The Queen’s Gallery

This Week in London – Costa Rican orchids at Kew; Holocaust survivor portraits; and, Bob Marley at Saatchi…

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A scene from Kew Gardens’ Orchid Festival in 2020.

• Biodiversity hotspot Costa Rica is the focus of this year’s Orchid Festival which opens at Kew Gardens on Saturday. The festival, which returns for the first time in two years, sees a recreation of the verdant landscape of the Caribbean island nation in the Princess of Wales Conservatory – including the creation of monkeys, sea turtles, toads and hummingbirds in plant form – with a central display in the glasshouse pond of vibrant orchids and bromeliads. Meanwhile, the International Garden Photographer of the Year exhibition is also opening in Kew’s Arboretum and features a selection of images from across categories including ‘Beautiful Gardens’, ‘The Beauty of Plants’ and ‘The World of Fungi’ as well as winner of the ‘Captured at Kew’ special award. Both can be seen until 6th March. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.kew.org.

Artist Clara Drummond and Holocaust survivor Manfred Goldberg BEM, PICTURE: Angel Li and BBC Studios

• A series of portraits depicting Holocaust survivors has gone on show at The Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. The seven works in Seven Portraits: Surviving the Holocaust were commissioned by Prince Charles in his role as patron of Holocaust Memorial Day which was marked last week. The exhibition can be seen at The Queen’s Gallery until 13th February. Admission charge applies. For more on Holocaust Memorial Day, see www.hmd.org.uk. For more on The Queen’s Gallery, head to www.rct.uk/visit/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace.

Music Room by © Adrian Boot

• Music icon Bob Marley is the subject of an exhibition which opened at the Saatchi Gallery this week. Bob Marley: One Love Experience features hitherto unseen photographs of Marley as well as memorabilia, giant art installations and multi-sensory experiences as visitors are led through a series of rooms including the ‘One Love Music Room’, the ‘One Love Forest’ and the ‘Soul Shakedown Studio’. The exhibition runs until 17th April. Admission charges apply. For more, see www.bobmarleyexp.com.

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This Week in London – Buckingham Palace masterpieces; the Museum of London wants your dreams; theoretical physicist honoured; and, Khadija Saye’s self-portraits…

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Gerrit Dou The Grocer’s Shop (1672) Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

• World renowned artworks from Buckingham Palace’s Picture Gallery go on show at the Queen’s Gallery from tomorrow. Masterpieces from Buckingham Palace features 65 works by the likes of Titian, Rembrandt, Rubens, Vermeer, Van Dyck and Canaletto and, unlike in the tours of the State Rooms, visitors to the Queen’s Gallery will face the chance to enjoy the works close-up. The paintings on show include Johannes Vermeer’s The Music Lesson (early 1660s), Sir Peter Paul Rubens Milkmaids with Cattle in a Landscape, (c1617–18), Rembrandt’s The Shipbuilder and his Wife (1633), Canaletto’s The Bacino di San Marco on Ascension Day (c1733–4), Titian’s Madonna and Child in a Landscape with Tobias and the Angel (c1537) and Gerrit Dou’s The Grocer’s Shop (1672). The exhibition runs until January 2022. Advance booking is essential and admission charge applies. For more, see www.rct.uk.

• The Museum of London is seeking to record the dreams of Londoners during the coronavirus pandemic in a new project with the Museum of Dreams at Western University in Canada. Guardians of Sleep represents the first time dreams as raw encounters and personal testimonies will be collected by a museum. Londoners are being asked to register their interest to take part by 15th January with conversations with members of the Dreams network – an international team of trained scholars from the psychosocial community, slated to be held over Zoom in February. Contributions will be considered for acquisition by the Museum of London as part of its ‘Collecting COVID’ project. To volunteer to participate in the study, or to find out more details, members of the public should contact info@museumofdreams.org.

• Abdus Salam, a Nobel Prize-winning theoretical physicist, has been honoured with a Blue Plaque at his former property in Putney. The red brick Edwardian house was the Pakistani scientist’s London base from 1957 until his death in 1996. It features a study where Salam would write while listening to long-playing records of Quranic verses and music by composers ranging from Strauss to Gilbert and Sullivan. Salam’s work on electroweak theory contributed to the discovery of the Higgs boson particle – the ‘God particle’ which gives everything mass, and he was also involved in improving the status of science in developing countries.The unveiling comes as English Heritage issues a call for the public to nominate more notable scientists from history for its Blue Plaque scheme in London with only around 15 per cent of the 950 plus blue plaques across the capital dedicated to scientists. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/.

• A self-portrait series by late Gambian-British artist Khadija Saye can be seen at the British Library’s entrance hall from today.  Khadija Saye: in this space we breathe features nine silk-screen prints and demonstrates Saye’s deep concern with “how trauma is embodied in the black experience” as well as her Gambian heritage and mixed-faith background. Saye, who died in 2017, photographed herself with cultural, religious and spiritual objects of significance both to her Christian mother and Muslim father and in African traditions of spirituality. The free display is on show until 2nd May. For more, see www.bl.uk.

