by sport and the “Olympic values”. The art works are all winning entries from a contest organised by the International Olympic Committee. The chosen works were selected from among 68 submissions made by an international jury. Follow the link for details.

• The Design Museum is hosting a new exhibition celebrating the nexus between sport and design. Designed to Win looks at everything from the design of F1 cars to running shoes, bats and bicycles and explores the way in which design has shaped the sporting world. Runs until 9th September. Admission charge applies. See www.designmuseum.org.

• The London Metropolitan Archives is holding an exhibition of playing cards featuring an Olympic theme. Sporting Aces – Playing Cards and the Olympic Games features cards drawn from the collection of the Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards which have an Olympic theme. Admission is free. Runs until 13th September. See www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma.

And in other news…

• A night market has been launched at Camden Lock over the summer period. Street food stalls and vintage fashion, arts and crafts and book shops will be open until 10pm every Thursday with extras including live music and film screenings. For more, see www.camdenlockmarket.com.

• On Now: Another London: International Photographers and City Life 1930-1980. This exhibition at Tate Britain in Millbank features more than 150 classic photographs of the city and its communities by foreign photographers including such luminaries as Henri Cartier-Bresson. The exhibition features iconic works such as Robert Frank’s London (Stock Exchange) 1951, Cartier-Bresson’s images of King George VI’s coronation, Elliot Erwitt’s depiction of a rain-washed London bus stop, and Bruce Davidson’s image of a child with pigeons in Trafalgar Square alongside works such as Wolfgang Suschitzky’s images of working class families in the East End, from the 1940s, and Karen Knorr’s images of punks in the 1970s. The photographs all come from the Eric and Louise Franck London Collection, which includes more than 1,200 images of London and has been promised as a gift to the Tate. Runs until 16th September. Admission charge applies. See www.tate.org.uk. 

Have we missed something we should be telling others about? Send details in an email to exploringlondon@gmail.com.

Around London – Bells…and more bells; Olympic memorabilia; free wifi in the West End; The Arch returns to Kensington Gardens; and, Impressionists at the RA…

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• It’s all about the Olympics in London this week and many of the events – like the Opening Ceremony and Torch Relay (see last week’s post) – are well covered elsewhere, but we thought we’d mention a couple of things in relation to the Games: 

The first is the ‘All the Bells’ project which will see bells across London being rung at 8:12am on Friday to “ring in” the first day of the Olympic and Paralympic Games. Work No. 1197: All the bells in a country rung as quickly and as loudly as possible for three minutes, commissioned as part of the London 2012 Festival, is the brainchild of Turner Prize-winning artist and musician Martin Creed and will involve thousands of bells across the nation. Speaking of bells, the City of London has announced that some of the City’s churches will be ringing continuously during the three Olympic marathon events – the men’s, women’s, and Paralympic events. As many as 57 of the country’s most experienced bell ringers, co-ordinated by the Ancient Society of College Youths (a ringing society created in London in 1637) will be working for three to four hours continuously at churches including St Paul’s Cathedral, St Mary le Bow, St Lawrence Jewry, St Magnus the Martyr, St Vedast and St Katharine Cree. During the women’s marathon, an all-female band will be attempting a peal at St Paul’s, the first all-woman attempt on the bells. (Apologies, this article had originally had the time for the bell ringing at 8.12pm – it is in the morning, not the evening!)

A new exhibition exploring London’s Olympic history has opened at the British Library. Olympex 2012: Collecting the Olympic Games features a range of memorabilia including a swimming costume and the finishing tape broken by – later disqualified – marathon runner Dorando Pietri  from the 1908 London Games (see our earlier post for more on him) as well as posters and artworks, stamps, letters and postcards. The exhibition also features audio interviews with Olympians including William (Bill) Roberts, a relay runner in the 1936 Berlin Olympics, and Dorothy Tyler, a medal-winning high jumper who competed in the 1936 and 1948 Olympics. Presented by the British Library and International Olympic Committee, the exhibition runs until 9th September at the library in St Pancras. Entry is free. For more, see www.bl.uk. PICTURE: Rare 1948 postcard by an unknown artist (c) Private collection/IOC

• A new free wifi network has been launched in London’s West End. Westminster City Council and telco O2 launched the network this week. It will initially cover Oxford and Regent Streets, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, Piccadilly Circus and Parliament Square with further areas in Westminster and Covent Garden the next to be included in the network. A once-only registration process is required to join.

• Henry Moore’s famous sculpture, The Arch, has been returned to its original home in Kensington Gardens. The six metre high work was presented to the nation by Moore in 1980 and was positioned on the north bank of the Long Water until 1996 when the structure became unstable and was placed in storage. In late 2010, the Royal Parks began a project with The Henry Moore Foundation to see if the work could be returned to the gardens. Work began to restore the piece – which consists of seven stones weighing 37 tonnes – to its original location earlier this year. For more on Kensington Gardens, see www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/kensington-gardens.

