Having been away I have neglected the blog somewhat so I hope you will forgive me if this week’s offering is a rather miscellaneous collection of City images and a few pics from my holiday by Lake Como!
HMS Belfast and Tower Bridge look good on a grey, cloudy day …
The City skyline from nearby …
The poor Gherkin is gradually being surrounded and the Walkie Talkie really is a monster from this viewpoint …
Control of protected views has still managed to give St Paul’s the priority it deserves. Long may this continue as even more development gains approval …
The Shard from Hay’s Galleria …
The refurbished facade of the old headquarters of the Eastern Telegraph Company on Moorgate is gradually being revealed including this fabulous stained glass …
At first it was called Electra House (named after the goddess of electricity) and the centre section shows her perched on top of the world. You can read more about her and the building in my April 2020 blog.
Nice brickwork in St Thomas Street on the south side of London Bridge Station …
A wacky installation at Vinegar Yard across the road …
Re-purposed warehouses nearby …
A re-purposed pub across the road from St Bartholomew the Great …
Angel III by Emily Young (2003), Paternoster Square, opposite St Paul’s Cathedral …
You can read my blog about City Angels (and Devils!) here.
Also outside the Cathedral …
The explanation …
Golden cherubs at Ludgate Circus …
This building was originally the London headquarters of the Thomas Cook travel agency. Built in 1865, the first floor was a temperance hotel in accordance with Cook’s beliefs. Read more about the cherubs, and many of their fellows, in my Blog Charming Cherubs.
The wording on this foundation stone in King Edward Street emanates pride in the British Empire at its height …
Across the road nearby are the coat of arms and the motto of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers. It’s the Newgate Street Clock, the Worshipful Company’s 375th anniversary gift to the City of London …
The motto Tempus Rerum Imperator can be translated as Time, the Ruler of All Things.
Drawing on Guildhall Library’s remarkable Shakespeare collections, this exhibition examines the history of the printing of William Shakespeare’s plays, from the small ‘Quartos’ of the late 16th century and the Folios of the 17th century, to the reworking of the text in the 18th century and the rediscovery of the original texts in the 19th century …
Just inside the door you are greeted with an image of the funerary monument of William Shakespeare in Holy Trinity Church, Stratford-upon-Avon circa 1616-1622 …
There are a series of excellent, informative panels …
They range over subjucts such as the difference between a Folio and a Quarto …
… printing technology …
…and how the works were viewed and appreciated over the centuries …
The books, of course, are the stars of the show (and they do not all relate solely to Shakespeare).
It was not until some years after his death that the majority of his plays were gathered together, edited to create a definitive version of the text, and published 400 years ago in the now iconic First Folio, 1632.
And here it is in facsimile …
The engraved portriat by Martin Droeshout is one of the few likenesses with any claim to authenticity.
A facsimile of the Second Folio, also published in 1632 …
An original Third Folio, 1664 …
And the Fourth, 1685 …
The Library Shakespeare – An example of the late 19th century emergence of ‘gift books’, nicely bound with coloured illustrations …
An 1853 spoof comic version of Macbeth Macbeth Travestie. Macbeth somewhat removed from the text of Shakespear: in two acts …
There are almost thirty items in the exhibition …
… and there is a splendid free guide …
There is also an interesting photowall showing some of the Guildhall Library’s other treasures …
After you leave the building, walk across the road to the little green space on the corner of Aldermanbury and Love Lane …
Constructed in 1896, this pink granite monument stands within the former churchyard of St Mary Aldermanbury. Its primary purpose is to honour the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays, but it also serves as a tribute to Henry Condell and John Heminge, two associates of the Bard who worked with him at the Globe …
They played a cucial role in compiling and printing the First Folio after his death in 1616 …
Both lived nearby and were buried in this churchyard …
The church was gutted in the Blitz with only the walls remaining standing. The stones were subsequently transported to Fulton, Missouri in 1966 and rebuilt in the grounds of Westminster College as a memorial to Winston Churchill who had made his Sinews of Peace, “Iron Curtain” speech in the College gymnasium in 1946.
I know, it seems like I’m not wandering far from home lately, but the weather has been so miserable and I needed to get a few blogs ‘in the bank’ before going on holiday. Anyway, that’s my excuse for visiting again somewhere that I really like!
Here come a few of my favourites from the Gallery.
The child is the centre of attention in her red cape, with black trim, and soft furry muff, a bright splash of colour in the dim church, her short legs in their red stockings nicely supported, concentrating as hard and seriously as she can on the sermon. You can guess that it’s probably way over her head.
My Second Sermon …
After the success of My First Sermon Millais painted a companion piece the following year, showing the same little girl – his daughter Effie – in church after the novelty of going has worn off. In his speech at the next Royal Academy Banquet, the Archbishop of Canterbury claimed the picture was a warning against ‘the evil of lengthy sermons and drowsy discourses’. Millais (and his largely middle class audience) were well aware of the gap between ideals and reality, and this witty follow-up to First Sermon reveals a taste for amusing, affectionate imagery that was relatable to many Victorian parents.