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This Week in London – Tower of London lowers drawbridge; other openings include Westminster Abbey and The Queen’s Gallery…

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• The Tower of London will officially lower the drawbridge in a symbolic ceremony this Friday morning to announce its reopening after a 16 week closure, the longest since World War II. A new one-way route has been introduced to allow for social distancing and while the Yeoman Warders, known as Beefeaters, won’t be restarting their tour immediately, they will be able to answer visitor questions. The Crown Jewels exhibition will also be reopening. Online bookings are essential. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk/tower-of-london/.

• Westminster Abbey reopens its doors to visitors on Saturday after the longest closure since it did so to prepare for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The abbey will initially be open to visitors on Saturdays and on Wednesday evenings, with a limited number of timed entry tickets available solely through advance booking online.

• The Queen’s Gallery and the Royal Mews at Buckingham Palace as well as Royal Collection Trust shops reopened to the public this week. The Queen’s Gallery exhibition George IV: Art & Spectacle has been extended until 1st November while Japan: Courts and Culture, which had been originally due to open in June this year, is now expected to open in spring 2022. Tickets must be booked in advance at www.rct.uk/tickets.

• Other reopenings include Kew Gardens’ famous glasshouses (from last weekend) and the Painted Hall, King William Undercroft and interpretation gallery at Greenwich (from Monday 13th July).

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PICTURE: Nick Fewings/Unsplash.

 

This Week in London – King George IV on display; The Clash’s ‘London Calling’ hits 40; and, Skate at Somerset House…

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• King George IV’s public image and his taste for the theatrical and exotic as well as his passion for collecting are all the subject of a new exhibition opening at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, on Friday. Set against the tumultuous backdrop of his times (which included the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars as well as a period of unprecedented global exploration), George IV: Art & Spectacle shows the contrasts of his character – on the one hand “a recklessly profligate showman” and, on the other, a “connoisseur with intellectual interests whose endless acquisitions made him one of the most important figures in the formation of the Royal Collection”. The display features artworks including Rembrandt’s The Shipbuilder and his Wife (1633) – at 5,000 guineas it was the most expensive artwork he ever purchased (pictured), as well as works by the likes of Jan Steen, Aelbert Cuyp and David Teniers. There’s also portraits the King commissioned from Sir Thomas Gainsborough,  a Louis XVI service created by Sevres (1783-92) and the great Shield of Achilles (1821) – designed by John Flaxman, it was on display at his Coronation banquet. Other items include diplomatic gifts sent to the King – such as a red and yellow feather cape (‘ahu’ula) from King Kamehameha II and Queen Kamamalu of the Sandwich Islands (now Hawaii) and a Maori club brought from Hawaii by Captain Cook’s ship Resolution – and a copy of Emma sent to him by Jane Austen’s publisher. Runs until 4th May. Admission charge applies. For more, head to www.rct.uk/visit/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace. PICTURE: Sir Thomas Lawrence, George IV (1762-1830), 1821 (Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2019)

• A new exhibition commemorating the release of The Clash’s third album, London Calling, 40 years ago opens at Museum of London tomorrow.  The display features items from the group’s personal archive such as Paul Simonon’s broken Fender Precision Bass, which Simonon smashed while on stage in New York City on 21st September, 1979, a handwritten album sequence by Mick Jones showing the final order for the four sides of the double album London Calling, one of Joe Strummer’s notebooks from 1979 and the typewriter he used to document his ideas, lyrics and other writing, and Topper Headon’s drumsticks. To coincide with the opening, Sony Music is releasing the London Calling Scrapbook, a hardback companion to the display which comes with the album, on CD. The free display can be seen until next spring. For more, see www.museumoflondon.org.uk.

• Skate at Somerset House with Fortnum & Mason is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. The ice-skating rink, which opened this week, is being accompanied by the major exhibition 24/7 exploring the non-stop nature of modern life, as well as a programme of events including Somerset’s first skating ‘all-nighter’ on 7th December and special ‘Skate Lates’. There’s also Fortnum’s Christmas Arcade which, along with dining venue Fortnum’s Lodge has been created in Somerset House’s West Wing, as well as the rinkside Skate Lounge – home to the Bailey’s Treat Bar, and the Museum of Architecture’s Gingerbread City, now in its fourth year. Until 12th January. Admission charges apply. Head here for more.