• On Now: From Paris: A Taste for Impressionism. This Royal Academy of Arts exhibition at Burlington House features 70 works from the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Massachusetts, and includes works by Manet, Monet, Pissarro, Degas, Sisley, Morisot and Renoir as well as those of post-Impressionist artists Corot, Théodore Rousseau and J-F. Millet, and ‘academic’ paintings by Gérôme, Alma-Tadema and Bouguereau. Runs until 23rd September. Admission charge applies. See www.royalacademy.org.uk for more.

Around London – Richmond’s upsized Olympic rings; cart marking; ‘Sam’ Mussabini honored; and, Tudor twins at the NPG…

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• The largest official Olympic Rings were unveiled at Richmond Park National Nature Reserve in London’s south-west this week, having been mown into the grass by the Royal Parks’ shire horses. The rings, which lie on Heathrow’s flight path and are 300 metres wide and more than 135 metres tall, will welcome athletes as they fly in to compete in the Games which kick off later this month. It took six shire horses to create the giant rings – which represent five continents – but they’ll be maintained by just two – Jim and Murdoch. Horses have worked in Richmond Park since as far back 1637 when King Charles I had the park enclosed as a royal hunting ground. Eleven Olympic events will be held on Royal Parks during the Games including road race cycling in Richmond Park. For more on Richmond Park, see www.royalparks.org.uk/parks/richmond-park. PICTURE: LOCOG.

• Almost 50 vehicles, ranging from handcarts to horse drawn carriages, steam powered vehicles to a new London bus, took part in the Worshipful Company of Carmen’s traditional ‘Cart Marking’ procession through the City of London yesterday. The ‘trade’ of carmen dates back to the 13th century when City authorities passed a bye-law controlling carters. At the ceremony, the carmen bring a variety of vehicles which are branded by placing a red hot iron on a wooden plate, with the year letter and the car number, in the continuation of an ancient tradition. The Worshipful Company of Carmen is said to be the oldest transportation organisation in the world. For more on the livery company, see www.thecarmen.co.uk.

• The late athletics coach Scipio Africanus “Sam” Mussabini (1867-1927) was honored this week with the unveiling of an English Heritage Blue Plaque at his former home in Herne Hill in London’s south. Mussabini, whose role in helping 100 metre sprinter Harold Abrahams win gold at the 1924 Olympics was depicted in the film Chariots of Fire (he was played by Ian Holm),  lived at the house at 84 Burbage Road from 1911 to about 1916. It backs onto the Herne Hill Stadium where he worked as a cycling and athletics coach from the 1890s, a period during which he trained several medal-winning Olympic athletes. All up, Mussabini’s runners won a total of 11 Olympic medals including five golds, between 1908 and 1928. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk.

On Now: Double Take: Versions and Copies of Tudor Portraits. This display at the National Portrait Gallery features five pairs of nearly identical Tudor portraits and explores how and why they were made. Among the portraits from the gallery’s collection on display are those of King Henry VIII, his wife Anne Boleyn, Archbishop William Warham, the merchant Thomas Gresham and Lord Treasurer Thomas Sackville – all of which are paired with paintings on loan from other collections. Admission is free. Runs until 9th September. For more information on the Making Art in Tudor Britain research project – of which this is a part – see www.npg.org.uk/research/programmes/making-art-in-tudor-britain.

London Pub Signs – The Devereux

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Located at 20 Devereux Court, just off the Strand in the area of London known as Temple, The Devereux takes its name from Elizabethan Robert Devereux, the 2nd Earl of Essex, whose mansion, Essex House, once occupied the site on which it stands.

Devereux, a favorite of Queen Elizabeth I, inherited the mansion from his step-father, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, in 1588 (the house was originally called Leicester House). A spectacular fall from favor which culminated in an abortive coup, however, led to Devereux’s beheading in 1601 (interestingly, he was the last person to be executed inside the Tower of London – the tower where he is held was named after him).

Used by other members of Devereux’s family following his death, a plaque outside the pub explains that the property was sold to property developer, Nicholas Barbon (also noted as the founder of fire insurance), in 1674, and that he had it demolished soon after.

The present building is said to date from 1676 and was originally two houses. Soon after its construction, it became the premises of the famous Grecian Coffee House which had moved from Wapping Old Stairs.

Noted as a meeting place for prominent Whigs, it was also frequented by members of the Royal Society such as Sir Isaac Newton, Sir Hans Sloane and Dr Edmund Halley as well as writer, poet and politician Joseph Addison and Richard Steele, editor of The Tatler (who gave the coffee house as the magazine’s postal address).

The early 1840s, the premises was into lawyers’ chambers and then later into the public house which now occupies it.

There’s a bust of Essex on the facade beneath which is written the inscription, “Devereux Court, 1676”. The pub is these days part of the Taylor-Walker group. For more, see www.taylor-walker.co.uk/pub-food/devereux-temple/pid-C7177.

For a great book on London’s pubs, take a look at London’s Best Pubs: A Guide to London’s Most Interesting & Unusual Pubs.