The Wallace Collection London

Dear Art Lover,

     A friend drove to London to meet up with me while I was there recently.  Since we had limited time to visit, she walked me over to The Wallace Collection.  It is free, which is so amazing, really!  After our brief walk-through we ate lunch there, even with an Italian waiter… what fun!

     Really, such elegance!  It makes me a bit sad to see such places, actually.  I feel that our generation has lost so much, with our relative impatience and fast-moving society.  We do not seem to create things to last or to engage longer than for a momentary entertainment.  I hope that I am wrong and that people still appreciate feeling actual awe.

     I think this first image of the docent would make a cool painting.  Do you?  

      These next two images fill me with frustration.  I LOVE this painting of the horses.  However, the unfortunate placement of the chandelier in the entrance hall virtually guarantees that one may not view, much less photograph, this incredible painting without glare.  I walked all around the floor, and even up the central staircase looking for a good vantage point… nothing!  One can hardly see that second grouping of animals on the right.  Peccato!

       Across from this painting is a stunning work in marble.  I am not much of a portrait fan, but if one catches my attention, it deserves it.  I mean, seriously, can you look at this and not appreciate the quality and workmanship, as well as the design?  I love seeing chains and delicate features carved into such a one-shot material. 



    













     My friend and I did not have much time to look too long at anything, but I got enough of a taste to know that I would go there again on my future visits to London.  That is one nice thing about free entrance:  One does not feel the need to study each and every work on exhibit and can have a better quality experience as time and desire dictate.

 

     I love this scene of the children's classroom visiting the museum.  I do not like to badmouth the land of my birth, but it has been hurtful and confusing as an artist who paints and sculpts nude human figures to be told that I could not show my work since it corrupts children!  And, as I have told many other artists and friends, one cannot use “The European Argument” (that is:  In Europe, families even play together in parks with nude sculptures and grow up with nude paintings in their everyday lives) because those in America who would silence the nude in art also believe that Europeans are decadent.  As with any touchy subject, my belief is that it is better to amicably discuss than to shut down the topic entirely.

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Peace,

Kelly

~ Kelly Borsheim, sculptor, painter, writer, teacher

http://BorsheimArts.com