Port Lympne House and Zoo, glamorous hotel and glamping in Kent

 

The mansion was built for Sir Philip Sassoon. He entertained Charlie Chaplin and painted a room yellow because he found out that was his guest's favourite colour. 

Sir Philip was pictures visiting the front in WWI, and with the royal family and Churchill. 

Aspinal bought the place because he needed room for his zoo animals. 

I first visited it for the day years ago and was shown around the house. I remember seeing a huge lorry (Americans say truck) which was used to transport elephants.

 Now there's a hotel so you can stay on site.

Portraits of Sir Philip Sassoon are in the National Portrait Gallery, London, as are portraits of his cousin, the WWI poet, Siegfried Sassoon. The National Portrait Gallery website has a Sassoon family tree.

The mansion.

Pinewood.

Your choice of accommodation includes treehouses, named after the types of animal you see, and glamping, or luxury camping.

Online you can buy a cap or a tote bag or sponsor an animal.

Port Lympne is in Kent, England.

If you are in London, you might visit, or pass, plaques to Siegfried.

Tufton Street, Westminster, London, England.

Rothschild giraffe.

 Useful Websites

https://www.aspinallfoundation.org/port-lympne/

https://www.aspinallfoundation.org/shop/

https://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/person.php

https://www.npg.org.uk/assets/images/groupsMedia/familyTrees/Sassoon_family.pdf

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siegfried_Sassoon

Let's Look at London: Trafalgar Square, ice cream and art

Always busy Interesting people. Living and dead.

Trafalgar Square at dusk. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Notice Nelson's column. And the lions at the corners of the plinth of the column. And the modern installation of the giant statue of an ice cream cone. Behind the ice cream cone are the National Portrait gallery and the National Gallery.

Nearby London underground station, Charing Cross. Currently (Sept 22 2021) one of the escalators, going down) is not in use and you have a lot of steps. You might prefer to return via Embankment station which is a short downhill walk.

Jane Austen in June, celebration in Alton, Hampshire - where to go and what to see

Jane Austen, painted by her sister Cassandra. 1810.

Problem
When and why?
How far is it and how long will it take to drive there from London?
What is there to see?

Answers
Alton is in Hampshire.

Date
Jane Austen Regency Week in and around market town of Alton, Hampshire, England, UK; 9 day event 16-24 June, 2018, near the village of Chawton.

Time, Distance
It's about 2 hours driving time, and 51 miles via the A3 and A31.
Also 2 hours (54.3 miles) via the M4, driving southwest via Croydon.
Other places associated with Jane Austen include Bath.

JANE AUSTEN SITES
Jane Austen House and Museum, Chawton, Hampshire. Where Jane Austen lived.
Entry tickets £4-8.

Jane Austen's burial place: Winchester Cathedral.

Jane Austen Centre, 40 Gay Street, Bath BA1 2NT. Tel: (+44) 01225 443000
www.janeausten.co.uk

Useful Websites

http://ukdistance.com/route/london/alton
https://www.visit-hampshire.co.uk/explore/towns/alton

National Portrait Gallery in London has the drawing of Jane Austen by her sister Cassandra, made in 1810, therefore in public domain.

Stopping For Shopping
The Jane Austen Gift Shop sells a silver charm bracelet with charms of books, which open to show a quotation. Despite the high price of £275, the reviewers seemed very happy with their gifts.
https://www.janeausten.co.uk/product/jane-austens-novels-silver-charm-bracelet-six-book-set/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Beautiful+New+Jewellery+-+by+popular+request&utm_campaign=shop+news+17%2F3%2F18

Winchester Cathedral, where Jane Austen is buried in the nave. Photo from Wikipedia. Author of photo Matt Turner.


Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Picasso At Tate Modern Overlooking London's Thames River and Picasso worldwide

Problem
A Picasso exhibition is at the Tate Modern in London. What will it cost? Do I need to queue? (Americans would say line up), can I eat at The Tate, and what else could I do in the area? If I am not even keen on Picasso, should I accept an invitation to go and see it? Where else can I see Picassos? What else can I see in London?

