Portrait Month
This month Dorchester Museum have an exhibition called 100 years of People Watching, (it’s on until May) a beautiful display of portraits, self-portraits and sculptures. It is worth a visit if you’re local. With that inspiration in mind, I set up my display this month with paintings of people.
Out of all the faces that stared at me this month. This one is my favourite. This is a miniature in The National Portrait Gallery painted by G. Richmond (1809 – 1896) in 1829. It is of Samuel Palmer (1805 – 1881). The two artists met in a group of followers of William Blake. The group named themselves The Ancients. I like Samuel Palmers paintings, particularly the ones painted after he met Blake in 1824 and became more into his Romanticism era of work. I don’t know anything about art, I only know whether I like something or not!
This postcard has the added value (in terms of winning this month’s coveted Postcard of the Month award) of being written on and posted in 1977 with a 9 pence stamp to a North London Address. The words say “Just to say thank you for the pickled pork and for being so wonderfully supportive” – it isn’t signed. I am guessing the recipient would have known who it was from, unless they gave out a lot of supportively inspired pickled pork I suppose!
This wonderful self portrait is Camille Pissarro (1830 – 1903) painted the year he died (at 73). Self portraits fascinate me. How artists saw themselves. Somehow they seem much more honest than our quick click selfies these days, although you would think that there was much more room for covering up the bits you don’t like maybe? There is something in the eyes of so many self portraits which speaks it’s own truth and this one particularly reaches out from the canvas 123 years later and says (to me) “This is who I was, how I saw myself. How do you see yourself?)
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