Well, in addition to looking at the art at the Courtauld Gallery, including the Monet in London exhibition, Battleaxe has done other things as well. Went to London twice this week, in fact. Both times poor Philosopher, who no longer likes spicy food, was dragged to Dishoom for lunch – so yummy for those of us that like really tasty Indian grub. Been to two Craft Fairs this morning – Christmas seems to be coming horribly early this year. Have returned to limited News watching, but still have to stick my fingers in my ears, close my eyes and go la la la when anything to do with the US comes on.
So, let’s go to the Courtauld first. Battleaxe would totally recommend it for art-lovers – it is small, not at all crowded, and full of fabulous things – some of the most well-known art masterpieces. We were meeting a crowd of old friends of Philosopher’s – have got into the habit of doing this several times a year now. We knew the Monet exhibition was also going to be small – and so it was, only a couple of rooms – and sorry, if you want to go, it is now completely sold out. It is a collection of paintings Monet did from his hotel balcony in the Savoy Hotel, of views up and down the Thames. Apparently he wanted to do an exhibition like this in his lifetime, but could never collect enough of the paintings together. He enjoyed painting light effects on the river in the smog and the fog. The smog must have been truly terrible back then… Anyway, the rooms were quite crowded and although the paintings were interesting, it was all a little… foggy, see these examples below.
I soon burst out of the slightly dim and crowded rooms into the the light of the main Impressionists gallery, where there are more Monets, including this wonderfully bright painting of Antibes. What a contrast to the London gloom and fog.
Every painting in the collection is a joy – and of course, there is this so-familiar Manet. All the times I’ve looked at it I’ve never noticed the legs of the trapeze artist in the top left.
Downstairs, in the rooms full of older art, I was struck by this recently restored Botticelli, and the contrast between being able to pore over it for as long as you wanted, in a virtually empty room, without the crowds we had to fight through to glimpse the Botticellis in the Uffizi in Florence, when we went in December 2018. Here’s the post about it. I liked the healing fish being carried by Tobias (he’s the little figure iin the foreground). It looks like a little pet animal. Not like in the Bible story, that fish was huge.
Then, on to Dishoom in Covent Garden. Don’t even try to go without booking – the line for walk-ins is alarming. As there were seven of us on this occasion they had given us a booth on the lower ground floor – nice and quiet for a party of older folks.
On Friday I was back to Dishoom again – look, was it my fault that the people we were eating with love Indian food? They have tasty things on their menu I have not seen since we went to India in the early 2000s, like the Bhel Puri you get on Chowpatti Beach in Mumbai. This time we were sitting in the full blast of the noise on the ground floor, as there were only three of us. We’d met Jo Watts, who used to work with Philosopher at Birmingham University, and has lived in Melbourne, Australia for the last 20-odd years. She was over here drumming-up funding trade from well-heeled Melbourne University alumni – not a job I’d fancy, but she obviously enjoys it. Actually it was noisy, but tolerably so – we could hear each other speak. Food excellent yet again… Here we are – in the cafe at the National Portrait Gallery.
