London Retrospective: Room 55, The National Gallery

Invariably The National Gallery is one of my first stops when in London. The Sainsbury Wing, added in 1991, focuses on early Renaissance Art. This facet of the collection has had a profound affect on my own work since my first visit in 1993.

Within the extensive Sainsbury Wing is the relatively miniscule Room 55. For my partner Shane and I it is the beating heart of the National Gallery. Its most famous inhabitant is Jan van Eyck’s The Arnolfini Portrait, 1434 - a fine picture to be sure.  But these are my own favourites:

From top: 

Robert Campin, A Man and a Woman, c 1435

Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, A Man Reading, c 1450

Jan van Eyck, Portrait of a Man (Self Portrait?) 1433

Workshop of Rogier van der Weyden, Portrait of a Lady, c 1464

Rogier van der Weyden, The Magdalen Reading, before 1438

London and a visit to Kenwood House

Being back in London feels like being home. It's been wonderful reuniting with old friends with whom I share so many memories and revisiting old haunts, including the National Portrait Gallery, the National Gallery, the National Film Theatre, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Leighton House, the Dover Bookshop, London Graphics Centre (an amazing art supply shop in Covent Garden) and many other places. Visiting both Tate Galleries has included long walks along the Thames, still majestic, still enduring. It's as if I have never been away (even though I have, for far too long). 

On October 10 my Australian friend Leigh Hobbs and I made our pilgrimage to Kenwood House to visit the William Larkin portraits that we both admire so much - it was a very special day. The photos shown here don't do them justice (not that reproductions ever do). Because of staff shortages, they can only be viewed between certain hours. Those hours can change on a daily basis, so calling Kenwood in advance is advised. 

We still haven't toasted our good fortune with great champagne (see previous blog entry)  but now that my partner Shane has arrived in London, the three of us have a date to do just that at the Savoy Hotel on Thursday evening.

Images from top:

Pilgrim's Progress: DK and Leigh outside Kenwood House (photographs 1 and 3 by Leigh Hobbs)

Leigh 

Leigh and DK 

Diana Cecil, Countess of Oxford (1614) by William Larkin

Isabella Rich (1614) by William Larkin

Dorothy Cary, later Viscountess Rochford (1614-18) by William Larkin 

Leigh, lost in admiration among the Larkins

Leigh, Contre-jour