Exploring more of the Courtauld Gallery

Whilst we were at the gallery for the Monet and London exhibition we made the most of seeing other exhibits and the spaces that held them

The staircase is pretty spectacular, and was conceived as a symbolic ‘journey to enlightenment’ - with visitors progressing upwards through the building and moving from the dark to light to reach the top-floor landing. We hadn’t realised that and went straight to the top, I guess fast forwarding and possibly missing the enlightenment on offer. It’s a narrow space and the rooms on each floor have narrow ceilings, so the stairs do rise quite steeply on the final stretch.

VASE OF FLOWERS - CLAUDE MONET

As we know Monet painted so much more than the views of the Thames, and just outside the exhibition we stopped alongside this painting which he started in 1881, but signed and sold around 1920. Clearly a different subject and brighter, more floral colours but equally as impressive.

A BAR AT THE FOLIES-BERGERÈ - EDOUARD MANET

This was the painting that was the most recognisable to me from our visit - which I learnt is considered one of the iconic paintings of modern life, and was completed a year before he died in 1883. And while the barmaid is recognisable, I’d not seen the legs and green boots of a trapeze artist in the top left corner, which the blurb says ‘hint at the exciting musical and circus acts entertaining the audience’.

LILIES IN A JAR, 1914 - MATTHEW SMITH

The painting above by Matthew Smith was painting in 1914. Entitled Lilies in a Jar was one of my favourites from the whole day, and he was encouraged by Henri Matisse to ‘paint in a more intense and liberated way’ which makes this still life anything but still - and I’d happily have this one at home.

BALCONY VIEW, IPING CHURCH - 1943 - IVON HITCHENS

The painting above by Ivon Hitchens was painted at the height of the Second World War and after his London home was bombed during the Blitz in 1940. He moved to West Sussex where he painted this view looking towards the church from the balcony of a house. I think this is one you could easily have in your own home, and one that you could spend time looking at, and looking at some more.

ADAM AND EVE, 1326 - LUCAS CRANACH THE ELDER

Another image which may be familiar, and most certainly the subject matter is - but also one that I wouldn’t have been able to name the artist of.

We moved onto the ceramics section and here it was the lustred ceramics that caught my eye. The lustred ceramics would have been a must-have luxury item in the fashionable Renaissance homes, and it’s easy to see why. Lustre is made when a glazed and fired ceramic is painted with metal oxide pigments and fired again at a low temperature with restricted air supply, and results in a metallic film that shimmers in candlelight.

Outside in the December early evening we were now heading off to complete our other plans, but not without stopping and admiring this new-to-us rainbow snake of seating in a part of the Strand which is now pedestrianised, and which I’m sure on warmer days will be much used by both visitors and people working in the area alike.

We enjoyed our visit to the Courtauld Gallery, so if you’re in London and looking for something to do then definitely put this one on your list, and soak up some culture new and old while you’re there. There’s nearly always something going on at Somerset House too - when we visited the Festive ice rink was in full swing, but in the summer it’s also a great place to sit and people watch, it’s just one of those places that is constantly changing and is better for that.

I’m hoping that next time we’re in the area, it’s much warmer so I can try out at least one of the colourful seats!

Visiting the Monet and London exhibition

Back at the start of December we popped to London for the day for a pre-Christmas visit, primarily for our annual steak fest at the gorgeous Hawksmoor restaurant in Air Street and to secure some Fortnum and Mason’s mince pies (side note - this time we opted for the crunchy almond topped mince pies, and they weren’t my favourite). I always like to use days in London to do something we can’t do here - that could be an exhibition, a museum, or something else.

This time though I’d seen that the Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House were hosting a Monet and London exhibition, and so I got us tickets. We’d not been to anything in the gallery before, even though we’d been to events and even a restaurant at Somerset House and that along with seeing some paintings seemed good enough reason to go. It seems though it was a really popular exhibition with notices up when we visited to say that tickets sold out until it closed mid January.

We’re by no imagination huge art aficionados, but we do like to take a look and try to imagine the said art in our house, or not!

As most people probably know Claude Monet is renowned as the leading figure of French impressionism, which changed modern art, and I think probably one of his most famous pieces is the Water Lilies - or at least that’s the one I knew of most. I seem to recall we saw, or at least tried to see one of these paintings in Paris once - so long ago, that if there were pictures they were probably printed photos, and also why my memory is hazy!

Views of the Thames

But as the exhibition blurb goes ‘some of Monet’s most remarkable Impressionist paintings were made not in France but in London’ depicting views of the Thames evoking atmosphere, mysterious light and colour. Paintings begun during three stays in the capital between 1899 and 1901 paintings of Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and the House of Parliament were unveiled in Paris in 1904. Until last year they had never been the subject of an UK exhibition, which I guess explains why they were such hot tickets!

There were 21 paintings in the exhibition and lots of people viewing them - some needing to be right in front of you, or even at the exact spot you were in and couldn’t possibly wait for you to move on - sigh! - though generally most people were much more courteous.

