Well friends and family members, today was another full day, but there was a bittersweet feeling to the day. Our last day in London. We walked a circuit around St. Paul's Cathedral (where Princess Dianna got married) and then we all got to run a short distance in a British road race so that we could cross the course and get to the Millennium Bridge. We crossed the Thames and went to the Tate Modern. The Tate Modern is a wonderful museum located in an old power plant building. The building was remodeled and opened 10 years ago and they are already adding on to the museum. The Tate Modern boasts the highest number of visitors per year for any art museum. Yes, friends, that trumps the Louvre!
We had a special opportunity to see a special exhibit while we were at the museum, Damien Hirst. He's the guy who has animals suspended in formaldehyde and pharmaceutical installations. It was a challenging show in many ways, but very interesting to see this once in a lifetime show. They had a special special exhibit of a diamond encrusted skull by Damien Hirst that we had to queue up for. The line moved pretty quickly and it was quite the sight! It was specially displayed a small dark room with very concentrated lighting just on the artwork. This would never have made ADA in the United States! There were a few steps that had to be made in near complete darkness. Perhaps this was part of Mr. Hirst's plan for the exhibit. Hmmm. That was our last museum on the trip and now everyone is: packed, packing or going to bed. We have a very early wake-up call and the van collects us at 5:15 in the morning. So, with that, I am signing off.
A VERY SPECIAL THANKS to Dr. Mick Luehrman who did the majority of the planning for our wonderful trip. He has been a fantastic leader, instructor and tour guide!
Sunday, May 27, 2012
Friday, May 25, 2012
Tate Britain and Victoria and Albert Museum
May 25
Tate Britain and Victoria and Albert Museum
Today we were off again to traipse through the museums. This
morning we went to the Tate Britain which is famous for it’s collection of
Turner paintings and drawings. In some of the literature I read while I was in
the museum, I learned that in the Turner Bequest there were over 20,000 pieces
of paper! Turner’s sketchbooks are beautiful and full of very sensitive little
drawings. We were able to compare Turner’s paintings with Constable and Turner’s
palette of colors was so much warmer looking! The museum is currently under
renovation so the museum was broken up into two separate spaces and you had to
go outside and walk around the museum to get to the rest of the collection.
Sally and I went to the Turners first so that is what we saw. Some of the
students stayed in the other part of the museum and were able to see some
Millais and Gainsborough, Hogarth and a special Picasso exhibit.
Next we had lunch in the Gloucester Road area before going
into the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V & A Museum is a bit like our
Smithsonian. I always see something different there and I have come to the
conclusion that the Brits are hoarders. I think the V&A has one of
everything, period. Mostly we looked at furnishings and interiors from the
Middle Ages to the 1960’s. We also walked through the jewelry collection. That
was really amazing. The V&A has fashion, furniture, architectural moldings
and details paintings, sculpture, glass, ceramics, etc.. There is a whole room
full of wrought iron. Really, wrought iron. They have objects from every continent with
special rooms of Chinese art and artifacts, Japanese, Korean, Iranian, etc.
There was a whole room of tapestries, a room full of Asian area rugs too! Even
though we had more than three hours there, it was not near enough time to see
even a third of their holdings!
Tomorrow is a free day and everyone is off doing different
things. We have some folks heading to Stonehenge, and others to Camden Town
Market. Some of us are headed to the Natural History Museum and others are
going shopping. It is late tonight, so you may have to wait for a day or so to
get pictures.
Thursday, May 24, 2012
Wallace Collection and The National Gallery
May 24
Today we went to see the Wallace Collection. The Wallace
Collection just happens to be near Oxford St which is THE STREET for shopping
in London. I think some of our scholars were a bit distracted by all the
beautiful shop windows. Oxford Street is currently canopied by hundreds of
Union Jack flags and was very festive looking (maybe the professor was a bit
distracted too). But we have a job to do and carry on we must!
The Wallace collection is an excellent, high quality
collection of fine art, furniture, decorative arts and arms and armor. The collection
was amassed over five generations and was given to Britain in 1897 by Lady
Wallace, widow of the last descendent in this branch of the Wallace Family. The
family was based in both London and Paris and the collection reflects that
influence.
One of the most famous images in the Wallace collection is
“The Swing” 1767 by Jean-Honore Fragonard. This is a very flirtatious piece
from the Rococo period. This painting is
beautifully executed and has a sense of lightness and humor.
