Rubens at the RA

Simply put by London’s Royal Academy*, the intention of Rubens and His Legacy Van Dyck to Cézanne is to “bring together masterpieces produced during his lifetime, as well as major works by great artists who were influenced by him in the generations that followed” and to do so “through the lens of six themes: power, lust, compassion, elegance, poetry and violence”.

 The show starts with Poetry as landscape and makes a good case for Rubens (1577-1640) as a master for Constable (possibly fresh in visitors’ minds from the V&A), Turner (early, not late as recently at Tate Britain) and Gainsborough; as an example, Rubens’ Landscape with a Rainbow (c 1630, below top) and Constable’s Cottage at East Bergholt (c1833, below lower):

And under the same theme, Rubens’ The Garden of Love (c1635, below top) has its successors, for example Watteau’s Pleasures of the Ball (1715-17, below lower). Given its size, the Rubens is a remarkable loan from the Prado, impressive in colour and composition, but even an admirer of the baroque might wonder about the number of putti.

The Elegance theme is an exploration of Rubens’ portraiture - Portrait of Maria Grimaldi and Dwarf (c1607, below left) - particularly in Genoa where Anthony van Dyck - A Genoese Noblewoman and Her Son (c1626, below right) - would follow him from Antwerp. Reynolds, Lawrence and Gainsborough were the English examples of other portrait painters in sway to Rubens.

Power reflects aspects of Rubens’ access as a diplomat to European monarchy. The RA has provided an informative close-up visual display of his ceiling for the Banqueting House in Whitehall. I’ve only been able to study The Apotheosis of James I (1635 below) previously at a distance - an enjoyable break from the death by PowerPoint going on below. Rubens’ masterpiece was a major influence on Thornhill’s Painted Hall at Greenwich Hospital completed nearly a century later.

Compassion covers the religious works which Rubens’ studio produced in quantity. His St Cecilia (1620, below top) was donated to the Vienna Akademie in 1821, becoming the model for an allegory of music by 23-year old Gustav Klimt (1885, below lower) and given the same name.

This is followed contrastingly by Violence with its striking Tiger, Lion and Leopard Hunt from Rennes (1616, below and in the poster above), inspiring to Delacroix and others:

The show ends with Lust, the label for Rubens’ mythological nudes which reveal his ability to capture figure movement and skin hue, for example Pan and Syrinx (1617 below):

There are numerous works by painters following Rubens’ example – Daumier, Cezanne, Renoir - an examination developed further by La Pelegrina, an accompanying selection by Jenny Saville of “paint made flesh” by painters who, she feels, connect with Rubens, including Picasso, Freud, Bacon, Auerbach, Sarah Lucas and Saville herself.

Rubens and His Legacy continues at the RA until 10 April. Although there are some of Rubens’ masterpieces on show, the ratio of his works to those by his followers, some rather dull, is nearing the acceptable minimum.

* From Royal Academy What’s On Spring 2015

Egon Schiele at the Courtauld

In a post here last year about the Viennese portraits show at the National Gallery, I pointed out that:

There are no works by Egon Schiele (1890-1918) in UK public collections, so we should take the opportunity to view The Family (Self-Portrait) 1918 and Erich Lederer, 1912 while we can 

Perhaps one day we will get a chance to see Schiele’s landscapes eg Landscape at Krumau (1916, left) as well as portraiture. For now, the Courtauld Gallery in London is exhibiting Egon Schiele: The Radical Nude, a selection of the nude studies which were his predominant legacy. Schiele was only 28 when he died (in the H5N1 influenza pandemic, eight months after his mentor, Gustav Klimt) so most of his work dates from the ten years following his first exhibition in 1908. In 1911 he began a relationship with Wally Neuzil who had modelled for Klimt. Neuzil walked out in 1915 when Schiele decided to marry Edith Harms. She would die of influenza three days before her husband. Wally and later Edith modelled for Schiele.

The works on show at the Courtauld are all on paper, mostly of women and “some drawings of an explicit nature” are more so than others. Woman with Black Stockings, 1913 is not being shown in this post, but it can be found on the Guardian website. Schiele’s ability to combine very fast line sketching in black chalk or pencil and vivid watercolour or gouache as outline or contrast is far more impressive in the reality than in reproduction, for example, Seated Nude Girl with Pigtails (1910, below left) and Before the Mirror (1913, below right):

and Standing Nude with Stockings (1914, below left and detail in the poster above) and Crouching Woman with Green Kerchief (1914, below right) are definitely worth seeing in the original: 

His self-portraits are no less unsparing - Kneeling Nude with Raised Hands (Self-Portrait) (1910, below left) and Nude Self-Portrait in Grey with Open Mouth (1910, below right):

and the overt sexuality of his ‘friends’ pictures must have been on the edge even in Freud’s Vienna - Friends (1914, below left) and Two Girls Embracing (Two Friends) (1915, below right):

Schiele’s life was cut short, but perhaps it is not too fanciful to think that if he had painted for another forty years (possibly as a refugee in the US by 1935), these “radical nudes” would be seen as one aspect of a lifetime’s work rather than the artist’s major preoccupation. Anyone interested in Egon Schiele should try to see this exhibition, possibly not everyone’s first choice for a family outing during the holidays though. The captioning of the exhibits is unusually helpful and informative, an encouragement to buy the catalogue but at £25 for a 160 page paperback, it seems rather expensive, as usual at the Courtauld, I’m afraid.

Egon Schiele: The Radical Nude continues to 18 January 2015.

Viennese Portraits at the National Gallery

When the title of an exhibition includes a date, as does Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900, currently at The National Gallery in London, it shouldn’t always be taken at face value. Certainly, earlier this year, the Courtauld’s Becoming Picasso: Paris 1901 was exact as to artist, place and time, whereas in 2000 the Royal Academy’s 1900: Art at the Crossroads covered the decade up to 1900. In 2002 the RA’s Paris: Capital of the Arts 1900-1968 was specific, and, if that example had been followed, the title of the NG show would probably be something like Portraiture in the Austro-Hungarian Empire 1867-1918. How much less immediately appealing this would have been to those whose primary interests are Klimt and Schiele is hard to say.

As it is, if the well-known Viennese modernists are what you are seeking out, you may feel that you have had to make your way past a lot of their rather less interesting Austro-Hungarian predecessors. But it’s worth it. After all there is only one painting by Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918) in a public gallery in the UK, the NG’s own Portrait of Hermine Gallia 1904 (above right), currently in this exhibition as might be expected. There is now the chance to see, among others, his Lady in Black, c.1894 (above left), Portrait of Amalie Zuckerkandl 1917-18 (poster above), and Posthumous Portrait of Ria Monk III 1917-18 (above centre).

There are no works by Egon Schiele (1890-1918) in UK public collections, so we should take the opportunity to view The Family (Self-Portrait) 1918 and Erich Lederer 1912 while we can (above left and right). Portraits by Oscar Kokoschka (Count Verona 1910) and Richard Gerstl’s Nude Self-Portrait with Palette 1908 (just before his suicide) are also worth seeing.

Facing the Modern: The Portrait in Vienna 1900 continues until 12 January 2014.