The paintings were definitely worth seeing, my favourites were those of the Houses of Parliament:

HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, SUNSET - 1903 - CLAUDE MONET

LONDON: THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT SHAFT OF SUNLIGHT IN THE FOG - 1904 - CLAUDE MONET

THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT (EFFECT OF FOG) - 1903 - CLAUDE MONET

THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT - 1904 - CLAUDE MONET

The last one above I think is my favourite of these - this was one of the works that he made for the unrealised show in London. He’d been unable to borrow back enough sold paintings from the original series for the exhibition, so set about completing unfinished canvasses left in his studio - which goes to show that having unfinished works in progress is nothing new for crafters and artists today!

He hoped that these newly finished works would be ‘as good as the other ones, if not better’ which is just the inspiration that many of us need to clear through our own stash of half-finished projects, even if we’re nowhere near as talented or prolific as he clearly was.

It was great to see these paintings - and great that his long hoped for exhibition finally took place - we took the chance to see a bit more of the Courtauld Gallery while we were there, so look out for that post soon.

Raving about Waterloo

Choosing somewhere to stay in London hasn’t been something we’ve needed to do, until recently, but with two nights in town meeting friends and family we wanted to stay somewhere that was easy to get to both the City and the West End, and which didn’t cost the earth.

After some internet research - especially on prices - we settled for a Travelodge in Waterloo, and we couldn’t have chosen a better location. We arrived at Kings Cross and got on the Northern line to Bank, changing there for the Waterloo & City line - and bam, we where in Waterloo and checked in.

We headed out for lunch at Pizza Pilgrims on Lower Marsh - I had the double pepperoni and hot honey - which was good, I could take or leave the honey though, but the stacked tin tomatoes were as impressive.

Soon we were back on the Waterloo & City line heading to the City where we met up with plenty of friends to mark our escape to the country and it was great to see so many of our friends to catch up and plan future visits over a drink or two and way too much food! A final trip on the Waterloo & City line for the day saw us back at the hotel for the night.

The next morning, after a relaxed start, we headed out for breakfast looking for a proper caff, rather than a chain. Our instincts told us to head down The Cut, which looked quite different to our previous visits with many more chains moving in. We spotted what we were looking for though, and found a cafe serving the largest plate of full English (for MOH) and a bacon and egg sandwich for me. We weren’t disappointed, the place was buzzing with builders, taxi drivers and a few bemused tourists from overseas.

Our plan for the day was to check out some furniture I’d seen online over at Marble Arch and then head over to Brick Lane to get some bagels. From Waterloo we arrived at Bond Street on the Bakerloo line and headed straight to Fortnums to buy our mince pie treat - they’re pricey, but they’re oh so nice, and for the last few years or so, a box has been ours. Moving out of London wasn’t going to change this, and it made sense for us to get them on our visit, once we’d checked out the Christmas windows and their decorations.

Armed with mince pies, our next stop was Marble Arch and our plan was to get there through the back streets avoiding the busier streets, as you never quite know what you’ll find. And we weren’t disappointed as we came across the Ever After Garden in Grosvenor Square, which was quite a moving sight.

And then we looked up at the most fantastic yellow leaved tree, which no doubt looked even better against the sunlit white building and the blue sky. A joyous sight that’s for sure.

We carried on walking to Marble Arch only to find that the store didn’t have any of the range I wanted to look at anyway, typically. However the sales assistant was familiar with the range, and could answer the questions I had, so that was something.

After a quick coffee and a pastry, we headed off to Liverpool Street on the Central line. Above ground again and we walked through Spitalfields to Brick Lane and to our favourite bagel shop. Bagels secured, we headed back to Spitalfields Market to share lunch, stopping briefly to admire the the graffiti, which if you look more closely at you’ll see it’s sprayed onto electrical sockets.

Back to the hotel, on the Waterloo & City line again, after walking to and past Bank for a final time on this visit. That evening we met up with family in the West End so we were back on the Bakerloo line, this time to Piccadilly Circus. A pre-dinner drink (or two) in a pub before heading over to our favourite Hawksmoor restaurant on Air Street.

Still full from the night before, we skipped breakfast the next morning opting for a coffee and pastry in Tottenham Court Road - a quick hop over from Waterloo on the Northern line. Then we were off to check out what Heals and West Elm had to offer furniture-wise - in short, nothing grabbed us this time round, so we headed up towards Market Halls, but first stopping in John Lewis. There we had more success, looking at several items which we added to our Black Friday shopping list.

We had just one more tube journey ahead of us - from Oxford Circus back to Kings Cross and our train home.

In those three days we clocked up just over 39,200 steps (with half of those on the middle day) and twelve and a half miles, let alone the numerous tube rides - so quite a trip. It was good to be back in London, but it was oh so much better to be home.

And Waterloo, definitely a location we’ll check out again for future stays.