Poetry in beauty; Jan Marsh's latest Victorian Adventure

Jan Marsh is one of the world's leading experts on the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the women associated with the movement. Her most recent exhibition focusses on Marie Spartali Stillman and reassesses her oeuvre to show her as a great and diverse late-Victorian artist, who art history has until now resigned to the status of artists' muse. Spartali was a renowned Pre-Raphelite 'stunner' best know for her sittings with Rossetti, Whistler and Julia Margaret Cameron.

Spartali's (Stillman is her married name) work has previously been unknown to the art world, due to her prolific career and commercial appeal in the USA during her own lifetime. Through meticulous research Marsh has identified works by Spartali still held in private collections today and assigned these to known works shown at the cutting edge Grosvenor Gallery in London in the 1860s and 1870s.

In addition to the known, and classically Pre-Raphaelite, female half-length portraits which Spartali is perhaps best known for, exists charming landscapes from her travels in Italy with the great Italian painter Costa, church interiors and scenes from Greek mythology, such as her stunning study of Antigone.

Marsh said that Spartali's work was often rejected in her own time for being unfinished or overworked. Following up her ideas and notes in her diaries and letters however, shows that she was nothing short of a perfectionist and would always strive for a high level of finish and that it was this rather than any lack of ability which drove her to rework paintings.

An investigation of her account books with the art supplier Roberson's - now held in the National Portrait Gallery Archive - show that Spartali preferred to use a dense watercolour on panels and boards wrapped in paper, giving her work a unique luminosity, but also sadly responsible for the delicate condition of many of her works today.

Despite her extensive career in the USA, working in Philadelphia, Boston and New York, she was friendly with and aware of the work of the British Pre-Raphaelite circle, becoming grate friends with Janey Morris and drawing and painting Kelmscott Manor in the 1870s.

This fabulous exhibition, the cumulation of about five years' research, will be on show in Delaware until January 2016, when it will travel to the UK and go on show at the Watts Gallery in Surrey.

Ten Minute Talk: Wilkie's Young Woman at a Prayer Desk

Young Woman at a Prayer Desk, 1813

David Wilkie 

The National Gallery, Bought 2014

This is just the second painting to enter the National Gallery's collection, after Raeburn's The Archers. It is also one of the Gallery's most recent acquisitions, bought with a genourous gift left my Marcia Lay, a Birmingham teacher.

The Painting depicts Augusta Phipps, daughter of the 1st Earl Mulgrave. She looks out at us in her vulnerable position at her prayers as though we have interrupted this private moment. The tiny, intimate portrait was commissioned directly from the artist and has an incredible melancholy as Augusta died later that year.

Wilkie is one of Scotland's most eminent painters. Inspired in his early career by great Dutch masters, his paintings always capture the character of those in his paintings. His first great work, Pitlessie Fair was painted when he was just 19 years old. It draws on the work of greats such as Brueghel to depict an action packed market day and all of the associated commotion. It is packed with people buying and selling, gossiping, eating and drinking and there's even a urinating dog. As well as the commotion though, Wilkie captures the character of each individual. 

Pitlessie Fair, 1804

David Wilkie

National Galleries Scotland

Following this painting, Wilkie's career exploded. He was trained at the Royal Academy, follows Lawrence in becoming the King's Painter and Raeburn's in becoming the King's Limner in Scotland, to George IV, in 1830, followed by a knighthood in 1836, famed and favourited for his vast scenes and grand portraits.

It is in this tiny Vermeer-esque piece however, that his skill for details - the carpet is exquisitely executed, reminiscent of early Netherlandish realism - and capturing a moment with the sitter is really rather expertly shown.

Hear more in November 2015 Ten Minute Talks- Room 30, Friday's in November at 4pm

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/david-wilkie-a-young-woman-kneeling-at-a-prayer-desk

Pop! A juxtaposition

Tate's current EY exhibition The World Goes Pop reevaluates the Pop Art movement as an international one, rather than the western consumer culture phenomenon we are used to associating with Pop Art.

