Tag: https://www.louvre.fr/en

Wish you were Vermeer… in Edinburgh’s National Gallery Johannes is, Vincent is, The Glasgow Boys are and the New England masters.

Those who have come to see me to share the state of their five states and one Commonwealth.

All of which I have come to love since I first started visiting there 36 years ago.

Only the New Englanders’ flight is running late and our morning meeting has been pushed back to the afternoon.

Giving me longer than I’ve ever had to saunter around The National Gallery.

Despite having lived in Edinburgh’s seaside resort of Portobello for ten years.

And now four years back in Scotland, and staying in North Berwick just down the east coast.

Art of the matter

Filling in a couple of hours in the art gallery before travel meetings became a regular pastime in my 13 years in Ireland.

When I would lose myself in the Da Vinci sketches, the Impressionists and the Jack Yeatses in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin.

For Dublin 2010s, now read Edinburgh 2020s when two and a half hours is still not enough…

To truly appreciate the Renaissance, the Impressionists, all of Scottish art and the Flemish and Dutch masters.

Virginal territory

Centrepiece when I visit is the Vermeer on loan from the National Gallery in London, Lady Seated at a Virginal (there’s a Vermeer exhibition in Dublin too btw).

One of only 34 canvases the Delft artist painted, your eye is immediately drawn to Lady at Virginal.

For her similarity to her more famous compatriot Girl With A Pearl Earring.

And for those already asking the question, I did the same of our guide, a virginal is not a comment on the model’s virtue.

But a rectangular spinet, or harpsichord, with the strings parallel to the keyboard which were popular in Vermeer’s day.

Playing to the Gallery

Now while the rest of the world seems still seduced by the Mona Lisa smile in the Louvre.

I would be more taken by Johannes’ women and would advise anyone either living in Edinburgh and its environs.

To take an hour or two out of your day, or tour, to visit Lady at her virginal, and Cupid with whom she shares the frame.

Spend time with Rembrandt or go a wandering into Van Gogh’s or Monet’s fields and Canaletto’s Venice.

And scoot along to the minister skating on the ice or maybe learn about The Glasgow Girls.

Yes, women painted (and still do) and at last galleries like Edinburgh and further afield have come to recognise that.

Dreaming of New England

As for the New England masters I picked up that Bostonian JS Copley had a part to play in bringing the glory of the military hero Lord Duncan to our attention.

And that he was a compatriot of Benjamin West whose painting Alexander III of Scotland Rescued from the Fury of a Stag by the Intrepidity of Colin FitzgeraldI also scanned on my trip around the gallery.

As for the other New England masters, well I wish they were Vermeer… in Edinburgh’s National Gallery.

But they were half a mile away from here, here being The Contini Scottish Cafe & Restaurant at the National Gallery.

No, not to be seen in this prime spot on The Mound, next to Princes Street, near the Sir Walter Scott Monument, above the Princes Gardens and on the doorstep of Edinburgh Castle.

But rather in the parallel thoroughfare of George Street in Contini’s sister restaurant.

I did break bread with Visit New England, Connecticut and Newport, Rhode Island.

And even in the short time I still had left learned how New England is still leading the way in the worlds of sport, culinary and the revolution.

All of which, of course, I’ll share with you.

MEET YOU ON THE ROAD