Answers
Before reading all the comments and reviews in assorted newspaper, it would be a good idea to look straight at the website of the Tate to see what their experts have to say.

The exhibition features Picasso's prolific output of paintings in the year 1932. He was fifty years old. He lived  (25 October 1881 in Málaga, Spain – 8 April 1973). In 1932 he was juggling between his wife Olga, their 10-year-old-son and his girlfriend, Marie-Therese Walter, his much younger girlfriend, 28 years younger, and his muse who sat for paintings.

Marie-Therese? The French Catholics call girls Marie, after the Virgin Mary,  and hyphenate it with another name, as in the magazine Marie-Claire. Marie-Therese might strike you as a long name, if you are used to English language speakers who are happy with plain Mary. However, her name is nothing compared to the length of Picasso's own full name, so long that I can't even type it from memory but would have to copy it.

If you are interested in art, it's no good getting hoity-toity about the private lives of artists. What I find interesting is that so many of them were not untrained at all. Picasso's parents had an artist background. His father was a painter. (Lowry went to art school.) They hung out with other artists.

If you want to buy reproductions of Picasso paintings, you will find postcards, prints and books at Tate. I find the building, inside and out, rather austere.

Once inside, however, you get good views over the more charming buildings of Lodnon looking out from the Tate Modern over the bridge across the River Thames to landmarks. Try plotting them in advance of your visit, perhaps printing out a map to check them off. Any big hotel is likely to have free maps of London.

Where to see Picasso's Paintings

UK
Exhibition at Tate Modern, Bankside, London, SE1 9TG, England.
The postcode is handily easy to remember TG which also stands for Tate Gallery.

If you have a tripod and flash you cannot use them and may be asked to check them in. Is there any point taking your heavy camera equipment, if you can't use it? Yes, because you might want to take some shots of the river Thames and landmarks.

FRANCE
Museé Picasso, Paris, France

SPAIN
Museu Picasso, Barcelona, Spain
Museo Picasso, Malaga, Spain

Picasso's Guernica in Spain. Photo by Joaquin in Wikipedia's numerous editions in various languages.

USA
Numerous galleries including:
NEW YORK
(Solomon) Guggenheim Museum, Manhattan, New York
Metropolitan Museum of Art
OHIO
Cleveland, Ohio
WASHINGTON DC
National Gallery of Art

Other artists' art in London, England:
National Gallery on Trafalgar Square, London.
National Portrait Gallery, behind the National Gallery, London.
Free exhibition of Victorian paintings in the upstairs gallery at The Guildhall. (see my previous posts.)
Heath Robinson exhibition of cartoons in a house containing a ground floor restaurant beside the lake in the pretty park in Pinner. (Walk through the park opposite Pinner station on the Metropolitan line from Baker Street.)

Useful websites
http://www.tate.org.uk/press/press-releases/tate-modern-stage-landmark-picasso-exhibition-spring-2018
http://www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern/cafe
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso

Lists and Pictures of Hidden Paintings, Painters, Galleries To Visit, and Researchers: Brontes to Mona Lisa and Picasso

The Brontë Sisters by Patrick Branwell, their brother, in 1834. He sketched himself, then covered his face with the painting of a pillar. To see it go to The National Portrait Gallery, London, England, UK. The Gallery is easy to reach, just behind Trafalgar Square and near an underground 'tube' station.

Branwell is not the only artist who may have started to paint himself and then decided against it. Another is Rembrandt, whose supposed portrait was found under Old Man In Miliary Costume in the Getty Museum, Southern California, USA.

Old Man in Military Costume, in Getty Museum, Southern California, USA. Picture in public domain from Wikipedia.

Problem
Which painting has one hidden underneath, which gallery can I visit to see it, and which researchers at other galleries near me or places I might visit have researched and made comments on this?