The spaces are devoid of Blakes, Warhols and Litchtensteins and replaced with works by Russian, Polish and Chinese artists who focus their work on exploring the effects of the Sovient Revolution and the Cold War.

Upon entering the exhibition you are completely overwhelmed by cartoon imagery and bright red walls which completely overwhelm.

Ushio Shinohara
Doll Festival 1966

Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art (Yamamura Collection)
© Ushio and Noriko Shinohara

Ushio Shinohara's Doll Festival 1966 is an enormous piece which forces - through it gaudy colours and block imagery - to consider 1960s materiality in an autonomous Chinese context.

There are lots of interesting works, but the exhibition does feel a little 'bitty' at times; almost like the curatorial concept is 'here's some Pop that's not by Hamilton'. The word juxtaposition features on every label and ultimately that is the idea behind the exhibition; it shows us them at the cartoon imagery of Pop can be used to address some pretty serious socio-political issues.

For £16 though you will get to see the world's weird and wonderful Pop from South America to the Middle East and back again.

Tate Modern until 24th January 2015

http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/ey-exhibition-world-goes-pop

TEN MINUTE TALK: Degas' Young Spartans

National Gallery http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/hilaire-germain-edgar-degas-young-spartans-exercising

Degas is best known as a painter of everyday life, who mastered a great range of media from oils to pastels.

This painting, however exemplifies Degas working within the tradition of historical painting; a much more mainstream and traditional subject taught at the academy at the time. Probably based of Plutarch's The Life of Sparta, the scene is the ancient Greek state of Sparta, with Mount Taygetos in the background, the legislator Spartan in the middle ground and the foreground is occupied with a  group of semi-naked and naked adolescents.

Sparta was a state obsessed with phyical perfection and so Degas occupies the picture space with these stretching posed youths, showing off their physical capabilities. So obsessed they were, that any inferior infant would be thrown off Mount Taygetos.

Whilst the subject would have been recognisable as traditional, the method Degas has employed is not. His brushwork is robust, but the paint is kept dry, giving a frieze like texture to the painting. The landscape orientation adds to this effect, showing Degas reference to the frieze objects of Classical civilization, as well as his knowledge of the stories. In addition, classical modelling and beauty is lost in this work and the youths appear more similar to 19th-century 'Montmartre types' rugged street children, something which has in the past drawn criticism.

A social history reading of this painting, put forward by Carol Salus, explains the composition of the group of youths as an investigation of Spartan courtship rites, rather than wrestling which is more commonly accepted by art historians.

Surprise! Rousseau's Tiger

The dense, sodden vegetation in the colourful foreground of this painting is stark and bright against the heavy, overbearing, thunderous sky. The more you look, the more you can feel the humidity of the rainforest, the painting not only looks like a jungle it entices you to feel the jungle around you. The question is that if the surprise, is the tiger surprised by the lightning, are we surprised by the tiger or are the hunters, hidden from view but suggested by the artist, surprised at becoming prey?

This oil was painted in 1891 by Henri Rousseau and was his first jungle painting, a genre which has become synonymous with his name. 

Rousseau was born in the market town of Laval in North West France in 1844. Much that is known about his life is shrouded in doubt, as he often lied about his experiences and jobs to impress his friends. What we can be certain of is that he enjoyed a normal family life and was educated in school until the age of 17. After this comes the lies- notably being forced to join the army when he was caught stealing money and cash from his job as a law clerk.

Following the success of his jungle scenes in later life, Rousseau would describe how his experience in Mexico as a regimental bandsman inspired the exotic flora and fauna, but Rousseau never left France.

He moved to a newly modernised Paris in 1868 and quickly married Clèmence Boitard. He had a child with her, who died in infancy and the marriage did not last.

He began working as a toll station inspector in 1871 and continued in the profession until he retired. Another case of Rousseau bending the truth to his advantage can be seen here. "le Douanier" means customs inspector and, dispute Rousseau readily adopting this nickname, it was a rank he never reached.

