Newsletter 6.Pub
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SECOND MARCH MEETING - Continuation of Art Movements On our new day, the third Monday of the month, we convened in the Pinney Room and continued with Children’s Illustrators . Andrea started us off with Edward Lear and had also brought along some charming postcards illustrated by Olwen Morgan depicting the months of the year. As Andrea does not have the full set she would be interested to learn more of this artist so if anyone can help please let us know. An internet search has proved fruitless! Jenny introduced us to Margaret Tarrant, well- known for her illustrations of fairies, children and religious subjects. She also did quite a lot of Guide and Brownie paintings as shown here. The ex- guides amongst us pointed out that the ties we had worn were not like those depicted and we realised that this illustration was of an earlier breed of girls! We then changed to other Art Movements and Wendy led the discussion about Surrealism which started in the 1920s and of which Salvador Dali is probably the most well known exponent, Here is his “The Persistence of Memory” painted in 1931. Surrealism was greatly influenced by Freud and aimed to free people from false rationality, and restrictive customs and structures. One of the images Val produced was “A Thousand Girls” by Hans Bellmer painted around 1939. Jan was very taken with Art Deco - a design style which led on from Art Nouveau and was very popular during the 20s, 30s and 40s. Art Deco is distinguished by its symmetry, rich colours, bold geometric shapes and lavish ornamentation unlike the organic and flowing images of Art Nouveau. Finally we explored Expressionism with Denise, a movement which started some time before the first World War and was full of bright colours. It was said to “raise subjective feelings about objective observations ”. This painting by Franz Marc is called “Deer in the Forest II” and was painted in 1913/14 just two years before he died in the war at the tragically early age of 26. APRIL MEETING - CRITIQUE OF 18TH CENTURY PORTRAITS The 18th century bit of our brief was widely interpreted with some portraits from the 15th, 19th and 20th centuries! However, we all agreed we preferred portraits of “real” people rather than very posed sitters and here are some of our examples. Nancy chose William Hogarth (1697-1764) and showed us a variety of sitters he had painted including this one of the Graham children painted in 1742. The youngest child had in fact died before the portrait was painted and references to death are seen in the clock above it. National Gallery: Oil on canvas 160 x 181 cm A great contrast is seen in this painting of a Shrimp Girl (1740), also by Hogarth, which is much freer in style. National Gallery: Oil on canvas 64 x 53 cm Margaret followed with the famous portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by Pietro Annigoni (1910- 1988) painted in 1956. The artist was greatly influenced by the Italian Renaissance which can be seen in his treatment of the background and also in his self-portrait (left). He painted portraits of many other famous people including Pope John XXIII and JF Kennedy. He also painted a large number of frescoes in churches throughout Italy. Fishmongers Hall, London: Oil on board 183 x 122 cm Glennis told us of several fascinating stories behind this 1743 painting ‘The Chocolate Girl’ by Jean-Étienne Liotard. The model was probably Anna Baltauf, a German chambermaid, who married Prince von Dietrichstein. Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Dresden Pastel on parchment 83 x 53 cm Jenny’s choice was Rogier van der Vaden’s portrait of a lady painted c. 1460. The sitter is unknown. National Gallery of Art, Washington Oil on oak panel 34 x 26 cm Mary introduced us to Angelika Kauffman, a Swiss Austrian who was very gifted in languages, music and art. She became a signatory for the establishment of the Royal Academy and this self- portrait was painted as a fund-raiser. National Portrait Gallery Oil on canvas 74 x 61 cm As well as wonderful paintings by Degas, Barbara loved this portrait of Paul Picasso by his famous father painted around 1923 Museo Picasso, Malaga Oil on canvas Wendy brought along this portrait by Allan Ramsay of his second wife, Margaret Lindsay, painted around 1757. This is another lovely portrait of a “real” person. National Gallery of Scotland Oil on canvas 74 x 62 cm Finally, Denise chose this portrait of the explorer Sir Joseph Banks painted between 1771 and 1773 by Sir Joshua Reynolds. The globe represents Banks’ travels in search of botanical studies. Reynolds specialised in portraits and this sitter seems particularly relaxed and normal. National Portrait Gallery Oil on canvas 127 x 101 cm .