I am particularly excited by the furniture collection. The
Wallace houses some of the finest pre-revolution French furniture in the world.
Of particular note on the furniture is the work of Andre Charles Boulle (1642-1732).
He was the cabinet-maker to the king during the reign of Louis XIV. He lived in
the Louvre and his special appointment to the king protected him from the rules
of the furniture guild. This allowed him to work with both wood and metal.
Boulle invented and perfected a technique of marquetry that resulted in twin
furniture pieces with figure-ground reversal. So he stacked brass and
tortoiseshell on top of each other, cut his design through both pieces. So one
furniture piece was brass with a little tortoiseshell and the other one was
tortoiseshell with a little brass.
We stopped for lunch in St. Martins of the Field (famous for
their musical concerts). They have created a café in the church crypt so we ate
our lunch in a beautiful brick, groin vaulted space and shared the floor with a
few dead people. They weren’t very hungry so it all came out ok.
After lunch, we went to the National Gallery. This is a
beautiful museum with paintings from the Middle Ages through Cubism. Some of
the artists represented in this museum were DaVinci, Rubens, Turner, Rembrandt,
Gainsborough, VanDyke, Monet, Renoir, Degas and a large format Seurat painting.
On a typical day, the students have some questions that they must answer about
the museums that we attend. On this day it was more of a scavenger hunt and
they had a list of paintings to find in the museum and then list the room
number in which they found it. The students seemed to enjoy the change of pace.
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| Oxford Street |
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| Twin Boulle Cabinet |
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| Twin Boulle Cabinet #2 |
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| Wallace Collection Room |
After all this museum stuff, Sally and I went back to St.
Martin in the Fields and enjoyed a little Baroque music to go with our
experiences of Baroque paintings. The concert was delightful and included two
of the Bach Brandenburg Concertos (#4 and #50). It was a lovely day and we are
very tired.
Wandering among the dead and the ancient.
May 23, 2012.
Today we started off with a tour of Westminster Abbey, the
world’s most famous church, where kings and queens have been crowned and buried
since 1066. Edward the confessor, Queen Elizabeth I, and Mary Queen of Scots
are just some of the members of the monarchy.
The poet’s corner contains the graves of Geoffrey Chaucer, Lord Byron,
Dylan Thomas, and Charles Dickens. In the scientist’s corner tombs of Isaac
Newton, Michael Faraday, Charles Lyell (“father of Geology”) and Charles Darwin
can be found. Sally was awed to be in the presence of these pioneers of science
and some of the students found it odd that Darwin would be buried in a church.
After eating lunch in Leicester Square we strolled through
Covent Garden on the way to the British Museum.
Eliza Doolittle would not recognize Covent Garden now – it’s a market
with trendy shops, street performers and eateries.
The British Museum holds one of the finest collections of
antiquities in the world, including the controversial Elgin Marbles, which
consist of marble sculptures that once were part of the Parthenon in Greece.
The Greeks want their marbles back, but the Brits hold on to them because they
saved them from certain ruin. The
Rosetta Stone, discovered at the end of the 1700’s, is the most popular piece
at this museum. With writing in 3 languages, it was the key to unraveling the
meaning of hieroglyphs, and is therefore, one of the most important artifacts
in the world. Egyptian mummies, including
those of animals, and a large Easter Island head can also be found here.
Several of us bought half-priced tickets to see London
Theater. We highly recommend both
“Wicked” and “Jersey Boys”.
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| Covent Garden |
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| Krista and her new comic book |
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| Elgin Marbles from the Parthenon |
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| Portland Vase (Oldest known decorative glass - Rome) |
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| Rosetta Stone |
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| Mummy Cats |
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| A familiar sight in the Tube |
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| The group with London phone booths |
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Changing of the Guard and Museum of London
May 22
Today we decided to have a little easier day for our
students. We tried to go to see Westminster Abbey where William and Kate got
married, but there was a special memorial for the Chilean Navy being held and
the Abbey was not open for visitors. We did, however, get to see a lot of
British ladies in really unique hats! After that, we walked up toward the Royal
Mews (horse stables) to watch the changing of the Horse Guard and then on to
Buckingham Palace to watch the Changing of the Guard. Unfortunately, they had a lot of Buckingham Palace area
closed off in preparation for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. They were installing
the grand stands for that event. But we did get to see a parade of British
Soldiers going down the mall.
