Courtauld Surprise

It’s some­thing of a con­fes­sion to say I’d never been to the Cour­tauld gal­lery before. As I climbed the wind­ing stair­case in Somer­set House (there’s a a par­al­lel one for ser­rvants) I glanced into a room and there were the ori­gin­als of a num­ber of French Impres­sion­ist paint­ings I had long been famil­iar with from repro­duc­tions.  A quick scamper through the gal­ler­ies inclines me to go back at more leisure.

The Turner water­col­ours were rather good.  I love the detail, even in his most atmo­spheric.  Inter­est­ing how young he star­ted and how determ­ined to become rich and fam­ous.  There’s a won­der­ful paint­ing of people chas­ing a hare, the fam­ous one of the wet dog bay­ing on a deser­ted beach, and some from his tours on the Con­tin­ent.  It’s worth going, and free on Monday mornings.