It can get quite confusing. Painters move from one place to another. The Mona Lisa is in Paris, France but Leonardo da Vinci painted it of a woman in Florence, Italy.

I have made myself this list so that I can plan a holiday to see one of these paintings, or see one of these paintings whilst I am on a holiday or business trips to one of these countries and ask if one of the speakers on the subject is on video or at the gallery so I can speak to them. I thought you would also be interested so you can do the same.

It takes a lot of time to track down every painting and its gallery. I've already spent four house, so I've put it up online for you to read but there's more to add so come back later to see if I've added anything else. By dividing it up this way it's easier to find the current location of a painting, and its history on the internet.

Mona Lisa. To see it visit Museé de Louvre, Paris, France. Another lady is painted behind her.

Painters (Alphabetically by artist)
Branwell, Patrick, (The Brontë Sisters. London, UK.)
Degas, Edgar. (Portrait of Femme. Art Institute of Chicago. USA)
Goya, Francisco de
Leonardo da Vinci. (Mona Lisa, France; Sforza Castle museum, Milan, Italy.)
Picasso, Pablo
Seurat, Georges-Pierre (Courtauld Institute of Art, London, England.)

Paintings (Alphabetically by subject)
Brontë Sisters (1834) with sketch of painter, brother Branwell, hidden behind overpainted pillar.
Dobigny, Emma (Degas painting).
Mona Lisa, France.

Painting Name
The Brontë Sisters. UK.
Crouching Woman. (La Misereuse Accroupie by Picasso. Blue Period. Germany)
Mona Lisa. (La Jioconda in Italian by Leonardo da Vinci.) France.
Portrait Of A Woman. (Portrait de Femme by Degas. Chicago.)

Galleries And Museums To Visit, by country and continent.
Courtauld Institite of Art, London, England.
The Louvre, Paris, France. (Mona Lisa.) Europe.
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia. (Degas.)
The National Portrait Gallery, London, England, UK. (Brontë Sisters.) Europe.
The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Holland, The Netherlands. Europe.
Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany. Europe. (Picasso.)
Sforza Castle museum, Milan, Italy. (Leonardo Da Vinci.)

In the Courtauld Institute of Art in London, England, Seurat's picture shows a seated women. Behind her on the wall is a vase of flowers. It was originally a mirror showing Seurat watching the model, (rather like the painting of Las Meninas, with the royal family, and the painter at the back, and the Arnolfini marriage). However Seurat's picture did not show royalty, or even a marrried couple but the woman who was his secret mistress, Madeline Knoblock. (Her suranme has unfortunate humorous  associations in English.) Having second thoughts, to avoid scandal, Seurat painted himself out of the picture. You might not know this painting, but if you know about art, you will recognize the term pointillisem, and you'll probably lean forward when you see his other better known paintings, The Bathers, featuring a rather round-shouldered boy, and Sunday afternoon on the grass, a jolly crowd.

I have mentioned Europe in case any travellers such as the British or Americans or Europeans or Asians as individual or groups want to do a multi-centre art tour of Europe.

A painting by Leonardo Da Vinci, showing trees, was discovered under twenty layers of whitewash inside Sforza castle in Milan, Northen Italy. Yes, you can visit the castle, which is a museum. Also see their website for details of the painting and opening hours. The website also has a video, although I could not get it to play the day I tried.

Places To Visit (alphabetically by country)
Australia, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne (Degas).
France, Paris, The Louvre (Mona Lisa).
Germany, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart. (Picasso, Crouching Woman.)
Italy, Sforza Castle museum, Milan. (Painted over mural by da Vinci discovered.)
The Netherlands, Amsterdam, Holland, The Rijksmuseum.
UK - London, England, National Portrait Gallery. (The Brontë Sisters by brother Patrick.)
UK - National Gallery, London (Woman At A Window by Palma Vecchio.) By the Portrait Gallery.
USA - Art Institute of Chicago. (Degas. Portrait of a Woman.)
USA - Getty Museum, S California. (Old Man In Military Costume. Rembrandt.)
USA - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Madame X by John Singer Sargent.)

