Symbols & Secrets

A few weeks ago I wrote about visiting the wonderful Guildhall Art Gallery to see some old friends such as La Ghirlandata and The Wounded Cavalier. Last Sunday I visited again in order to make some new friends!

I’ll start with a very large, imposing painting, Sir Hugh Wyndham (1602-1684), Judge of the Common Pleas, painted in 1670 by John Michael Wright (about 1617-1694) …

Sir Hugh lived in dangerous and turbulent times. Appointed a judge by Oliver Cromwell, and reappointed by Cromwell’s son Richard, he was, not surprisingly, deprived of his office on the Restoration. He was then called to account for having sat in judgment on the men of John Penruddock and was imprisoned in the Tower while his conduct was investigated. He declared that he had done so “only by the soliciting and earnest importunity of divers of His Majesty’s party” and to save the accused if he could. His reasons were accepted and he was pardoned By Charles II.

He was part of a special commission of royal Judges – the Fire Court– appointed to deal with compensation claims after the Great Fire of 1666. The Judges worked gratis, three to four days a week. Had it not been for the operation of the Fire Court legal wrangles might have dragged on for months, which would have delayed the rebuilding which was so necessary for London to recover. In recognition of their services John Michael Wright was commissioned to paint portraits of all 22 judges who had sat in the Fire Court and this is the portrait you see today in the Gallery.

Now for something completely different, Boyle Family, A London Study about 1968, purchased at Christie’s sale 25 May 1995 …

Boyle Family is best known for the earth studies: three dimensional casts of the surface of the earth which record and document random sites with great accuracy. These works combine real material from the site (stones, dust, twigs etc) with paint and resins, preserving the form of the ground to make unique one-off pieces that suggest and offer new interpretations of the environment, combining a powerful conceptual framework with a strong and haunting physical and visual presence. You can read more on the website here.

Good form and Nice style (2003) by Joanna Price (1956-2014). I really liked this, City chaps in slightly odd poses …

And, also by Price, Untitled (circa 1999) …

Unfortunately, I have been able to find out very little about this artist, who died in 2014. This is the short biography from Instagram : ‘Joanna Price, an award-winning painter, is best known for her figurative works, studies of life and society which reference paintings and themes from the past but always with a refreshing and subversive narrative. A recurring motif in her works are blue, male figures in suits. Born in Ireland, Price lived and worked in Paris and New York before settling in London. In 1991 she won the Grand Prix at Cagnes-sur-Mer, France, International Festival of Painting, and was invited to be British representative there in 1993’.

This is Tower Bridge (1969) by Uzo Egonu (1931-1996)

From the Art UK website: ‘This artwork employs a bold composition, merging representation and abstraction, and a cyclical and bird’s eye view – devices Egonu introduced to his work in 1966 and are characteristic of Igbo art traditions. The cyclical composition creates a vortex of movement in the architecture that captures the exuberant and frenetic spirit of 1960s London’.

Uzo Egonu was born in Onitsha, Nigeria in 1931 and immigrated to England in 1945, aged 13, to study art in London at Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts and at St Martin’s School of Art. Despite only returning to Nigeria once in the 1970s, his painting and printmaking, which blurred the distinction between abstraction and figuration, continued to recall his strong West African and Igbo heritage and experiences of diaspora and isolation, influenced by his experiences of European travel and modernist art movements.

The Thames (1982) by Lucy Jones (b.1955) …

Lucy Jones is an extraordinary woman. I can’t really begin to do her justice in this short blog, so can I strongly recommend this article drawn from the Financial Times.

Here she is …

An image taken from an article published by the Flowers Gallery.

This is The Politician (1871) by Jonathan Pratt (1835-1911) …

I was intrigued by this since he looks more like a craftsman than a politician, so maybe the artist is showing that ‘ordinary’ folk can be clever enough to follow politics and what is happening in the outside world.

