Last week saw another visit to Tate Britain to remind myself of the pre-Raphaelites, of which there used to be a considerable display.
A bright and cold start at 09:15, clouds moving in by 08:45. On the train, a lady who liked all the windows open, so I moved. Too cold or too old for that. Then I had a mother moaning at her young daughter about all the stuff the daughter was supposed to be doing every day but wasn't. Neither had masks on. But at least she moaned out and talked quietly into her telephone for the rest of the journey.
Arrived outside Vauxhall overground to find an exotic blue trimmed trolley from Tesco at the foot of footbridge. Exotic in the sense that it was not a model I was familiar with. Nor did I have any idea where the nearest Tesco was, and being outside it would have been hard to ask my telephone, not good in sunlight, even in the shade. So not returned and not scored. Then next to the trolley we had a migrant street cleaner, cheerful enough, with large size dustpan and brush, sweeping out between the bumped, bricks-set-upright-in-mortar paving at the foot of the pylon holding up one end of the footbridge which took one across to the Albert Embankment. Very thorough he was being too; perhaps he had worked out that he might as well be doing that as anything else.
On the ramp to the side entrance to the Tate, that is to say what is now the main entrance, I was puzzled by this run of substantial stones. Puzzled at the time by the thought that a roof made in this way would need a serious load bearing something underneath to hold it up. But now it seems much more likely that it is not a roof over a basement area at all, just a rather substantial bit of paving. Not original, but I have no idea what was there before: a strip of grass between the building and what would have been pavement rather than ramp?
From there, flashing my ticket which I had managed to move to my telephone, into what the Tate is pleased to call the Collections. Which seems to be a euphemism for their having given over lots of space to various specials, and so not leaving much for all their heritage stuff. Which meant that the pre-Raphaelites and their contemporaries were confined to one, albeit large, room. Mostly hung two or three deep, which meant that it was impossible to see those unlucky enough to wind up in the top half - which included some good pictures.
On the way I passed the picture above (reference 1) which struck me as an inferior version of the much larger painting a Hampton Court noticed at reference 2 - the one about Pythagoras and his vegetables. Painted at about the same time as it happens.
Pleased that an old favourite, William Dyce's 'Pegwell Bay' was on the first row. And I was very impressed by Holman Hunt's strayed sheep. I think it may have been cleaned since I first knew it, and when it was first cleaned I found it a bit bright. But on this occasion it was spot on, with a life that was completely missing from the reproduction (I think bought from the Tate) which hangs over the downstairs computer - and is visible in various foodie snaps.
I was also very impressed by the room full of stuff from the first part of the twentieth century. Possibly seen before, but it must have been a long time ago.
For example, Edward Wadsworth's woodcut 'View of a town' from 1918.
Although, on this occasion, reflections and distortions aside, not sure that my telephone has not done a better job than the Tate's camera. In any event, I need to give some thought to how the half tones were done.
Then there were some works by Wyndham Lewis which I liked.
And a painting by the same Wadsworth, which very much reminded me of some of the earlier engravings of George Mackley. Perhaps not a coincidence that Wadsworth engraved too. Unusually for a painting good enough for a gallery, I think it would look quite well at home.
With the same comment about reproduction applying here too. Is the Tate downgrading its freebies?
That apart, I came out very impressed with it all. Within a whisker of renewing my Tate membership, and I think I would have done it had member and guest come in at under £100, which I think it did last time I had one. But no more. Settled for an exit donation instead.
Out to another Bullingdon, and on to find a curiously leafy part of Vauxhall, just off the South Lambeth Road. There were also some rather curious cycle racks, looking rather like the corrugated half cylinders often used for pigs. I would have thought a bit awkward for a cycle - but for some reason I did not take a snap.
Your charging points get decorated in Vauxhall.
Dropped the Bullingdon more or less opposite the Canton Arms, a house I have not visited for years, so I thought I ought to give it a go. One more old-style boozer which has been gentrified and foodified, but quite a good atmosphere for all that. And there was a good choice of reasonably priced white wine, unusual for a pub. I was told that because they bought the wine on their own account, it was better value than the beer which they had to buy from their brewer.
For some reason, at some point, someone saw fit to elevate this table.
While someone else saw fit to work this public house into an annex for the (I think) new build Best Western next door. I can just about remember the various phases it went through on its slide down hill. A Portuguese flavoured bar-restaurant at one point, no doubt with plenty of football.
To the Estrela Bar for lunch, where we ate in the upper restaurant, to your left as you face it and nearly empty, unlike the lower restaurant, which all things considered was fine. Far too cold and breezy to be eating outside. Bread, olives and so forth, followed by a substantial pork stew. Which left me far too full to think of taking something from their good range of desserts.
A good, but curiously heavy bottle of wine, with a lot of weight in the base. Portugal perhaps a bit off the Brussels message when it comes to the dimensions of wine bottles.
In 'Cartuxa Évora Colheita', the Cartuxa bit is the name of the brand, apparently the main activity of the Fundação Eugénio de Almeida, to be found at reference 3. All of which looks quite interesting, but not so interesting as to deal with the Portuguese, a language of which I know nothing, although one can guess at quite a few of the titles to the sections of this website.
While that for the Estrela Bar itself seems to have been retired. Perhaps one of the changes that came when the younger generation took over from the older.
Out to a bright and cheerful Vauxhall. What will happen to this area, now that there are so many tower blocks just across the way? There was also a thin crescent moon over Stockwell, later confirmed by Bing to be on the way up rather than on the way down.
Quiet in the Half Way House at 16:40 or so. And, for future reference, a double of Monkey Shoulder, 70ml of it, came in at £10.50 or so.
Stopped off at Raynes Park Platform Library, where the bookcase was back in place and mostly stocked with paperbacks of little interest to me, but I did pick up a boxed set of a series called 'Deadwood' (reference 4), a new to us, made to stream, costume drama set in around 1875, about the wild west. More particularly, about a real gold rush town called Deadwood. Lashings of bad language and violence, a moderate amount of sex. Despite all of which it soon settles down to a regular soap, held together by half a dozen characters who run through the various episodes. But given that is a place and time with which we are not familiar, not without interest.
The bad language was very tiresome at first, only moderately so after half a dozen episodes. With, for example, the word 'cocksucker' seeming to be a more or less universal handle for a man, not necessarily particularly derogatory. The excuse for using so much of it would presumably be that that was how people of this place and time spoke - but neither OED nor Webster's own up to it. Although OED does admit the vulgar use of 'cock', in among the considerable space it gives to what is an old and rather interesting word.
I dare say I shall report further in due course.
References
Reference 1: Cookmaid with Still Life of Vegetables - Nathaniel Bacon - c1620-1625.
Reference 2: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2019/01/texture-nets.html. A picture which may then have been in the Cumberland Gallery but which was in the Georgian suite in the palace proper last time we saw it. Poorly lit on that occasion.
Reference 3: https://www.fea.pt/.
Reference 4: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deadwood_(TV_series).
No comments:
Post a Comment