The current exhibition at the Guidhall Art Gallery Age of Elegance 1890 to 1930 includes a fine selection of works with the majority, fortunately for me, at the earlier end of the date range. I began with http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app;jsessionid=2A788ECD3C53CD1B6D3EE9D880EE20B5?service=external/Item&sp=M35223%3AT%3AF%3AF&sp=9313&sp=X
Miss E. Forbes in this broad picture conveys an Aesthetic sensibility in the principal figures in a landscape rendered in the manner of the moment.
A deceptively innocuous landscape by Mr. John A.A. Brown features ill-fed cattle that have wondered from their pasture into a crop, the central figure sneers at the viewer, as only cattle can, amidst a supremely controlled landscape showing detail in the foreground and colour only toward the horizon. Medium can be perceived in the sky through a pattern of brush strokes, and perhaps finger marks too. http://dorotheasharp.blogspot.co.uk/2010/08/john-alfred-arnesby-brown-river-bank.html
Actually painted in 19o4 is The Heart of Empire by Mr. Nils Lund http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app?service=external/Item&sp=M35782%3AT%3AF%3AF&sp=9393&sp=X from the roof of the Royal Exchange looking West. This great city I call my home is spread out beneath hazy skies, the rooftops and street pattern more the subject than the street life seemingly far below. Beyond is the river and stark against brilliant cloud the dome of St. Paul’s. It is a composition with a breadth of view that swells the heart with pride at the great achievement of this great city.
Evening by Mr. William Ingram http://collage.cityoflondon.gov.uk/collage/app?service=external/Item&sp=M35569%3AT%3AF%3AF&sp=8924&sp=X is of a different feeling entirely. I cannot be sure why it has stepped forward so, for it is largely sea and sky alone and in such contrast to its near neighbour on the wall, but there is something sublime about the sea that has been evoked with the most economical of means heightened by its particular blue. The sky gives us the hour of the title suggesting rest and yet there upon the horizon a ship far from harbour. I would perhaps have left out the ship, but who am I to pretend to such a fine conception evoking feelings at once of desolation and hope and the great power and beauty of sea.
Opposite is a work by Mr. Frank Brangwyn, http://www.frankbrangwyn.org/home%202.html friend to my teacher Mr. Alfred East. Titled The Lord Mayor’s Show in Olden Days http://www.bridgemanart.com/asset/6155/Brangwyn-Sir-Frank-1867-1956/The-Lord-Mayor’s-Show-in-Olden-Days-c.1905-oil-o?search_context=%7B%22url%22%3A%22%5C%2Fsearch%5C%2Fartist%5C%2FBrangwyn-Sir-Frank-1867-1956%5C%2F868%3Flang%3Dfr%22%2C%22num_results%22%3A%22147%22%2C%22search_type%22%3A%22creator_assets%22%2C%22creator_id%22%3A%22868%22%2C%22item_index%22%3A1%7D it evokes the work of S. Caneletto and M. Matisse in its use of rich colour. A small canvas that looks back to an earlier time when such spectacles graced the Thames using a contemporary mode. Three centuries spanned in the stroke of a brush.
This was my second visit of which the foremost highlights I have shared, though there are many others, particularly those from the 1890s. We are fortunate these works are accessible and as an exhibition it follows wonderfully from the permanent collection of works exhibited upstairs. http://www.guildhallartgallery.cityoflondon.gov.uk/GAG/Exhibitions/CurrentExhibitions/Age+of+Elegance.htm