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This Week in London – Kensington Palace celebrates Victoria; unseen Leonardo; and, William Hogarth and sound…

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• Queen Victoria’s childhood and later life are being re-examined in two new displays which open this week at Kensington Palace to mark the 200th anniversary of her birth. Victoria: A Royal Childhood features objects related to her early years – such as a scrapbook of mementos created by her German governess, Baroness Lehzen (on public display for the first time) – shown along a newly presented route through the rooms she once occupied in the palace. Visitors will experience how her childhood was governed by the strict rules of the ‘Kensington System’ and see how she escaped isolation and family feuding into a fantasy world of story writing, doll making and drawing inspired by her love of opera and ballet. Her education, family life, closest friendships and bitter struggles are explored with interactive displays helping visitors bring to life the rooms in which she lived. Meanwhile, the palace is also hosting another new exhibition – Victoria: Woman and Crown – which looks at the private woman behind the public monarch and examines her later life, including her response to the death of Prince Albert, her role in shaping royal dynasties and politics across Europe and her complex love affair with India. Among objects on show here are rare survivals from the Queen’s private wardrobe including a simple cotton petticoat dated to around the time of her marriage, and a fashionable pair of silver boots, both of which were recently acquired by Historic Royal Palaces with support from Art Fund. Entry to the two exhibitions is included in the standard admission charge. The palace gardens, meanwhile, are being planted with a special floral display in celebration of the anniversary centred on plant species connected to the Victorian period  including heliotrope, canna, pelargonium and begonia. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk/Victoria2019. PICTURES: Top  – The Birth Room in ‘Victoria: A Royal Childhood’; Right – Queen Victoria’s Highland dress in the ‘Victoria: Woman and Crown’ exhibition (Both images © Historic Royal Palaces/Richard Lea-Hair)

• A newly identified sketch of the Renaissance master Leonardo da Vinci goes on public view for the first time at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from tomorrow. Marking 500 years since the artist’s death, Leonardo da Vinci: A Life in Drawing also features the only other surviving portrait of Leonardo made during his lifetime as well as 200 of his drawings in which is a comprehensive survey of his life. The newly identified sketch was discovered by Martin Clayton, head of prints and drawings at the Royal Collection Trust, while he was undertaking research for the exhibition and has been identified as a study of Leonardo made by an assistant shortly before da Vinci’s death in 1519. The other contemporary image of Leonardo, by his pupil Francesco Melzi, was produced at about the same time. Other highlights of the exhibition include Leonardo’s Studies of hands for the Adoration of the Magi (c1481) – also on public display for the first time, studies for The Last Supper and many of the artist’s ground-breaking anatomical studies, such as The Fetus in the Womb (c1511). The drawings in the Royal Collection have been together since Leonardo’s death and are believed to have been acquired in the reign of King Charles II. Runs until 13th October. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.rct.uk/leonardo500/london.

• The use of sound in the art of William Hogarth is being explored in a new exhibition opening in The Foundling Museum on Friday. Hogarth & the Art of Noise focuses on the work The March of the Guards to Finchley and unpacks the social, cultural and political context in which it was created including the Jacobite uprising, the plight of chimney boys and the origins of God Save the King. It uses sound, wall-based interpretation, engravings and a specially commissioned immersive soundscape by musician and producer Martin Ware to reveal how Hogarth orchestrated the natural and man-made sounds of London. Complementing the exhibition is a display of works from contemporary British artist Nicola Bealing which takes as its starting point subjects and narratives found in 18th century broadside ballads. Runs until 1st September. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk.

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This Week in London – The 803rd Lord Mayor’s Show; the National Service of Remembrance; and the Romanov’s at the Queen’s Gallery…

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• The 803rd Lord Mayor’s Show will this Saturday wend its way through the streets of the City of London as new Lord Mayor Peter Estlin takes office. This year’s hour-and-a-half long procession features more than 7,000 people, 200 horses and 140 motor and steam-driven vehicles. Leaving from Mansion House at 11am, it travels to the Royal Courts via St Paul’s and then returns along Embankment at 1.15pm. And while there will be no fireworks this year, there will be two new ‘family entertainment zones’. The first, in Paternoster Square and around St Paul’s Cathedral, will include a film show featuring archival footage, art installations and street theatre as well as food stalls. The second, in Bloomberg Arcade near Mansion House, will feature music and dance, art and sound installations, the MOLA’s (Museum of London Archaeology) Time Truck, as well as technology and apprenticeship workshops and food. For more information, head to https://lordmayorsshow.london. PICTURE: The Lord Mayor’s coach during last year’s procession (John; licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

• The National Service of Remembrance at the Cenotaph in Whitehall will this Sunday mark a century since the end of World War I. Starting at 11am (the public will be admitted to Whitehall from 8am), the service commemorates the contribution of British and Commonwealth military and civilian servicemen and women involved in the two World Wars and later conflicts. This year’s ceremony will be followed by ‘The Nation’s Thank You – The People’s Procession’, featuring 10,000 members of the public. Large viewing screens will be placed to the north of the Cenotaph, near the green outside the main Ministry of Defence building and outside the Scotland Office, and south of the Cenotaph on the corner of King Charles Street. For more on the day, follow this link and for more on bell-ringing ceremonies across the day, see https://armistice100.org.uk.

