Day Off Week 19 2022

With one thing another it's been a while since I had a regular day off. Anyway, I did some walking and some reading and TV watching and one or two must do things. Had a nice day. The reading was a book on Constable. Everybody seems to love Turner these days but Constable was a fine artist and has a lot to be said in his favour. I also read most of Sharon James' excellent little book on gender, kindly passed on to me by Mike Iliffe. Also watched some recorded Everybody loves Raymond on TV.

10 People who died at the age of 60

1. David Livingstone (1873)
2. Theodore Roosevelt (1919)
3. Calvin Coolidge (1933)
4. Mahalia Jackson  (1972)
5. John Constable (1837)
6. Paul Klee (1940)
7. Leon Trotsky (1940)
8. Anne Bradstreet (1672)
9. John Chrysostom (407)
10. Keith Chegwin (2017)
(Also Stephen Jay Gould, Lev Yahsin and Syd Barret).

Constablesque Clouds

John Constable loved to paint clouds. He lived in this part of London at one time and wold have seen clouds like this I saw the other day, I guess.

10 Great Landscapes

Caspar David Friedrich, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

1. A field of poppies, Monet

2. View of Dedham, Gainsborough
3. Flatford Mill, Constable
4. Wheatfield with cypresses, Van Gogh
5. Rainbow, Turner
6. Monte St Victoire, Cezanne
7. View of Delft, Vermeer
8. Winter landscape, Brueghel the elder
9. Vesuvius, Wright of Derby
10. Wanderer above the sea of fog, Friedrich

Royal Academy

 

Another day out with the art history class today. This time to the Royal Academy on Piccadilly, which I confess I have never been into. This is the last week of their Constable, Gainsborough, Turner exhibition (manet is the new one). Quite a modest presentation, it features one main Gainsborough, two big Constables and only one Turner (Dolbadarn Castle) but was interesting (especially with the guide) as we looked mainly at engravings by these and other artists (including Richard Wilson who did several Welsh scenes). The whole exhibition covers 17th century to the present and utilises items in the RA collection. It wa especially good to get some idea of the RA's history and the infighting that often went on.