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| Obviously a British Lady in a cool hat |
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| Westminster Abbey |
We had a picnic lunch in Green Park because the weather was
really beautiful today. Sunny and in the upper 70’s. After lunch, we went to the Museum of London.
The Museum of London traced the chronological history of London from 350,000
b.c. to the present. For the early prehistory times, they had some really
interesting animal fossils and early tools. I thought some of the more
interesting parts of the museum were the film that we watched about the Great
Fire of London and also the Victorian Village that they had set up. They also
had some really interesting fashions too. All in all it was a pretty good day
and we tried not to tax our young scholars too much. Tomorrow, we will try
again at Westminster Abbey and also go to the British Museum.
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| Tudor House model in Museum of London |
Paris to London via the Chunnel
May 21
This day started with a very early wake up time. The vans to
take us to the train station arrived promptly at 7:30 am and we were off on a
new adventure. We took the Eurostar fast
train to London. I slept through most of
the ride… a testament to how tired I was! I woke up somewhere in the Chunnel.
One interesting thing about the train ride was that the air displacement when
the train entered the tunnel was a little hard on our ears.
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| Waiting to go through customs at Gare du Nord, Paris |
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| Alex and Chryssa on the train |
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| Andrea, Krista Kristine and Christina on the train |
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| St. Pancras Station all dressed up for the Olympics |
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| Dr. Luehrman taking pictures in St. Pancras Station, London |
Once in London, we found our way to the Omega Hotel and
dropped off our luggage and went in search of some lunch. Some of us went into
a Pub and ordered Fish and Chips, a British standard. It was somewhat startling
to hear English again! Our students have a new subway system to get used to
(The Tube) and, of course, you have to remember to look left before crossing
the street. After lunch, we took everyone to The Courtald Gallery. This gallery
is pretty small and today there weren’t many people. After the crowds of people
at the Louvre and the Musee D’Orsay, it was very pleasant to get to stand and
really look at the paintings. The Courtald Gallery has a truly exquisite
collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works. Several of the more
famous works are the Van Gogh Portrait with the bandage over his missing ear,
and the famous Manet painting “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère” (1881-82).
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| Manet painting “A Bar at the Folies-Bergère” (1881-82) |
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| Van Gogh, Self Portrait with a Bandaged Ear, 1879 |
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| Renoir, La Loge 1874 |
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| St. Stefans Tower, Big Ben |
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| Iconic Red Phone Booth |
After the gallery visit, we took the students briefly by the
Westminster area where they could see St. Steffan’s Tower which many people
refer to as “Big Ben” . From here they could also get a preview of Westminster
Abbey where William and Kate were married. Most of the students were tired and
interested in getting moved into their rooms. So we let them go get dinner on
their own. (After making sure that they could navigate the Tube!)
Monday, May 21, 2012
Market and Eiffel Tower
May 20
Today started with the Grenelle Market. We gave everyone a
much needed break with our museum visit not until 1:00pm. So everyone had a
little time to sleep in and enjoy the open air market that comes to our
neighborhood on Wednesdays and Sundays. This market is a wonderful place to see
and purchase everything from food to fresh flowers to costume jewelry to
clothes not to mention great little souvenirs like miniature Eiffel Towers. I
saw a lot of our students walking around with bags of goodies so I think they
really enjoyed it. Everything is so beautifully displayed that there are also
great photo opportunities at the market. We were planning an evening picnic for
the Eiffel Tower so some students were able to buy picnic items like fresh
fruit, cheese and baguettes.
During the afternoon, we went to the Museum of Decorative
Arts. This museum contains period rooms filled with furniture and accessories.
This was a particularly interesting museum for the interior design students.
This museum’s holdings begin with the Middle Ages and extends through to the
current decade. Beyond furniture we saw
candle sticks, vases, decorative boxes, china and silverware. It was really
interesting to listen to the audio guide for a brief explanation in English.
All of the museum signs are in French.
So, as I mentioned we planned to walk up to the Eiffel Tower
in the evening so the students could ride/walk up the tower and get a bird’s
eye view of the city of Paris. When we got there, the line for the elevators
was very long so many of our students opted to run up the stairs. I believe
there are 700 stairs to get to the first floor of the Tower. From that point,
the line for the top floor of the Tower is quite a bit shorter. There is no
option to climb stairs to the tippy top. Those that did ride up to the very top
are rewarded with a very nice view of the whole metropolitan area of Paris.
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| Rain drenched picnic |
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| Musee Louvre |
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