BUSCOT PARK - Friday 10th July
Art History Outing (July 2025)
Kenwood House Visit (July 18th)
37 of us started with a very professional guided tour of this beautiful house former home of William Murray, Earl of Mansfield and more latterly Lord Iveagh of the Guinness family.
Appropriately for us, emphasis of the tour was on art which was totally unavoidable (!) as the rooms were full, floor to ceiling with interesting paintings (and the Robert Adam interior design was equally impressive, with beautiful painted ceiling library and the bust of Zeus-Ammon, a 2000 year old copy of a 3000 year old original, acquired by Mansfield in the early 18C.).
As usual, by way of offering up just a few highlights, the ‘connections’(we love them, don’t we?), remaining questions and unusual details made it a lot of fun, as art should always be!
For example:
Vermeer’s charming ‘Guitar Player’ on its original 1672 ’stretcher’/canvas .. a friend of Rob’s visited Kenwood to view the painting in 1974 and the very next day the painting was stolen after a break-in ..why would our Kenwood guide not 'officially answer' our questions on this theft?
Rembrandt’s late-life self portrait was delicate in detail but , in contrast, the ‘master’ is presenting himself as self assured. What exactly did the two circles in the painting represent?
Peter van Broecke’s portrait, a perfect example of how Frans Hals led the way in projecting the real character of sitters in the mid-17C, through their warmth and informal, more relaxed qualities (and that hand!)
Despite its different subject matter, ’Two Girls Dressing a Kitten by Candlelight’ shouted out as a 'Joseph Wright' … remember Rob showing his ‘Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump’ in his ‘Art is History’ presentation, equally as ‘dark’ in subject matter as the ‘Kitten Dressing’! (and both heavily drenched with the Caravaggio ‘chiaroscuro’ light-contrasting technique.
What about the connections and totally different ‘takes' on the beautiful Dido Belle?? ... the ex-slave, adopted by the Earl of Mansfield, one painted in 1778 (with Mansfield's niece) yet with a highly modern finger- to-face expression, the other, full frontal, painted relatively recently, almost in a modern heroine ‘perspective’, by Mikela Henry-Lowe.
Even more ‘historic’ .. the full width painting of London Bridge, resplendent with houses, painted by De Jongh in 1627 … how would we know if not for ‘art’?
Then onto the luxuriant Singer Sargent ‘Heiress’ exhibition … what a technique JSS crafted, in terms of his representation of silks, chiffon and the delicate highlight touches for jewellery but equally impressive were his charcoal pieces!
Interesting ‘connection’ here? how the pose in Sargant's Nancy Astor was derived from a George Romney portrait of Lady Emma Hamilton (i.e. Emma Hart,’actress'’and future wife of Nelson) whose several paintings we had seen earlier in the day (Romney, who many of us hardly knew, had painted ‘Emma’ over 80 times, infatuated or what?!).
Great fun, cool ‘connections', a fascinating ‘art-full’ visit!
Rob H: July 2025