National Gallery

Last week my friend Suzette and I went to the National Gallery. I still can't get over how many amazing museums are free here! 

The view from the steps of the National Gallery of the sunset over Trafalgar Square was lovely! You can see Elizabeth Tower (where Big Ben resides) in the background towards the left of centre. 

The floor of the main vestibule past the Portico entrance features mosaics that were created in the 1930s by Boris Anrep. Anrep used famous faces of the day as well as his own friends in this series. Below is a photo of the mosaic featuring Winston Churchill as Defiance. 

Suzette and I went to see the temporary exhibit, Walls of Water. It is a series of eight very large paintings inspired by the artist's experience of gigantic waves crashing onto the sea wall of her hometown of Southwold, Suffolk. These were absolutely beautiful. 

In the Van Gogh section, we saw this painting called Two Crabs. For some reason I was really taken with this painting. I also noticed that it is on loan from a private collection. I can't imagine being able to hang up this painting in my home!

A Wheatfield, with Cypresses is another amazing Van Gogh painting. He painted this when he was a patient at the St-Remy mental asylum. 

The National Gallery has quite a few Monet paintings. The one below is called The Beach at Trouville. There are grains of sand in the paint so at least part of it was painted on the beach. 

The National Gallery building itself is really beautiful. It makes for an amazing place to display such amazing artwork. 

I really liked the room with paintings of Venice. I really this one called Venice: The Grand Canal with S. Simeone Piccolo by Canaletto. 

Trees in the Park at Saint-Cloud by Paul Huet was kind of funny to us as it just ends really abruptly. After doing a bit of research I found that he was one of the leading landscape painters of 19th-century France and the abrupt stop emphasises (thank you, British auto correct) its boldness and vitality. 

Suzette and I were both intrigued and horrified by this painting, An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump by Joseph Wright. We mostly thought it was funny because the travelling scientist reminded us of Mr Heckles from Friends. I liked how each person has a different reaction to the experiment. The little girls look very sad, the young boy on the left seems excited, and the young couple barely notice anything else in the room besides each other. 

The painting by Thomas Gainsborough called Mr and Mrs Andrews was interesting because it is also unfinished. The area on Mrs Andrews lap was intentionally left blank so that a child could be added later. My own opinion of this painting is that either they hired a landscape artist who wasn't great at painting faces or that this couple is quite unattractive.

The National Gallery was amazing! We didn't even get through half of the rooms but saw so many beautiful and historic works for art. I look forward to what I will find on my next visit!