• The relationship between the British Royal Family and the Romanovs in Russia is explored in a new art exhibition opening at the The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, this Friday. Highlights of Russia: Royalty & the Romanovs include a series of watercolours specially commissioned by Prince Alfred, second eldest son of Queen Victoria, to record his wedding to Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, daughter of Alexander II, at the Winter Palace in St Petersburg in 1874 so that his mother, who was unable to attend, didn’t miss out. There’s also works by Fabergé and portraits of royal figures by the likes of Sir Godfrey Kneller and Sir Thomas Lawrence. The exhibition is accompanied by another display featuring renowned photographer Roger Fenton’s images from the war in Crimea in 1855. Both exhibitions run until 28th April. Admission charges apply. The exhibition is accompanied by a programme of events. For more, see www.rct.uk/visit/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace. PICTURE (above): Nicholas Chevalier, The Bal Polonaise at the Winter Palace, St Petersburg, 23 January 1874, 1876 (Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2018).

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This Week in London – The Royal Collection and Charles II; convicts lives explored; and, ‘Gold’ at the National Gallery…

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• A new exhibition celebrating the role of the court of King Charles II in promoting the arts in England has opened at The Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace. Charles II: Art and Power highlights the key role Charles II played in developing the Royal Collection following the Restoration in 1660 as a means of decorating royal apartments and, perhaps more importantly, of glorifying the restored monarchy and helping it to take its place back on the European stage. The display features works ranging from John Michael Wright’s monumental portrait of the king in coronation robes (pictured) to Henry Greenway’s silver-gilt dish that adorned the high altar of Westminster Abbey and Wenceslaus Hollar’s The Coronation of King Charles the II in Westminster Abby the 23 of April 1661. Other paintings on show include Titian’s Madonna and Child in a Landscape with Tobias and the Angel (c1535-40), Antonio Verrio’s The Sea Triumph of Charles II (c1674), Pieter Brugel the Elder’s The Massacre of the Innocents (c1565-67), and Sir Peter Lely’s Barbara Villiers, Duchess of Cleveland (c 1665) as well as tapestries and silver-gilt furnishings. The exhibition, which will be accompanied by a major exhibition in the Royal Academy of Arts in January and a series of documentaries on various BBC channels under the banner of a BBC Royal Collection Season, runs until 13th May. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.royalcollection.org.uk. PICTURE: John Michael Wright, Charles II, c.1676 Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017.

• The lives of convicts in 18th and 19th century London are the subject of a new exhibition opening at the London Metropolitan Archives. Criminal Lives, 1780-1925: Punishing Old Bailey Convicts includes original documents from the Old Bailey archives and items such as a policeman’s truncheon, a reproduction Millbank Prison uniform and convicts’ photographs drawn from collections in Britain and Australia to provide insights into the lives of offenders, from the time of the Gordan Riots in 1760 to the early 20th century. Among those whose lives are featured are prostitute and pickpocket Charlotte Walker, notorious receiver of stolen goods Ikey Solomons and serial thief Thomas Limpus. The exhibition, created in collaboration with the Arts and Humanities Research Council Digital Panopticon Project, opens on Monday and runs until 16th May. Admission is free. There is an accompanying programme of events. For more, see www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/lma.

• The National Gallery is running a season of events aimed at exploring the theme of ‘gold’ in its collection in the run-up to Christmas. Running until 1st January, the programme includes free lunchtime talks, a life drawing session this Friday, a workshop on the traditional intaglio printmaking technique of drypoint, drawing sessions and a series of films. For the full season of events, check out www.nationalgallery.org.uk/whats-on/christmas-at-the-gallery/christmas-events.

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This Week in London – New insights into Canaletto’s Venice; a rare Shakespearean opportunity; and, a Green Plaque for William Henry Hudson…

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• Methods employed by world renowned 18th century Venetian painter Canaletto in creating his evocative images of the city where he lived are the subject of a new exhibition which opens at The Queen’s Gallery in Buckingham Palace tomorrow. Canaletto & the Art of Venice showcases the findings of recent research in an exhibition which focuses on the Royal Collection’s remarkable group of paintings, drawings and prints by the artist – a collection obtained by King George III in 1762 from dealer (and the then-British Consult in Venice) Joseph Smith. Royal Collection Trust conservators used infrared technology to uncover previously hidden marks on drawings, providing new insights into Canaletto’s artistic techniques and casting doubt on a long held theory that he used a camera obscure to achieve topographical accuracy in his work. The exhibition, which features more than 200 paintings, drawings and prints, displays his work alongside that of contemporary artists Sebastiano, Marco Ricci, Rosalba Carriera, Francesco Zuccarelli, Giovanni Battista Piazzetta and Pietro Longhi. Runs until 12th November. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.royalcollection.org.uk. PICTURE: Canaletto, The Grand Canal looking East from Campo San Vio towards the Bacino, c.1727-8, from a set of 12 paintings of the Grand Canal. Royal Collection Trust/© Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2017

• A rare ‘First Folio’ of William Shakespeare’s work – widely regarded as one of the most perfect copies in existence – will be available for viewing before an outdoor performance of Twelfth Night next month. Five actors from acting company The Three Inch Fools will perform the comedy in the St Mary Aldermanbury’s Garden on 1st June at 7pm, the same garden where Henry Condell and John Heminges, two of the Bard’s co-partners at the Globe Theatre and the men behind the production of the First Folio in 1623, were buried. Those attending the performance will be given the chance to view the folio in the nearby Guildhall Library before the performance. Tickets to this one night only opportunity can be purchased from Eventbrite.

