Take time to smell the flowers
Today I visited a fantastic exhibition in the National Gallery titled "From Manet to Picasso" that have the most stunning ccollection of paintings on show. Unfortunatly, you only have until the 23rd to get there - I recommend you do.
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posted by Ham at 00:02 --
Comments here: 11
Comments on "Take time to smell the flowers"
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Cheltenhamdailyphoto said ... (01:00) :
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Ham said ... (14:21) :
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Anonymous said ... (14:54) :
post a commentHow lovely i'd adore to be there. The person on the left appears to be examining .. the wall.. though.
....and there was me thinking I'd caught her as if she was smelling the sunflowers.
(and it Van Gogh's chair on that bit of wall)
wow. Nah 'fraid not; she's just ...starin' at that wall. How strange lol.
I remember when I first saw this painting in London... I was in SHOCK. It felt like I was star struck by a painting. When you see SUCH a famous picture, you think about all the places it has been and all the people who have seen it... and you're standing there just staring at the real thing. (Or I guess the wall in the case of this lady)
Wish I was in London to go to the exhibition right now...
I would like to add to Ham's advice and tell you to not go on a weekend. And would like to point out that the upstairs bit of the National Gallery (which mostly contains not quite so famous paintings) is also well worth a visit!
Well, the upstairs bit does have some extremely famous paintings such as Holbein's "Ambassadors", the Leonardo Cartoon and Raphael's "Madonna of the Rocks" as well as several hundred others.
I don't think people need to panic about the fact that this exhibition closes on the 23rd. All these paintings are always in the National Gallery and will, presumably, go back to the rooms upstairs, though possibly exhibited differently. That is rather a good thing, in my opinion, because seeing familiar paintings hung in a different order and relationship to other paintings can restore that sense of shock and wonder that one needs.
Wednesday evening is a good time to go to the NG - open till 9.
There's must be loads of amazing art pieces there. I wonder if the lady was smelling the flower. Maybe it looks so real? :p
The National has some stunning paintings. I always find there can be as much to see, think and enjoy in some of the "lesser" paintings, too. I used to have an occasional passtime of sitting in front of a 15th Century allegorical painting and imagining.
Not all the exhibnition paintings are in the gallery, though. There are quite a few on loan. And as Helen said, the juxtaposition in this exhibition is interesting.
I wouldn't say you need to worry too much about weekends (I went yesterday) - it is huge and costs nothing so you can pop in and out. If the choice is between going weekends or not going, you gotta go.
I don't know if it's the photo, but I remember being asked by the museum guards at the National Gallery in DC (way back in the early 90s) to please step back from the paintings when I was standing about this close. It's nice that you lot don't have such stringent rules.
Manet paintings, splendid, believe it or not, a similar exhib. was in this land once. News of the fire in the Cutty Sark was sad, btw heard it held the record between Britain and Aust as a wool clipper.
Hi from Dubai,
We found your excellent post and whole heartedly agree with your title as it's the title of our book that we're writing, GO! Smell the flowers...
We think the picture says it all but you cant beat the real thing.