During the Great War Lavery was commissioned as a war artist. Several of his war paintings are on display at the Lavery on Location Exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery.

Mine-Laying Submarines Harwich 1917:-

Hendon 1917. Hendon was a Royal Flying Corps training base. I really liked this as I’m a sucker for biplanes:-

More sombrely this is The Cemetery, Étaples:-

Daylight Raid from my Studio:-

A Coast Defence. An 18-Pounder Anti-Aircraft Gun, Tyneside:-

Lavery was almost alone in portraying those who became casualties. Wounded, London:-

More of Lavery’s works can be seen on the Ulster Museum’s website, here.

Lavery made his name when he was commissioned to paint the State Visit of Queen Victoria to the Glasgow International Exhibition 1888. For this he had individual sittings for the privileged invitees so that he could then incorporate accurate portarits of them into his final composition.

He painted many pictures of the International Exhibition including this one of the main building. Along with many other depictions of various International or National Exhibitions, plus the Festival of Britain, I have a copy of this hanging on my study wall:-

Lavery also painted A View from the Canal, Kelvingrove, showing one of the gondolas which plied the waters of the River Kelvin as an amusement attraction:-

And this one of the exhibit The Blue Hungarians:-

One of the features of the international Exhibition was an array of restaurants and café including The Dutch Cocoa House (as depicted by Lavery below) which dispensed Van Houten products.

The above for some reason reminds me of both Edwin Hopper’s Nighthawks and Edgar Degas’s The Absinthe Drinker.

Lavery exhibited this painting in the Art Gallery at the International Exhibition. Dawn after the Battle of Langside. Mary, Queen of Scots in the aftermath of the battle:-

For some reason the title the Scottish National Gallery has given to its exhibition featuring the painter John Lavery is “An Irish Impressionist.”

I had always considered Lavery to be a Scottish painter, even if he was born in Ireland. He moved to Scotland as a child and started his career in Glasgow.

The Exhibition is on till 27^th October.

Lavery’s early work resembles paintings by The Glasgow Boys. This is The Intruders, very reminiscent of a painting by James Guthrie:-

His style soon developed as he took to painting more impressionistic works such as these two of the Bridge at Grès (Grez-sur-Loing):-

Then we have Windy Day:-

and The Harbour of St Jean de Luz:-

There are two versions of On The Loing in the exhibition. This one was a study for the larger painting exhibited beside it.

Grayson Perry’s Smash Hits Show at the Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, got a rather sniffy and somewhat off the point review in the Guardian.

Yes, it’s about Englishness, even a very Grayson Perry kind of Englishness, but why should an exhibition about Englishness not take place in Edinburgh? Especially in the middle of an International Festival.

In any case it could be argued that Englishness has had more effect on Scotland than any other influence (except perhaps Calvinism) and is therefore an entirely appropriate subject for contemplation in the Scottish capital.

One of the most intriguing exhibits at the Exhibition was a model of a ship, titled The Tomb of the Unknown Craftsman. (I’m always a sucker for ship models.) Perry’s explanation of the piece is here.

Another piece, Temple for Everyone, reminded me of the story of Hansel and Gretel. See Perry’s explanation here.

I was more taken with this kintsugi piece than I was with Perry’s undamaged vases. Kintsugi* is the Japanese Art of smashing an object – especially a piece of pottery and then gluing it back tgether and highlighting the joins with gold:-

This plate, Two Old Guys Wearing Checked Skirts, like a lot of pieces at the exhibition, (far too many in fact) features Perry’s childhood teddy bear Alan Measles and is a sort of homage to the late Queen Elizabeth:-

This piece of pot, English Wanker, just about speaks for itself:-

*Edited to add: I have since found out that the Japanese frown on deliberately breaking something to reform it. Kintsugi is more properly the highlighting of imperfections – the repair of broken pottery lending itself to this.

Last week we attended the Exhibition titled A Taste for Impressionism: Modern French Art from Millet to Matisse at the Scottish National Gallery on Princes Street. The exhibition has been on for nearly two months and finishes on 13/11/22.

Some of the pictures on show weren’t quite what I would describe as impressionistic but all were worth looking at.

Two of the interesting ones for me were this Cézanne, Montagne Sainte Victoire, in which the abstract nature of the depiction of the fields in the flesh/paint looked to me to prefigure Cubism.

Thsi painting, The Open Window by Edouard Vuillard, reminded me of John Henry Lorimer:-

This week we again visited the Beyond Caravaggio exhibition at the Scottish National Gallery again as it was its last week.

Apart from the four Caravaggios I thought one of the most striking uses of light was in “Christ Before the High Priest” by Gerrit van Honthorst but the reproduction below doesn’t really do it justice.

Two even more impressive paintings were by an artist dubbed The Candlelight Master (whom the information labels suggested may possibly have been Trophime Bigot.)

One was “A Boy With a Lantern” of which I can find no example to show here. The other is from the Royal Collection and is called “Christ in the Carpenter’s Shop.”

This last one, “A Man Singing by Candlelight” by Adam de Coster, is absolutely stunning on the wall.

I’ve been going to Art Exhibitions again.

The Scottish National Gallery at the Mound, Edinburgh, at the moment has an exhibition entitled Beyond Caravaggio (until 24/9/17.)

The entry is £12 but the good lady and myself joined as “Friends of the Gallery” earlier in the year to take advantage of free entry to such exhibitions.

As its title implies most of the works shown are by followers of Caravaggio; though the three or four by the master himself are stunning. Some of the others are almost as good but there was one (which I shan’t name) which I thought was a bit cartoonish.

It was good value even if you’d had to pay £12. There are at least five rooms filled with paintings.

I couldn’t help remarking to the good lady, though, about one of the exhibits, “Why on Earth is there a painting of Russell Brand on the wall?”

The painting is in fact Christ Displaying his Wounds by Giovanni Antonio Galli – called Lo Spadorino.

This painting is owned by Perth and Kinross Council. On the UK Art site he’s listed as Giacomo Galli.

I noticed after we left the building that a full building height reproduction of this painting adorns the front of the gallery.

I posted about my favourite painting in Kirkcaldy Art Gallery, Spring Moonlight by John Henry Lorimer, a while back. One of the things that makes it so effective is the way that light seems to shine out of the two table lamps depicted.

Well, I was in Edinburgh last week and to kill some time visited the Scottish National Gallery and in their Scottish section (for some reason tucked away in a basement at the back) and saw another painting that captures light wonderfully well, Wandering Shadows by Peter Graham.

Once again the reproduction here (from BBC Your Paintings) doesn’t do the painting justice but in the gallery the patches of light on the hill on the left were incredibly realistic.

Wandering Shadows by Peter Graham:-