• Author and naturalist William Henry Hudson, whose work so inspired author Ernest Hemingway that his name was referenced in Hemingway’s first novel The Sun Also Rises, has been commemorated with a City of Westminster Green Plaque in Leinster Square, Bayswater. Born the son of British parents in Argentina, Hudson came to Westminster after leaving South America in 1874. An early support of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, his books on the English countryside became famous and helped foster the back to nature movement of the 1920s and 1930s.

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This Week in London – Rosalind Franklin’s grave; American printmaking; and Disabled Access Day at royal residences….

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• Acclaimed biologist Rosalind Franklin’s grave in Willesden United Synagogue Cemetery has been given listed status, Historic England announced in marking International Women’s Day this week. Franklin’s tomb commemorates her life and achievements – they include X-ray observations she made of DNA which contributed to the discovery of its helical structure by Crick and Watson in 1953. Meanwhile, Historic England has teamed with The Royal Society to highlight the achievements of 28 remarkable women noted for their achievements in the fields of chemistry, biology, physics and astronomy. The women’s stories have been explored and key historic locations mapped. They include the Marianne North Gallery in Kew Gardens (named for 19th century botanist Marianne North), the Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Hospital – founded in 1872 as the New Hospital for Women in London by Anderson, a suffragette and the first English woman to qualify as a doctor, and the Royal Academy of Arts where natural history illustrator and painter Sarah Stone was an honorary exhibitor in the 1780s.

• The first major exhibition focusing on contemporary American printmaking has opened in the Sainsbury Exhibitions Gallery of The British Museum. The American Dream: pop to the present features more than 200 works from 70 artists including Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns, Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Chuck Close, Louise Bourgeois and Kara Walker. Including loans from institutions such as The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, as well the museum’s own collection, the works span six decades – from the moment when pop art arrived in the New York and West Coast scene of the early 1960s, to the rise of minimalism, conceptual art and photorealism in the 1970s, and through to the practices of today’s artists. Among the works on show are Warhol’s Marilyn, Willie Cole’s Stowage and Claes Oldenburg’s sculpture of the Three-Way Plug. Admission charges apply. Runs until 18th June. For more, see www.americandreamexhibition.org. PICTURE: Andy Warhol (1928–1987), ‘Vote McGovern’, Colour screenprint/© 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc./Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York and DACS, London.

• Visitors with disabilities will be offered free admission to royal residences – including the Royal Mews and The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace – this weekend to mark Disabled Access Day. Visitors to the Queen’s Gallery can join verbal descriptive tours of the Portrait of the Artist exhibition on 12th March while the Royal Mews will offer free admission to disabled visitors on 10th and 11th March.  Standard access resources, including plain English tour scripts, induction loops, large-print and list access will be available across all venues. For more, see www.royalcollection.org.uk.

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This Week in London – Emma Hamilton’s life explored; artist self-portraits; and, National Trust garnitures…

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• Emma Hamilton, the mistress of Horatio Nelson – hero of the Battle of Trafalgar, is the subject of a new exhibition at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. One of the most famous figures of her time, Hamilton rose from obscure beginnings to the heights of celebrity and is best remembered for the scandalous affair she had with Lord Nelson for the six years prior to his death in 1805. Emma Hamilton: Seduction and Celebrity brings together more than 200 objects, many of which have never been displayed before, including paintings, letters, costumes and jewellery. Highlights include works by artists George Romney, Sir Joshua Reynolds and Sir Thomas Lawrence, letters from Hamilton and her lovers, betrothal rings exchanged between Hamilton and Nelson, her songbooks and decorative objects. The exhibition, which runs until 17th April, is accompanied by a series of events including walking tours and late openings. Admission charges apply. For more, see www.rmg.co.uk/national-maritime-museum.

• The first-ever exhibition of portraits of artists in the Royal Collection opens at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, tomorrow. Portrait of the Artist features more than 150 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs and decorative arts including a self-portrait by Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1623) which was hung in Whitehall Palace, a portrait of his former assistant Anthony van Dyck (c1627-28), and Cristofano Allori’s work Head of Holofernes (1613) in which the artist appears as the decapitated Holofernes as well as self-portraits by everyone from Rembrandt to Lucien Freud and David Hockney. The exhibition runs until 17th April. Admission charges apply. For more, see www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace.

• Sir Joseph Lyons, founder of Lyons tea shops and the ‘Corner Houses’ of London – among the first chain restaurants in England, has been honoured with an English Heritage Blue Plaque at his former home in Hammersmith. Sir Joseph, who lived at the property in the 1890s close to the now-demolished headquarters of his catering empire at Cadby Hall, opened the doors to his first teashop at 213 Piccadilly in 1894. He was knighted by King George V in 1911. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/blue-plaques/.