There is so much symbolism and mystery about this picture that writing about it would take the enire blog. What is the relationship between the young woman and the austere puritan chap standing in the background? Maybe her brother, she’s not wearing a wedding ring, and surely wouldn’t be wandering the forest unchaperoned? He’s carrying a bible – is there any significance in the visible bookmark? The young cavalier doesn’t look in good shape, is he dying – maybe she’s helping him staunch a wound by his neck? And what’s the significance of the broken sword and the scattered playing cards? Or the butterfly resting on the sword blade? For various theories you can read more here and here.
The Execution of Lady Jane Grey c.1834 by Paul Delaroche (1797-1856) …
Poor Lady Jane, ‘the nine days queen’, fumbles for the block on which she will lose her head (having, incidentally, been tried for high treason at the Guildhall next door to the gallery). To the left are her despairing ladies-in-waiting, one slumped to the ground with Jane’s outer clothing gathered in her lap, the other facing the wall unable to watch. The painting has always been enormously popular ever since it was exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1834. The large original is owned by the National Gallery and this one is a reduced-scale study by the artist.
The Last Evening by James Tissot, (1836-1902), 1873, another painting with an ambiguous meaning …
One interpretation is that the scene shows the final moments of an on-board romance between a first class passenger and a crew member under the disapproving eyes of his captain and her father. More frequently suggested, however, is that the work depicts the night before a young man sets sail on a voyage leaving his sweetheart behind. She looks pretty bored to me! Read more here.
Next up is this picture entitled Garden of Eden by Hugh Goldwin Riviere (1860-1956). Painted in 1901, it depicts a young man and girl walking in a misty, wet park with a horse-drawn cab rank in the background. I like it because to me it’s another one of those pictures that immediately gets you making up a back story to the characters. Surely this is an assignation – a secret lovers meeting, he clasping her hand and she gazing lovingly into his face. Then it struck me: Garden of Eden! A place of dangerous temptation and banishment! …
Apparently some guides point out that this picture is actually about a mismatch between a wealthy woman who has fallen for a man much below her station: note his clumpy shoes, lack of gloves and his rolled up trouser bottoms. Also the way he’s carrying not one but two umbrellas, intertwined like the two lovers. There are tiny raindrops hanging from the black branches. Surely they represent tears to come? Or am I getting completely carried away? Another commentator has said that she is simply a smartly dressed maidservant on her day off, out walking with her beau.
At the far end of the gallery, in a space specially designed for it, you will find at the action-packed painting by John Singleton Copley: Defeat of the Floating Batteries at Gibraltar1782 …
The painting is best viewed from the balcony above
A Spanish attack on Gibraltar was foiled when the Spanish battering ships, also known as floating batteries, were attacked by the British using shot heated up to red hot temperatures (sailors nicknamed them ‘hot potatoes’). Fire spread among the Spanish vessels and, as the battle turned in Britain’s favour, an officer called Roger Curtis set out with gunboats on a brave rescue mission which saved almost 350 people.
Look at the painstaking detail in the faces of the officers and Governor General Augustus Eliot, who is portrayed riding to the edge of the battlements to direct the rescue …
The officers were dispersed after the Gibraltar action and poor Copley had to travel all over Europe to track them down and paint them – a task that took him seven years at considerable expense. He recouped some of his cash in 1791 by exhibiting the picture in a tent in Green Park and charging people a shilling to see it.
There are two paintings of a Lord Mayor’s show near the main gallery entrance. This is 12:18 and 10 seconds (2010) by Carl Laubin …
The other is another of my favourites, William Logsdail’s painting entitled The Ninth of November 1888 …
Also on show is a terrfific sculpture of this thoughtful, gentle man, created by someone who knew him very well personally, Ronald Moody (1900-1984) …
This is Terry-Thomas, a major star in the 1950s and 60s best known for playing disreputable members of the upper classes especially ‘cads’, ‘toffs’ and ‘bounders’ …
The last years of his life were tragic. Following his death, Lionel Jeffries called him ‘the last of the great gentlemen of the cinema’, while the director Michael Winner commented that ‘no matter what your position was in relation to his, as the star he was always terribly nice. He was the kindest man and he enjoyed life so much’.
And finally, don’t forget, one of Gallery’s most popular paintings is back on display. Described by the Pre-Raphaelite artist and poet Dante Gabriel Rossetti as “my very best picture”, ‘La Ghirlandata’ was acquired by the City of London Corporation in 1927 for its permanent art collection and is displayed in the gallery’s main Victorian exhibition space …
The 1873 oil on canvas depicts ‘the garlanded woman’ playing an arpanetta and looking directly at the viewer. The artist’s muse for the central figure was the actor and model, Alexa Wilding, with two ‘angels’ in the top corners posed by William and Jane Morris’ youngest daughter, May Morris.
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