In 1880 Rousseau's first signed painting appear, depicting Parisian life and portraits of friends. He taught himself to paint and his own unique style is obvious. He allowed himself to be considered a naive painter, but he was certainly aware of academic technique and old master paintings, having taken out a copyist permit for the Louvre in 1884.

Surprise is Rousseau's first jungle painting. The vegetation is based on accurate knowledge and representation of flora Rousseau would have seen on trips to the Botanical Gardens in Paris. At the front he paints agave leaves and pointed euphorbia, a rubber plant, American fan palms and a French pinnate surround the tiger, whilst a java fig and India Bo Tree overhang the scene. The fact that all of these plants live naturally across three continents suggest again that the scene is based on the France that Rousseau saw, rather than the Mexico he lied about living in.

What is incredible though, is his accurate representation of the plants and instinctive use of colour, yet the dream-like quality he archives in his execution of the scene. He even said that "when I step into these hot houses and see strange plants from exotic lands I feel as if I have stepped into a dream".

Rousseau was consider naive by contemporary audiences and laughed at at the salon des independents where he exhibited but the avant-garde held him in high esteem. If you look closely at the original, the translucent, opalescent glaze he has applied in diagonal grey and white oil streaks across the canvas show his complex understanding of painting and his incredible skill. Again, 'naive' is probably a label the incredibly self assured artistes promoted himself.

Indeed, he used his paintings as evidence to win his acquittal when tried for fraud in 1907. So pleased was his friend Picasso, he held a soirée in honour of the occasion and claimed Rousseau was the greatest modern artist if his time.

Testimony to this are Weber's New York exhibition of his work just one year after his death.

Whilst Rousseau was a fraud and a chancer in so many ways, in so many others he was an artistic heinous who used prejudices and stereotypes to his great advantage. He would be incredibly smug to see his once-ridiculed painting hanging in such high esteem in the National Gallery today.

Writing KS2 lessons using Evelyn De Morgan's paintings

"The story of the Trojan War is one that has captivated generations. From its origins as Greek myth that taught of the destruction caused by the Gods’ meddling in the lives of mankind, to today’s ongoing questioning of the possibility Troy was real. The telling and retelling of The Trojan War, both as story and scientific investigation is a brilliant one to support the new History National Curriculum, which demands that children as young as KS1 can grasp the idea of the passing of time and the influence of one historical era on the next.

The myth itself is a thrilling tale of deceit, love, revenge and war. Eris, the Goddess of Strife and discord threw a golden apple addressed to the ‘fairest’ into a party of the Gods. Zeus sent Athena, Goddess of War, Hera the Queen of the Gods and Aphrodite, Goddess of Beauty and Love, to Paris, the son of Priam, the King of Troy, for him to judge. The Goddesses each offered him glory, but it was the promise of the most beautiful woman in the world that persuaded Paris to choose Aphrodite as the fairest and he handed her the golden apple.

True to her word, Aphrodite made Helen, the most beautiful of all the women, fall in love with Paris. Unfortunately, she was the wife of Menelaus, whose brother Agamemnon was the king of the Greek city of Mycenae. When Paris and Helen ran away to Troy together, Agamemnon led his troops to Troy and besieged the city for ten years as punishment for what Paris had done.

After a long, fruitless war the Greeks finally overthrew the Trojans with the Trojan Horse. This large wooden horse was built by the Greeks who hid their best army inside it and then pretended to sail away from Troy. Thinking they had won the long war, the Trojans celebrated by bringing the horse into their city. As they wheeled it through the city gates, the Greeks burst from it and destroyed the city, thus ending the war and the city.

This terrible and brutal end to a long-fought war can be seen in the background of this 1898 oil painting by Evelyn De Morgan. The true horror of the fight that De Morgan has chosen to depict, however, is the peril of Cassandra. A daughter of Priam, the King of Troy, Cassandra was served the great misfortune of enormous beauty and being loved by Apollo. She would not give in to his advances, even when he promised her the gift of prophecy. She took the gift, but would not succumb to Apollo, and so he twisted the gift so that her accurate prophecies would always be ignored.

