The First of the Tates
I arrived in London early in the morning to find it overcast and humid (and a bit warmer than I’d been hoping). I had so much on my list of things to do that I just wanted to get on with it, but my body forced me to be realistic and stop for a quick snack before actually getting started. And it gave me the perfect opportunity to have a nice, long walk on the way to my first destination.
Tate Britain
Tate Britain is one of a number of museums under the “Tate” name, including Tate Modern, Tate Liverpool, and Tate St. Ives. It was founded in 1897 by Sir Henry Tate, an English sugar merchant and philanthropist, as the National Gallery of British Art. Colloquially, however, it was known as the “Tate Gallery,” and it officially adopted the name in 1932.
The museum’s collection covers British art from 1500 to the present day, and it is considered to be the most comprehensive collection of its kind in the world. It includes work by the likes of Francis Bacon, John Constable, William Blake, Thomas Gainsborough, Sir Joshua Reynolds, J.M.W. Turner, and William Hogarth.
Its building was designed by Sidney R. J. Smith. with a central sculptural gallery by John Russell Pope. The Clore Gallery, added in 1987, was designed by James Stirling, and today it houses work by J.M.W. Turner.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, otherwise known as J.M.W. Turner, was a Romantic painter, printmaker, and watercolorist. His work is characterized by its expressive, often dramatic coloring, and his many landscapes and marine paintings.
Turner is often described as the father of modern art, as well as regarded for having elevated landscape painting to the level of history painting, which was much more appreciated and respected during his time.
Turner was also extremely prolific, and left behind more than 550 oil paintings, 2,000 watercolors, and 30,000 works on paper. His entire collection was bequeathed to the nation upon his death, and a huge portion of it is held at the Tate Britain.
Originally, its halls held a modern collection as well, though this moved to the Tate Modern after its opening in 2000 (the two museums are now connected by a river bus that runs along the River Thames). This led to the gallery’s name being changed to Tate Britain, as its focus became increasingly British historical and contemporary art.
Pictures such as this, painted during the time of increased campaigning for an end to slavery by Black Clergymen, were used to represent Caribbean people as a whole. The girls in Soyer’s work are shown neatly dressed, and holding what is presumably a Bible — this was meant to show the literacy, piety, and purity of the Caribbean people in order to change the perception of the Caribbean communities by the British people, and further the fight for their emancipation.
This painting depicts a scene from one of my favorite mythological stories — that of the story of Cupid and Psyche. Psyche was a lovely mortal maiden, so beautiful that people began to worship her, and neglect their worship of the goddess Aphrodite, who became enraged and asked her son for help. Versions of the story vary, but whether he was a monster meant to kill her, or to marry her, Cupid falls in love with her instead. In questionable circumstances, however, as he forbids her from laying eyes on him even after they consummate their union, but at her sisters’ cajoling, Psyche uses a candle to catch him out while he sleeps. Deeply surprised at his surpassing beauty, her hand wavers and a drop of wax from the candle lands on Cupid, waking him and causing him to flee. The scene in the painting shows what happens next, Psyche begging for Aphrodite’s help to get Cupid back.
In spite of how research-heavy my travel planning is, I somehow missed that this absolute gorgeosity was at the Tate Britain? It depicts Icarus, son of the architect Daedalus, who was the author of the Minotaur’s maze in the ancient myth. After the maze was built, King Minos decided to keep Daedalus and Icarus as prisoners, until the architect came up with a plan for him and his son to escape, which involved creating huge wings out of feathers and wax with which to fly out. In the euphoria of escape and flight, Icarus forgot his father’s warning to not fly too close to the sun, and in so doing, the wax in his wings melted, so that they fell apart and he fell to his death. The painting shows the moment after this, as his body is surrounded by the lamenting nymphs who find him.
This painting by Sir John Everett Millais depicts the death of Ophelia as told by Queen Gertrude in Shakespeare’s play, Hamlet. The pose Ophelia bears has been described as both saintly and erotic, and the painting has long been admired for its accuracy in its portrayal of a natural landscape.
The finished work for this study is currently held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The sitter, “Madame X” (actually socialite Mme Gautreau), was the American wife of a French banker in Paris. As the pose is so peculiar, the painting apparently received such a high degree of criticism that Sargent decided to move to Britain to flee his ruined reputation.
Gold Colored Fox 