• On Now: Garnitures: Vase sets from National Trust Houses. Being run in conjunction with the National Trust, the display at the Victoria & Albert Museum in South Kensington explores the history of ‘garniture’ – sets of ornamental vases unified by their design and a specific context. A status symbol for a period between the 17th and 19th century, garnitures fell out of fashion and complete sets are now extremely rare. The display features garnitures loaned from 13 different National Trust houses as well as objects from the V&A’s collection. Highlights include a garniture made in miniature for a doll’s house, an extremely rate 17th century silver set of jars, a Rococo set and Wedgwood ceramics. The free exhibition runs until 30th April. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/garnitures.

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This Week in London – Seminal moments in Shakespearean performance; Maria Merian’s Butterflies; and, British conceptual art…

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ShakespearesFirstFolio1623BritishLibraryPhotobyClareKendall• It’s the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death (in case you missed that), and among the many events marking the occasion comes a major exhibition at the British Library focusing on 10 key performances that it says have made the Bard the “cultural icon” he is today. Shakespeare in Ten Acts, which opens on Friday, focuses on performances which may not be the most famous but which represent key moments in shaping his legacy. They span the period the first performance of Hamlet at the Globe theatre in around 1600 to a radical interpretation of the same play from US theatre company The Wooster Group in 2013. Among the exhibition highlights are a human skull which was given to the actress Sarah Bernhardt by writer Victor Hugo (and which she used as Yorik’s skull when she played Hamlet in 1899), a dress worn by Vivien Leigh playing Lady Macbeth in the 1955 production of Macbeth at the Royal Shakespeare Company, the only surviving play script written in the Bard’s own hand and rare printed editions including Shakespeare’s First Folio and the earliest printed edition of Hamlet from 1603 (one of only two copies in the world). The exhibition, which runs until 6th September, is accompanied by a season of events. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.bl.uk. PICTURE: Shakespeare’s First Folio 1623 British Library Photo by Clare Kendall.

• Still talking exhibitions commemorating Shakespeare’s death and a manuscript of William Boyce’s Ode to the Memory of Shakespeare will be on display at The Foundling Museum’s Handel Gallery from tomorrow. The work, which was composed in 1756, was performed annually at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane. The manuscript, the first page of which was thought to be lost until it was acquired in 2006, formerly belonged to Samuel Arnold, who compiled the first complete edition of Handel’s works. Runs at the Bloomsbury-based museum until 30th May. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.foundlingmuseum.org.uk.

• Exquisite watercolours depicting the natural world go on show in The Queen’s Gallery at Buckingham Palace from tomorrow. Maria Merian’s Butterflies features 50 works produced by the eighteenth century German artist and entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian. The works – many of which record the flora and fauna of the then Dutch colony of Suriname in South America, were published in the 1706 work Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium (The Metamorphosis of the Insects of Suriname) and partially printed, partially hand-painted versions of the plates were purchased by King George III for his library at Buckingham House (later Buckingham Palace). As well as insects, the works – which were based on a visit Merian made to the colony in 1699, depict lizards, crocodiles and snakes as well as tropical plants such as the pineapple. The exhibition runs until 9th October. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.royalcollection.org.uk/visit/the-queens-gallery-buckingham-palace.

• The evolution of conceptual art in Britain is the subject of a new exhibition at Tate Britain in Milbank  Conceptual Art in Britain 1964-1979 features 70 works by 21 artists and positions conceptual art “not as a style but rather a game-changing shift in the way we think about art, how it is made and what it is for”. Highlights include Michael Craig-Martin’s An Oak Tree (1973) and Roelof Louw’s Soul City (Pyramid of Oranges) (1987) as well as Victor Burgin’s Possession (1976), Mary Kelly’s Post-Partum Document (1974-78) and Conrad Atkinson’s Northern Ireland 1968 – May Day 1975 (1975-76). Admission charge applies. Runs until 29th August. For more, see www.tate.org.uk.

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This Week in London – Russia’s finest portraiture on show, Scottish art from the Royal Collection; and photographer/film-maker Paul Strand revisited…

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Russia• The “most important exhibition of Russian portraits ever to take place at a British museum” opens at the National Portrait Gallery off Trafalgar Square today. The portraits of key figures from Russia spanning the period from 1867 to 1914 come from Moscow’s State Tretyakov Gallery which is simultaneously displaying a selection of portraits of famous Britons from the National Portrait Gallery in a joint event being held to mark the 160th anniversary of both institutions. Russia and the Arts: The Age of Tolstoy and Tchaikovsky features portraits of the likes of Akhmatova, Chekhov, Dostoevsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Rubinstein, Tchaikovsky, Tolstoy and Turgenev by artists including Nikolai Ge, Ivan Kramskoy, Vasily Perov, Ilia Repin, Valentin Serov and Mikhail Vrubel. The majority of the works featured were commissioned directly from the artists by Pavel Tretyakov, a merchant, philanthropist and founder of the State Tretyakov Gallery, whose own portrait by Repin opens the exhibition. The exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery runs until 26th June. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.npg.org.uk/russia. PICTURE: Ivan Morozov by Valentin Serov (1910) © State Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow.

