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.