The Dulwich Picture Gallery - The Age of Enchantment
That was fun, if exhausting. I definitely wouldn’t have left the house today if I hadn’t agreed to meet Lauren, but I’m very glad I did. Dulwich Picture Gallery turned out to be nowhere near where I thought it was (well, it is in Dulwich…) and therefore remarkably easy to get to. It has also acquired an excellent but very busy café.
The exhibition we had come to see was of (mainly) British illustrators from the end of the nineteenth century to just after the First World War, running roughly from Beardsley to Kay Nielsen and Edmund Dulac, with some Bakst thrown in too. Some of the artists there were familiar to me from my childhood (although oddly enough, there was no Heath Robinson), but apart from Beardsley they were all new to Lauren, so I was very pleased when she liked them too. I love introducing people to stuff I think they will like, when they actually do like it, that is. There was some gorgeous stuff, including a whole series of Harry Clarke illustrations to The Rape of The Lock that I’d never heard of before, and some odd beasts from Sydney Sime. I love the finicking detail of the ink drawings by people like Clarke and Sime, but the Dulac watercolours were a revelation, especially the 1001 nights pictures in a perfect version of the style of Indian miniatures. Anyway, I’m rubbish at describing pictures, so go and look at them yourselves. The museum site doesn’t have many examples, but there are loads of images of Dulac’s here, including my absolute favourite, The Entomologist’s Dream, and there is a fabulous collection of fairy-tale illustrations here - just select the illustrator you want (I recommend Dulac, Rackham, Clarke, Kay Nielsen and W Heath Robinson to be getting on with). It’s not a huge exhibition, but there is an awful lot going on in these small pictures, and the intense examination they needed was pretty tiring, and I was happy to adjourn for a (small) bit of cake in the cafe.
As well as the stuff we had come to see, Lauren had noted on an earlier visit a really beautiful example of one of my little Japanese chests that turns out to be the missing link between those produced for the domestic market and those made for export. Now I’m thinking of dragging out the research I did last year and polishing up my major project essay into something publishable. I would have to pretend to be a proper writer and blag my way into getting some photographs of the thing - maybe even some of the inside.
The exhibition we had come to see was of (mainly) British illustrators from the end of the nineteenth century to just after the First World War, running roughly from Beardsley to Kay Nielsen and Edmund Dulac, with some Bakst thrown in too. Some of the artists there were familiar to me from my childhood (although oddly enough, there was no Heath Robinson), but apart from Beardsley they were all new to Lauren, so I was very pleased when she liked them too. I love introducing people to stuff I think they will like, when they actually do like it, that is. There was some gorgeous stuff, including a whole series of Harry Clarke illustrations to The Rape of The Lock that I’d never heard of before, and some odd beasts from Sydney Sime. I love the finicking detail of the ink drawings by people like Clarke and Sime, but the Dulac watercolours were a revelation, especially the 1001 nights pictures in a perfect version of the style of Indian miniatures. Anyway, I’m rubbish at describing pictures, so go and look at them yourselves. The museum site doesn’t have many examples, but there are loads of images of Dulac’s here, including my absolute favourite, The Entomologist’s Dream, and there is a fabulous collection of fairy-tale illustrations here - just select the illustrator you want (I recommend Dulac, Rackham, Clarke, Kay Nielsen and W Heath Robinson to be getting on with). It’s not a huge exhibition, but there is an awful lot going on in these small pictures, and the intense examination they needed was pretty tiring, and I was happy to adjourn for a (small) bit of cake in the cafe.
As well as the stuff we had come to see, Lauren had noted on an earlier visit a really beautiful example of one of my little Japanese chests that turns out to be the missing link between those produced for the domestic market and those made for export. Now I’m thinking of dragging out the research I did last year and polishing up my major project essay into something publishable. I would have to pretend to be a proper writer and blag my way into getting some photographs of the thing - maybe even some of the inside.