Cassandra warned of the fall of Troy. She told the Trojans of their downfall and warned them not to lead the great horse in to the city. Her utter frustration and suffering is evident in De Morgan’s painting of her, as Troy burns, behind her just as she had foretold.

Pupils studying History at KS1 must learn the basics of what they will go on to study later in their academic careers. Learning the epic story of Troy is a fabulous way to engage the children with Greek Mythology, and using an object so easily readable, yet visually stimulating is an excellent way to introduce the myth. In addition, pupils can be taught that this painting was made in 1898, at the end of the Victorian period, much later than the myths. They can begin to see similarities and differences across time.

By KS2, pupils must study Ancient Greece and also an aspect or theme in British history that extends pupils’ chronological knowledge beyond 1066. Teaching pupils the legacy of Greek culture, art, architecture and literature on later periods in British history is easily achieved through this painting. As De Morgan was embarking on her painting career around 1870, archaeological exploration and discovery by the archaeologists Frank Calvert and Heinrich Schliemann, in Hissarlik in modern-day Turkey, led to a widespread interest in the possibility of Troy being real. This renewed excitement led to a great interest in the late-19^th century of Greek arts and architecture, which may be a reason for De Morgan’s subject choice.

Another reason for De Morgan choosing this subject could have been the torment of Cassandra. Cassandra is made to pay for being beautiful with the curse of nobody listening to her. It is eerily reflective of the struggles faced by women at the end of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries, as they campaigned against objectification by men and for their own voice to be heard through the international campaign for Women’s Suffrage. Evelyn De Morgan was lucky, in her lifetime, to be educated and be free to follow an artistic career. She knew this and was an active campaigner for Women’s Suffrage. She has placed Cassandra, troubled and tormented, at the centre of the composition of her painting. She is telling of the fall of a nation because of the ignorance of women; it is really quite profound.

KS3 pupils must learn about the challenges for Britain, Europe and the wider world, 1901 to the present day.Women’s suffrage is a hugely important aspect of this, which is easily taught through De Morgan’s practice.

Ultimately, the passing of time and the placing of British history within world history can be overwhelming ideas to grasp. Using a vivid aesthetic starting point to tell a story that has lasted Millennia, is a particularly strong one. The fact this piece is both a primary source in itself, showing off the late-Victorian interest in Greek mythology in painting, and a secondary source, which depicts the ancient story of Cassandra, can help pupils to understand the depth of world history and the links between British and world history."

Martin Creed; What's The Point Of It?

What, indeed, is the point of a row of cacti, a ball of bluetac, a tower of loo rolls, a car on a roof or a room full of balloons? 

To entertain, to amuse, to provoke wonder, awe and disgust.

It's all here in Martin Creed's retrospective at the Hayward Gallery on the South Bank.

An artist who found fame by winning the Turner Prize for a room where the lights go on and off, is one I would usually write off and not bother with. But there was something just so intriguing about the idea of running around a room filled with balloons that I just had to visit. I didn't regret it. Each piece acts in harmony in this exhibit come installation. Every aspect is precision planned to ensure all your senses are engaged. There is a volunteer bashing the keys of a battered piano, toilet noises being played from an obvious speaker and even a cinema room playing clips of people making themselves vomit. Repulsive yet compelling.

The show, and indeed Creed's general line of enquiry, since his graduation from his Slade School days and throughout his career, probes us to answer questions of art.

Whilst this is a well-established trait of the avant-garde, I mean, Duchamp got there first with his urinal, it is the playfulness of Creed that makes his work so engaging. Ultimately, his coloured felt-tip drawings are simply quite beautiful, they have an unexpected yet genuine aesthetic quality.

"I don't know what art is"

"I wouldn't call myself an artist"

I don't think I would call him an artist either, and the show won't answer the eternal question of what art is. Creed is more a philosopher who asks his own questions in his own spectacular way.

A must see.