The Encounter: Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt
In September I went to the National Portrait Gallery to see this very interesting exhibition of portrait drawings from the masters of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The only small disappointment was that despite of the name there was only one drawing by Leonardo da Vinci and one by Rembrandt.
The drawing that impressed me most of all was Head of an Old Woman Wearing a Hood by Domenico Ghirlandaio, done using metalpoint on salmon-pink prepared paper with white heightening. I was particularly impressed with the way that Ghirlandaio achieved the three-dimensional effect of the face, and the wonderful serenity of the face.
Two other marvellous works that I was especially struck by were produced merely in chalk, and yet capture such character in the faces, which for me is really astonishing -
Head of a Peasant attributed to Lucas Cranach the Younger in Wash and Chalk on Paper
Middle-aged Man with Curly Hair attributed to Langneu in Black, Red and Light Brown Chalk on Paper
The National Gallery
Later the same day I went to the National Gallery, which I have done may times before, but this time I focussed on just two artists – Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, in preparation for doing Part Two of my course. I concentrated on just three paintings –
A Bowl of Fruit and Tankard before a Window painted in homage of Paul Cezanne
Sunflowers, probably van Gogh’s most famous works
Van Gogh’s Chair,