Magazines and Journals

Method of Investigation
Australian Synchroton
x-ray

Researchers of Art (Art historians and gallery officials)
Kenneth Brummel, curator, Art Institute of Chicago, USA.
Dr Daryl Howard, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.
Michael Varcoe-Cocks, National Gallery of Victoria, Australia.

Scientific Methods
Producers, sellers or distributors of methods for seeing what's underneath
Australian Synchroton

Website Stories
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15018174
https://artlawandmore.com/2015/12/21/london-national-portrait-gallery-to-find-out-true-story-behind-bronte-sisters-portrait/
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/art-news/12057053/National-Portrait-Gallery-to-reveal-mysteries-of-shadowy-Bronte-brother.html
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/nov/13/russia-malevich-black-square-hidden-paintings
https://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/en/for-visitors/museums/novaya-tretyakovka/
https://listverse.com/2016/03/06/10-hidden-images-discovered-beneath-famous-classic-paintings/
https://www.milanocastello.it/en (Sforza castle.)
http://blog.courtauld.ac.uk/gallery/2014/03/28/seurats-secret-self-portrait-2/
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/research/woman-at-a-window
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/12127 (A rather censored account.)

If you Google the words hidden paintings you will come up with the stories. In Wikipedia I tried typing hidden paintings and found nothing, but when I went to the Brontë page, I came straight to the story and the picture of The Brontë Sisters. Wikipedia is a good place to go to find public domain pictures and discussion about whether a picture is in public domain, why and in which country.

I went from 10 hidden images, which reveals all the racy details, to the art galleries' websites, which sound more like family reading. For example, the Met describing Singer Sergant's portrait, Madame X, of Madame Pierre Gautreau, says she was born in Louisiana, which sounds very factual. The other website describes her strap falling off her shoulder in the original of the picture and specified she went to Paris from New Orleans, a detail which has altogether more exciting connotations. I have been to New Orleans, which has a lively night life.

I loved the side by side pictures of the earlier and repainted version of the woman at the window.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
If you know of any more, please let me know. My two previous posts are on the same subject. You can find me on Facebook or leave a comment on this article. If you ever need a talk on this subject, or wish to quote me, please get in touch. Meanwhile, please share links to your favourite posts.

The Painting You Don't See Under Mona Lisa In The Louvre in Paris

The Mona Lisa, by Leonardo Da Vinci, in the Louvre, Paris, France - hiding a secret. 

The Mona Lisa is famous for her enigmatic smile. Why was she smiling? Is becuase she knows her portrait is being pianted over another face?

Problems
Who is the woman - or man - in the Mona Lisa?
What are the paintings underneath?
Can we prove it?
How do they see paintings underneath?
How many more paintings are under famous paintings?
How does this help you and me and our local art class?

Why would anybody paint over a painting? It's quite common.
1 An amateur does not like his or her first attempt and being ashamed of the painting or just disappointed thinks a better painting of the same subject, or a new subject is today's inspiration, wants to conceal it, and short of money, re-uses the canvas.
2 A professional painter does a painting and whoever is paying the painting wants to change the whole thing, or add somebody, or remove somebody
3 You can paint over as a trompe l'oeil. Turn the woman's body into a mountain. This has been deliberately simply as a trompe l'oeil, or in the case of a Picasso painting, to re-use the canvas without having to repaint or having the underpainting show through.

Which Paintings Have Underpaintings
Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci, Louvre, Paris, France.
Picasso. Crouching Woman.
The Bronte sister painted by their brother, National Portrait Gallery, London, England.
Goya, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Art
 - a very popular classic painting.
She was a high-class lady whose husband was a wealthy man who could afford to have her painted by a renowned painter.

We know a rich family, a named man, a silk merchant in Florence, Italy, yes, a silk merchant, whose wife, Lisa Gherardini, could be the one in the painting.

Popular
Various theories, verging on conspiracy theories, have been put forward over the years about the Mona Lisa.

