Visiting the Monet and London exhibition

Back at the start of December we popped to London for the day for a pre-Christmas visit, primarily for our annual steak fest at the gorgeous Hawksmoor restaurant in Air Street and to secure some Fortnum and Mason’s mince pies (side note - this time we opted for the crunchy almond topped mince pies, and they weren’t my favourite). I always like to use days in London to do something we can’t do here - that could be an exhibition, a museum, or something else.

This time though I’d seen that the Courtauld Gallery at Somerset House were hosting a Monet and London exhibition, and so I got us tickets. We’d not been to anything in the gallery before, even though we’d been to events and even a restaurant at Somerset House and that along with seeing some paintings seemed good enough reason to go. It seems though it was a really popular exhibition with notices up when we visited to say that tickets sold out until it closed mid January.

We’re by no imagination huge art aficionados, but we do like to take a look and try to imagine the said art in our house, or not!

As most people probably know Claude Monet is renowned as the leading figure of French impressionism, which changed modern art, and I think probably one of his most famous pieces is the Water Lilies - or at least that’s the one I knew of most. I seem to recall we saw, or at least tried to see one of these paintings in Paris once - so long ago, that if there were pictures they were probably printed photos, and also why my memory is hazy!

Views of the Thames

But as the exhibition blurb goes ‘some of Monet’s most remarkable Impressionist paintings were made not in France but in London’ depicting views of the Thames evoking atmosphere, mysterious light and colour. Paintings begun during three stays in the capital between 1899 and 1901 paintings of Charing Cross Bridge, Waterloo Bridge and the House of Parliament were unveiled in Paris in 1904. Until last year they had never been the subject of an UK exhibition, which I guess explains why they were such hot tickets!

There were 21 paintings in the exhibition and lots of people viewing them - some needing to be right in front of you, or even at the exact spot you were in and couldn’t possibly wait for you to move on - sigh! - though generally most people were much more courteous.

The paintings were definitely worth seeing, my favourites were those of the Houses of Parliament:

HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT, SUNSET - 1903 - CLAUDE MONET

LONDON: THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT SHAFT OF SUNLIGHT IN THE FOG - 1904 - CLAUDE MONET

THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT (EFFECT OF FOG) - 1903 - CLAUDE MONET

THE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT - 1904 - CLAUDE MONET

The last one above I think is my favourite of these - this was one of the works that he made for the unrealised show in London. He’d been unable to borrow back enough sold paintings from the original series for the exhibition, so set about completing unfinished canvasses left in his studio - which goes to show that having unfinished works in progress is nothing new for crafters and artists today!

He hoped that these newly finished works would be ‘as good as the other ones, if not better’ which is just the inspiration that many of us need to clear through our own stash of half-finished projects, even if we’re nowhere near as talented or prolific as he clearly was.

It was great to see these paintings - and great that his long hoped for exhibition finally took place - we took the chance to see a bit more of the Courtauld Gallery while we were there, so look out for that post soon.

An autumnal wander at Belton

After a pretty dismal and completely non-inspiring stop at a motorway services on our trip to West Sussex I was pleased when MOH suggested a detour to the Belton Estate on our return trip. While we stopped earlier on the journey back, we just took a quick break and avoided repeating the previous McAwful experience (something that tasted bland, yet was overly peppery at the same time!), and let’s face it a National Trust cheese scone, pot of tea and a slice of cake would always be a much more preferable option.

Plus we got the chance to properly stretch our legs, the sun was out and it was too good an opportunity to waste. And if I was lucky I’d be able to have a nose around the orangery and see how that had changed since my last visit, and see how it was faring in a different season.

Unfortunately my luck was out, as the orangery was closed for the day - ah well, as Belton is just thirty minutes from home it gives me the perfect excuse to head back another day, hopefully sooner rather than later.

Of course, that didn’t stop me peering into through the glass though as you can see taking photos was pretty futile - though I kind of like the effect, but only for a photo or two!

All was not lost though as Belton still has plenty of beautiful gardens (and a large estate) to explore, but we were only here for a short journey-breaker this time, so treated ourselves to a wander around the area at the back of the orangery where the roses grow up the walls, and there’s medlar trees in the quadrants.

It’s also an area of the gardens which have some intricate topiary designs, which you know I’m also keen on.

It’s probably a part of the garden I overlook in my keenness to check out the orangery, so that being closed for the day was really no bad thing. Next time I’ll be sure to head for this bench so I can admire the exterior of the orangery as much as the inside!

With the orangery and the small walled garden behind it checked out, we headed to a golden tree which had caught our eye as soon as we entered the garden with its leaves appearing to burn against the bluest of skies.

The leaves seemed to ‘burn brighter’ the closer we got to the tree.

Isn’t it gorgeous?

Google tells me this is a tulip tree and with the, what I presume are, flower heads it’s easy to believe this suggestion. Looking again, it tells me that the tulip tree is part of the magnolia family and again I can see the likeness with the bud/flower head. Either way, it’s a beautiful tree and such a beautiful colour - there wasn’t a tree around it that had the same vibrancy.

There really isn’t anywhere better to wander on a bright autumnal day - let’s hope there’s more days like this to come.

Walking East Stoke's Lanes: August 2024

It’s still later than I hoped, but much less late than last month’s post - the photos in this post are from a couple of walks, one to the pub in Elston on our way to steak night, and the second later in the month further along our usual walking route of Moor Lane.

I don’t remember seeing teasels in flower before, though I’m sure I must have, but seeing these only just in flower made me think how such a delicately coloured flower can conceal such a prickly inner!

MOOR LANE

Along the bridleway/path to Elston there were clear signs that summer was soon be done - the sloes, or are they damsons, the blackberries - we never did get back to pick any this year, and most of all the rosehips with their jewel-like berries being restrained by the fencing.

It’s lovely to watch the changing of the seasons, but it seems a little early this year - and I’m still in denial today!

As we left the path and walked along the lane to Elston I was pleased to see what is I think one of my favourite views in our new area - and I was even more pleased when I saw how I’d symmetrically captured this shot.

HEADING TOWARDS ELSTON

A few days later we headed back along Moor Lane again, this time it was the seed heads of these cow parsley which caught my attention, getting ready to disperse their seeds far and wide I’m sure.

The newly laid hedgerows had been growing well all summer, and it’s easy to see how well in the photo below.

It wasn’t long before we reached our turning point of the bridge, and after a few moments to see how the view had changed this month - a freshly ploughed field and a mown edge - we turned and headed back towards East Stoke.

It really is a glorious place to live, and to observe how the seasons and farming and the local landscape change throughout the year.

Thanks for joining me this month, hopefully I’ll be back to sharing the next instalment around the third week of the month, but in the meantime if you enjoyed this post you may also like some previous series where I revisit the same place - there’s my year in Greenwich Park and remember that time when I followed a tree?