I did a bit of research an came across the Pratt Family History blog, here is an extract:

Joseph Pratt, my 2x great grandfather was the eldest son and he too was a shoemaker. Joshua’s youngest son, with Rebekah, was Jonathan who decided to become an artist and eventually was a recognised Victorian painter of repute with works being accepted by the Royal Academy. One of his paintings, “The Politician”, was of his father at work reading a newspaper. Shoe makers were literate before most craftsmen and were noted for their strong interest in politics.

As shoemakers effectively ran their own business, they had to keep business records and conform to measurements to ensure shoes fitted correctly so were, indeed, more literate and numerate. Looking again at the painting you can see a shoemaking tool resting in the subject’s lap. You can find the Pratt Family History blog here.

The Music Lesson (1877) by Frederic Leighton (1830-1896) …

Leighton was born in Scarborough, Yorkshire. He became the leader of the Victorian Neo-Classical movement and his paintings of Hellenic subjects are his most loved. In 1885 his first picture for the Royal Academy was bought personally by Queen Victoria and thus his long and illustrious career was launched.

An entranced reviewer wrote: The masterly entanglement of the two lovely forms—typical and ideal—as they sit side by side on the black-and-white marble bench, is marked with intense sincerity. Nothing can exceed the delicate articulation of the hands of the two figures—mother and child, or sister. Their feet are chastely disposed and chiselled with the gentlest touch. The pose is easy and graceful. The loving way in which the elder figure places the child’s hands upon the guitar as with the other hand she tunes the instrument is natural and convincing. The whole composition breathes an atmosphere of pure refinement and is the very embodiment of rhythm.

You can read more here.

Pomegranates (1886) by Albert Joseph Moore (1841-1893) …

‘Pomegranates’ is one of the first paintings in which Albert Moore (1841–1893) showed a commitment to what has been loosely termed ‘Aestheticism’. ‘His interests were shared by painters such as James McNeill Whistler and Frederic Leighton, and writers like Oscar Wilde. The notion that beauty is more important than storytelling in art was central to Aestheticism, this idea was new and radical in 1865. Here Moore has combined anachronistic, eclectic elements into the composition – from Japanese artefacts to drapery reminiscent of ancient Greece – to discourage narrative readings of the scene. He chose the colours and composition, and probably even the frame, purely for their aesthetic function.

Moore is often considered a mysterious artist because he devoted little time to explaining his art. He was unlike his contemporaries, who often gave interviews and wrote about their techniques and artistic aims’.

You can read more here, including a detailed technical examination as to how ‘Pomegranates’ was painted.

Mont St Michel (1868) by James Webb (1835-1895) …

James Webb was a prominent British marine and landscape painter recognised for his robust, naturalistic coastal, port, and river views. He was much influenced by J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. Born and raised in Chelsea, London, into an artistic family, he exhibited extensively at the Royal Academy and the British Institution between 1850 and 1888.

Finally, I couldn’t resist a few London images!

Blackfriar’s Bridge and St Paul’s, London about 1782 by William Marlow (1740-1813) …

… and The Thames by Moonlight (1884) by

John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836-1893) …

You can see from my small selection what a fantastic variety of work is on display at the Gallery. And much of it is rotated, so you won’t necessarily see the same art every time you visit. There are free tours from qualified City guides and, as an added bonus, you can visit the the Roman amphitheatre 20 feet below the City streets …

Entrance is free! You can read more here.

In other news …

Almost every day I walk past the plant beds on Silk Street and admire the wonderful work the City gardeners do to cheer up our everyday experiences. Here’s a look at how the beds have developed since planting, which took place on a cold 16 October last year …

As the weeks and months go by, 28th December …

17th January …

29th January …

25th February …

19th March …

6th April …

9th June ..

5th July …

This week …

How lucky we are! Thank you City gardeners.

It has been said that it is impossible to look at a duck and not smile, and I am inclined to agree …

To which I would add, I find it impossible to look at the Barbican cacti without smiling, and they obviously love it here …

Back in March 2025 I took this image on the corner of Moor Lane and Fore Street (just next to the Andrewes House car park entrance) and was intrigued. ‘Plant rescue’ – what a wonderful mission …

And look at it today …

Shame about the misbehaviour!

We need plant CCTV!

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https://www.instagram.com/london_city_gent