Science
Her body (the lady named Lisa who was supposed to have been painted) has now been found in a church - with the possibility that forensic reconstruction of her face could fit the picture in the painting.
The painting underneath shows somebody else. What does this mean?

Social and Psychology
Her smile reveals a relationship with the painter.

Alternative theory:
Social and Psychology
She was the boyfriend and model for the gay painter. (Two assumptions in this sentence, one about the painter and one about the model. I just thought of the third implication. That the male model was dressing as a woman, either because male buyers like to look at women or because the model was a younger man who liked to dress up as a woman to please the older male painter.
The suppressed smile reveals their current relationship.

Truth and Censorship
As you get further and further into this, you think is this suitable for a family publication and art gallery. Then it becomes politically correct for everybody to be gay and it's legal and children in some countries are supposed to accept the legal situation while others with access to the net have a different legal system or are reading in another era.
All this, at first sight, seems mere speculation, either to further a political agenda, or sell a book, or simply another of many possibilities, your choice as a reader to pick your favourite.

Science
Now, along comes science to settle the matter, and provide more interest in the paintings chosen for analysis, for gallery owners, researchers, writers, and the viewing public, whether paying to enter an art gallery, go in to free days, or read in the newspapers before planning potential visits.

Where can I see these paintings?
Please check which paintings are on show, where, on the day you are are visiting. Also check when the gallery is open. Also check prices. The painting you want might be in the exhibition for which there is a charge. It might be in a separate area for which there is no charge.
I read the BBC article three times. The first time I thought the Mona Lisa was still in Paris.
 The second time I thought the painting was on tour and in China.
The third time I thought the painting was still in the Louvre but the X-ray type analysis was on tour.

Where To See Paintings And Discuss Analysis
Mona Lisa, Louvre, Paris, France.
Light Technology Exhibition on tour. In Shanghai, China, in Feb 2018.
Picasso.
The Bronte Sisters, National Portrait Gallery, London, England.

Goya, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Travel Websites
France:
http://us.france.fr
UK
visitbritain.com
visitbritain.org
Holland

Websites With Info On Paintings
Article on the Mona Lisa underpainting being revealed by French Scientist, in Shanghai in 2018.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-35031997 
Article on the Goya painting, revealed in the USA.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15018174
Article on the Picasso Painting
BBC

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. See my next two posts on this subject. Please share links to your favourite posts.

Charing Cross Station Decoration and Information On The National Gallery

 Charing Cross station in central London has the best decoration and information panels I've seen in London, in fact anywhere in the world. Near the station are London's National Gallery of art and the National Portrait Gallery.

If you are visiting either gallery, and, indeed, if you are not, make time to stop and read about both of them from the information on Charing Cross underground station.

I was interested to learn how holes were used to copy pictures. Our first thought was that you copied the picture's main feature such as a face or body or house, same size on see-through paper, moved the tracing paper over the sketch paper or canvas, then pricked holes around the silhouette, then treated the holes like a stencil and used the tip of a pencil to make a mark through the hole. 

This could also be a way to copy photos onto drawing paper to do a sketch or water colour. However in medieval or Renaissance times the medium would have been oil colour or if you were important, grand murals on the interior walls of churches. 

The Romans and others had decorated homes previously with murals. The exteriors off buildings are still painted today in some parts of Europe such as German.

Nowadays we have murals on the outsides of buildings in: London, England; Banksy in Britain, and the USA; murals in Philadephia, USA; plus graffiti worldwide.

But back to the system of copying. Read more on the National Gallery website.

The National Portrait Gallery displays oil paintings, photos, caricatures and sculptures or people such as Shakespeare, the royal family, the Brontes, Churchill, and many more characters from history, science and the arts.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Virgin_and_Child_with_St_Anne_and_St_John_the_Baptist

Pricking holes to copy a picture

http://www.npg.org.uk/learning/digital/portraiture/perspective-seeing-where-you-stand/drawing.php

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author, speaker.