Friday, September 26, 2008

Tate Britain

I've always insisted that I don't have a natural bent for art. I admit that I just don't get it. And I'm okay with that.


Last weekend, I decided that I would go by Tate Britain for a visit for two reasons:
1. I didn't particularly like Tate Modern, so Tate Britain would have to be an improvement, right?
2. It's free : )


So when I stepped inside the first gallery, I wasn't prepared to love it as much as I did.



Here are my faves:

"April Love" (1855-6) by Arthur Hughes


The colours were absolutely, divinely rich. Shades of purples and green accents...I could eat it : )










"The Bath of Psyche" (1890) by Frederic, Lord Leighton



By just setting eyes on it, I knew this had to be the mythical Psyche from Roman rhetoric...and not from remembering world history from ninth grade. Having read CS Lewis' Til We Have Faces this past summer, I suppose Lewis just described the scene so well that it just clicked when I saw this painting.











"Broken Vows" (1856) by Philip Hermogenes Calderon
I was impressed by the way the mood was captured in the subject's posture and expression. ...Uh oh, I'm sounding like those art people whom I always secretly mock : (
Anyway, this scene looked so painful that I had sympathy pangs.

3 comments:

slimpanther said...

Wait, you secretly mock artists?

rcl said...

okay *openly.

and this was referring to art critics / commentators

calm down : )

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing this.