• The best Scottish art in the Royal Collection goes on show at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, from tomorrow. Scottish Artists 1750-1900: From Caledonia to the Continent brings together more than 80 works collected by monarchs since King George III. It tells the story of the emergence of a distinctly Scottish school of art through works painted by the likes of Allan Ramsay – who in 1760 was commissioned to paint King George III’s State portrait and subsequently became the first Scot appointed to the role of Principal Painter in Ordinary to His Majesty, and Sir David Wilkie – whose works depicting small-scale scenes of everyday life attracted the attention of the Prince Regent (later King George IV) in the early 17th century. Other artists represented in the collection include Sir Joseph Noel Paton, David Roberts, James Giles, John Phillip, William Leighton Leith, and William Dyce. Runs until 9th October. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.royalcollection.org.uk.

• The work of American photographer Paul Strand is on show at the V&A from Saturday in the first retrospective showing of his art in the UK in 40 years. One of the greatest photographers of the 20th century, Strand (1890-1976) was instrumental in defining the way fine art and documentary photography is understood and practiced today. He is also credited with creating the first avant-garde film, Manhatta. The exhibition, Paul Strand: Photography and Film for the 20th Century, features more than 200 objects including vintage photographic prints, films, books, notebooks, sketches and Strand’s cameras and includes newly acquired photographs from his only UK project – a 1954 study of the island of South Uist in the Scottish Hebrides. Can be seen until 3rd July. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/paulstrand.

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This Week in London – Hampton Court Palace lights up; doll house histories; more on Christmas; and, memories of a royal progress at The Queen’s Gallery…

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• Hampton Court Palace’s world famous gardens have been transformed into an “illuminated wonderland” which can be explored using a specially created trail. From tomorrow, visitors can use a glow-in-the-dark map to follow the trail which starts at the palace’s hedge maze – the UK’s oldest – and meanders through various locations around the grounds – including the formal gardens – before ending up at the palace’s East Front where, through the use of interactive technology, visitors can ‘paint’ the building’s facade just by moving around. Allow about an hour. Entry is timed between 5pm and 8pm. Runs until 23rd December. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.hrp.org.uk/HamptonCourtPalace/.

Killer_Cabinet_1840s• The stories behind some of the UK’s best-known dolls’ houses are the focus of a new exhibition which opens at the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnal Green on Saturday. Small Stories: At home in a dolls’ house tells the story of 12 dolls’ houses dating as far back as 300 years. Each of the houses – which are displayed chronologically – has been set up to represent a particular time of day and, using interactive technology, tells the story of those who live and work in the building in a series of stories featuring marriages, parties, politics and even crimes. Highlights include: the Tate Baby House – dating from 1760, it features original wallpapers and painted panelling in the style of Robert Adam; the Killer House (pictured) – a gift from surgeon John Egerton Killer to his wife and daughters in the 1830s, this Chinese-style cabinet has gilded wallpapers, a four poster bed and liveried servants; Whiteladies House – a Modernist country villa designed by artist Moray Thomas and built in the 1930s; the Hopkinson House – based on the homes built in the 1930s in the London County Council suburb, the St Helier Estate; and, the Kaleidoscope House – designed by Laurie Simmons to suit a “design conscious step-family living in the new millennium”. There’s a further 20 dolls’ houses, dating from 1673 to 2014, on display in the museum’s permanent galleries (just some of the more than 100 in the museum’s collection). Admission is free. Runs until 6th September, 2015. For more, see www.museumofchildhood.org.uk. PICTURE: Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

• The V&A has unveiled its 2014 Christmas Tree at the grand entrance to its South Kensington building. Designed by Gareth Pugh, Ceremony stands at more than four metres in height and, along with a shape not unlike a traditional Christmas tree, features nine tiered gold pyramids located around a central beacon of light to represent the nativity. For more, see www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/c/christmas-tree-installation-by-gareth-pugh/. Meanwhile Winter Wonderland continues to entertain in Hyde Park with rides, markets, ice-skating and all the usual attractions. Open 10am to 10pm every day until 4th January (closed on Christmas Day). For more, see www.hydeparkwinterwonderland.com.

• On Now: Cairo to Constantinople: Early Photographs of the Middle East. This exhibition at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, features objects collected by the 20-year-old Prince of Wales, Albert Edward (later King Edward VII), during an educational tour of the Middle East in 1862. The display, which also features photographs taken by Francis Bedford – the first photographer to join a royal tour, follows the prince as he progresses through Egypt, Palestine and the Holy Land, Syria, Lebanon, Turkey and Greece. The exhibition is being show alongside Gold, a display of 50 gold items drawn from the Royal Collection. They include the Rillaton Cup, found in a Bronze Age burial dating from between 1700 and 1500 BC, a gold crown from Ecuador that predates the Incas, and an 18th century tiger’s head made from gold and rock crystal and taken from the throne of the Tipu Sultan of Mysore in India. Both run until 22nd February. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.royalcollection.org.uk.

