A splash of colour
Lorraine and I took a holiday today, a day trip up to the smoke, and actually the first time we've ever been to central London together. I decided we should go to the Courtauld Gallery, which for some reason I had never visited.
Simply a brilliant collection, in what was for me a perfectly-sized gallery, where you can have a really good look at most of its contents in a few hours. Nourished by a bowl of soup and a coffee in the cafe. It has a wide range of work from Renaissance to contemporary, but its fabulous impressionism collection is the jewel in its crown. There was Monet, Renoir, Seurat and Gauguin, van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Manet’s great last painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère plus several works by Cézanne. Found myself unexpectedly falling in love with Two Dancers on a Stage by Degas. Very interesting building too and found myself taking a few snaps of its interior.
After we wandered through Covent Garden and nearby streets (me feeling a bit like a tourist again) and ended up at the Salisbury, a favourite haunt, then moving down to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street. Here we talked a good deal to random people in the ancient bar while sampling some rather nice boozes and we met Paul there for a cheeky. Lorraine talking intensely to the already rather intense Paul until his ears wilted. Amazing to watch.
Lorraine and I then had a curry and our train crawled back into Brighton at 1.00am. All good fun.
Lorraine and I took a holiday today, a day trip up to the smoke, and actually the first time we've ever been to central London together. I decided we should go to the Courtauld Gallery, which for some reason I had never visited.
Simply a brilliant collection, in what was for me a perfectly-sized gallery, where you can have a really good look at most of its contents in a few hours. Nourished by a bowl of soup and a coffee in the cafe. It has a wide range of work from Renaissance to contemporary, but its fabulous impressionism collection is the jewel in its crown. There was Monet, Renoir, Seurat and Gauguin, van Gogh’s Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Manet’s great last painting A Bar at the Folies-Bergère plus several works by Cézanne. Found myself unexpectedly falling in love with Two Dancers on a Stage by Degas. Very interesting building too and found myself taking a few snaps of its interior.
After we wandered through Covent Garden and nearby streets (me feeling a bit like a tourist again) and ended up at the Salisbury, a favourite haunt, then moving down to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese on Fleet Street. Here we talked a good deal to random people in the ancient bar while sampling some rather nice boozes and we met Paul there for a cheeky. Lorraine talking intensely to the already rather intense Paul until his ears wilted. Amazing to watch.
Lorraine and I then had a curry and our train crawled back into Brighton at 1.00am. All good fun.
Below Lorraine on the Embankment, a close up of a Kees Van Dongen canvas, a detail from Graham Sutherland's Study for the origins of the land (featuring a nice dinosaury thing)the staircase down to the cafe at the Courtauld, a random grille in the gallery, and preparations for fashion week outside in a passing London gloom.
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