Tate Modern, Pierre Bonnard ,The Colour of Memory Review

     

                    The Tate  Modern, Bankside, London

                        ticketing and details from 

                                     tate.org.uk

 

 Remembering France

I have visited France many times over the last 60 years.The French have always presented a life style that I like. This exhibition reminded me of all that life there can offer.The paintings and the colours brought back memories of France ,wonderful food,the warm, lavender scented south and some rather dodgy plumbing.

The Exhibition

The exhibition is large extending over 13 rooms so give yourself plenty of time  and wear comfortable shoes. Inspite of a timed ticket system it is rather overcrowded.

Bonnard has painted the private world that he shared with his companion of 30 years Marthe de Meligny.

There are detailed explanations of the paintings and Bonnard's increasing development of the use of colour. Nearly all of the paintings are of France.

Food

The French take food very seriously and many paintings show the enjoyment of leisurely and delicious meals. Sometimes family pets are included like these two cats glaring at each other across the table.     

                          

P. Bonnard

 

                                                  

Everyone wants to try eating snails the first time they go to France .There are special tongs for removing them from their shells and the plate is swimming in garlic butter in which to dip them.

                                             

The Sea                                                

 
August is a month when the French abandon everything to go to the coast or country.Bonnard spent extended periods in the  strong warm light of  the South of France.The coast and visits there became his subjects.

                                                           

P.Bonnard

Bathing

 Marthe de Meligny  whom Bonnard evetually married took long baths in the hope of curing various complaints from which she was suffering. He painted several portraits of her bathing ,experimenting with colour and compositions in front of a mirror.

                                                                                      

P.Bonnard

                                                                         After The Exhibition

       A good place to take a break after the exhibition is the Bar and Kitchen Cafe.Book in advance if you want a window table and enjoy a leisurely meal while you watch the endlessly fascinating views across the River Thames. 

                                                              

View of the river Thames from tate Modern

Working Women, Fish Wives

Fish Wives 

 

 I am married to an academic whose research studies  have taken us to many countries around the world.It was not until I went to the USA that I first learned of the American artist Winslow Homer.Some of his most interesting and lovely paintings are of the Cullercoats fishing community on the east coast of Northumberland where he lived for two years.I lived near that stunning coast for many years and was astonished that in England this artist is almost unknown.

This is just one example of Homer's wonderful water colours.

Fisher Folk, Winslow Homer

 

 

          For the bigger picture follow the link to the Addison Galleryof American Art in Massachusetts.

 

              https://addison.andover.edu

 

           

Working Women

It it sometimes assumed that women have only entered the work place relatively recently.

It was only aristocratic, rich women or those who conformed to a certain Victorian middle class respectabilty who did not work .

An exception was the talented portrait painter Elisabeth Vigee Le Brun.Her popularity as a fashionable artist  gave her a freedom to travel and socialise not usual among women in her class.

                                                          

Elisabeth Vigee Le brun (self portrait)

 

  The women who made the lace for her clothing and who plaited the straw for her hat led a very different existance.Working from tiny cottages lacemakers were usually the wives and daughters of agricultural labourers.The money they earned contributed to the family income making the difference between a living wage and abject poverty.Working outside gave a better light .

Little girls began making lace in lacemaking schools from the age of four.It was a hard life. Get distracted and look away from the lacemaking pillow and your nose would be rubbed in the pins holding the pattern in place.As they grew older their eyesight was ruined and many contracted  tuberculosis from long winters working inside crowded, damp cottages

 

                                                                    

Lacemakers

One advantage of being a lacemaker was that you needed smooth hands and were excused from labouring in the fields like these country girls.

Haymakers

 

                                              

Painted Fake News

Paintings  of  Fake News.

Artists have frequently been persuaded ,bribed or coerced in painting pretty pictures of scenes that are not quite what they seem.You can see modern day examples of this coming from certain countries in the far east of jolly ,well fed workers who in reality have large sections of their population who are  starving.

 

     Helen Allingham  painted pretty pictures of cottages in the English countryside.   A simple cottager was usually standing by the door.The reality was that inside these cottages would be damp hovels full of dirty, hungry children. Washing, cooking facilities would be minimal, the water being fetched from that stream you can see shared with animals.There would be dirt floors  and a muddy unmade road outside.                                                  

Cottages, Helen Allingham

 These healthy looking mill girls enjoying a dinner hour were almost certainly posed in a studio for completion of the painting.The reality of their lives was deafness from the noise of the weaving machinery, rotten ,damaged teeth from the habit of chewing the end of broken threads to join them more easily.Damage to their lungs was appalling from the cotton fibres that wafted around them in the air they were breathing most of the time.

The Dinner Hour, Eyre Crowe

Under communist rule artists were obliged to show well fed ,happy workers like these construction site workers taking a break while pretty girls bring them their refreshments.Oppression,food shortages, grim living accommodation and constant fear was the reality of the dictatorships that governed their lives.

Russian Socialist Realism

  This is almost to ghastly to show. A charming rural setting while Hitler, painted in a flattering pose tries to show his affection for a small girl .At least the artist showed her struggling to get away.

Nazi Fascist Realism

                                                 

Work

Monday Morning

Monday morning tomorrow.  Back to work for many people.

My favourite paintings of people at work.

 

                                                        

Work,Ford Madox Brown

      A   famous Victorian scene of labourers at work in Manchester .Even small children   are roped in to help.

                                                                        

Going to Work, Lowry

 

 

          No one captured the dreariness of going to work better than Lowry.The 1930s when the cotton mills of Lancashire were at full production and thousands of workers streamed in every morning.

 

The ironers, Degas

                                                                     

                Endless ironing of linen shirts with a very old fashioned iron.No wonder these ladies turned to drink.

Signs of Spring

   Snowdrops

A few days warmth has had everyone out with their heads bent down looking for the first signs of early spring flowers which are just emerging from the cold earth just like this old guy in this  painting by Gary Blunt whose work can be seen at the Portland Gallery in London

 www.portlandgallery.com

     

                                       

Snowdrops by Gary Bunt

 

 C.F. Tunnicliffe was one of the best illustrators of the English countryside. These two  illustrations appeared in  a Ladybird childrens' book   called What to Look For in Winter.Although they are out of print copies can sometimes be found in charity shops (which was where I found mine) or Amazon and eBay.

Aconites, snowdrops and crocuses are just coming through and hazeltree catkins are  out in sheltered spots.

Another favourite illustrator of childrens' books was Cecily Mary Barker with her incomparable flower fairy series.

                            

Aconites,Iris reticular,Crocuses  Snowdrops,C.F.Tunnicliffe

 

 

 

 

Hazel Catkins,C.F. Tunnicliffe

 

 

The Snowdrop Fairy,Cecily Mary Barker

 

St Valentine's Day

Love and Romance in Paintings 

                                                             

The Kiss , GustavKlimt

This close up of  The Kiss shows Klimt's ability to capture passion .His rich colours and use of gold are gorgeous making him popular society artist in the 1920s and 30s Vienna

There is an excellent film starring Helen Mirren, Woman in Gold,about a war time survivor's quest to recover one of her families' paintings stolen by the Nazis.

 

                                           

             

In Bed, Toulouse Lautrec

 There a sexiness to many of Toulouse Lautrec's paintings that defines  his drawings and paintings.His work  often depicted ordinary men and women taking time off in the cafes ,theatres and dance halls of Paris.

        

  

Van Gogh's painting shows a couple resting together in the heat of the day when they are supposed to be cutting corn.They have kicked off their shoes  and the animals in the back ground are eating the corn.The lovers have nothing in mind but each other.