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Around London – Tudor and Stuart fashion; Wellington Arch treasures; Hunterian celebrates 200 years; Regent Street and the world; and, Kaffe Fassett at the FTM…

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Queen-Henrietta-Maria-(Royal-Collection)• A landmark exhibition looking at fashion in the Tudor and Stuart eras opens at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, tomorrow. In Fine Style: The Art of Tudor and Stuart Fashion features everything from a diamond ring given by King Charles I to his then 19-year-old wife Henrietta Maria, an ornate set of armour which belonged to 13-year-old Henry, Prince of Wales (the older brother of King Charles I – he died of typhoid fever at the age of 19), and a diamond-encrusted box in which Queen Mary II kept black fabric patches worn to conceal blemishes or highlight the creaminess of skin. A 58.5 carat pearl, named ‘La Peregrina’ (‘The Wanderer’) and given to Queen Mary I as an engagement gift from Philip II of Spain (and later presented to Elizabeth Taylor by Richard Burton on Valentine’s Day, 1969), is also among the objects on show along with a pendant featuring a miniature of Queen Elizabeth I. The exhibition also features more than 60 portraits from the Royal Collection showing the fashions of the time, including a portrait by Sir Peter Lely of court beauty Frances Stuart, Duchess of Richmond, who famously refused to become King Charles II’s mistress. Admission charge applies. Runs until 6th October. For more, see www.royalcollection.co.uk. PICTURE: Sir Anthony van Dyck, Queen Henrietta Maria, 1609-69. Royal Collection Trust/© 2013, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

• A medieval crozier and bejewelled ring discovered in Cumbria in 2010 are on public display for the first time in a new exhibition at Wellington Arch. The artefacts, which were discovered at Furness Abbey, are featured in an English Heritage exhibition, A Monumental Act: How Britain Saved Its Heritage, which explores how the Ancient Monuments Act of 1913 helped protect Britain’s historical fabric. Other objects in display include some of the historic artefacts found in the 20 years following the act – a Roman bronze weight from Richborough Roman Fort in Kent and a 13th century sculpture of Christ found at Rievaulx Abbey in Yorkshire. Admission charge applies. The exhibition runs until 7th July. For more, see www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/wellington-arch/.

• The Hunterian Museum at the Royal College of Surgeons is celebrating its bicentenary this year and to mark the occasion, they’re holding a free exhibition focusing on the museum’s collections of human anatomy and pathology; natural history and artworks. The display will consider how the objects in the collection have informed the medical world and fallen under the gaze of visitors who have included surgeons as well as monarchs. The exhibition in the Qvist Gallery at the museum in Lincoln’s Inn Fields opens on Tuesday, 14th May, and runs until 9th November. For more, see www.rcseng.ac.uk/museums/hunterian.

• The world comes to Regent Street this Sunday with the ‘InsureandGo The World on Regent Street’ festival. Representatives from countries including Argentina, Egypt, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey and China as well as the UK will showcasing the best of each country’s culture, music and dance, art, food and fashion. Activities will include tango lessons from Argentina, professional henna drawing from Egypt, a steel band from Trinidad and Tobago, and a Chinese drumming performance and lion dancing. The street will be closed for the day. For more, see www.regentstreetonline.com.

• On Now: Kaffe Fassett – A Life in Colour. This exhibition at the Fashion and Textile Museum in Bermondsey Street celebrates the work of American-born artist Kaffe Fassett and features more than 100 works including nine foot wide knitted shawls, coats and throws, patchwork quilts and a ‘feeling wall’ where visitors can touch the textiles on display. Admission charge applies. Runs until 29th June. For more, see www.ftmlondon.org.

LondonLife – ‘Hans of Antwerp’ at The Queen’s Gallery…

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Hans-of-AntwerpRecently conserved, Hans Holbein the Younger’s portrait Hans of Antwerp is one of 27 works by the painter on display in the exhibition, The Northern Renaissance: Durer to Holbein, at The Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace. The portrait was first recorded in the Royal Collection in 1639 when it was said to have been hung in King Charles I’s Chair Room at Whitehall (it was painted in the 1530s by Holbein, best known as King’s Painter to King Henry VIII). While it has been previously thought the sitter was a goldsmith (a close friend of Holbein and witness to his will in 1543), Royal Collection Trust conservators have now definitively ruled it to be that of a merchant, possibly a German of the Hanseatic League based at the London Steelyard. You’ll have to be quick to see the exhibition – it winds up on 14th April. Admission charge applies. For more, see www.royalcollection.co.uk.

PICTURE: Royal Collection Trust/ © 2012, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.