In so far as my blog is a record of my routine preoccupations, which it half is, it would be odd not to make reference to the fact that the whole of the last week has been occupied by anxieties about the consequences of Coronavirus: from early in the week when it seemed odd and a bit discourteous not to shake hands and embrace to the end of the week when the best one could expect was a greeting elbow to elbow, when travelling on the underground meant standing stock still terrified of the first person who might sneeze, and even the Wolseley was half empty for breakfast. It is presumably sensible what we are all doing: making efforts to avoid crowded places; paying attention to the passage of germs; earnest hand washing to rid one of the taint of possible infection. But it is odd how a week can change everything.

I found myself walking the full length of Park Village East, Nash’s early garden Suburb, down towards Euston and a big area of social housing, which, I assume, was in an area which was heavily bombed: an unexpected set of architectural contrasts:-

A session in the archive of the Tate gave me an opportunity to see the exhibition on British Baroque, which I used to regard as my period.

I don’t remember seeing the John Bushnell terracotta bust of Charles II from the Fitzwilliam which shows his intelligence and sensuality:-

The bust by Honoré Pelle is comparatively stylised:-

There’s a sensational Grinling Gibbons font cover from All Hallows by the Tower, commissioned by a parishioner in 1682:-

Jan Siberechts contemporary view of Chatsworth shows its colossal ostentation as it appeared to Siberechts who was there in 1699:-

It’s good to see the Kneller portrait of Prior from Trinity, which shows what a wonderful artist he could be on a good day:-

There’s a picture of the Junto, painted in 1710, only acquired in 2018. It surely should have gone to the NPG. Hard to see as a major contribution to British art:-

The exhibition is good on the martial character of the period and the dominance of the monarchy, but it’s hard to convey its wealth and variety through so many royal portraits, no tomb sculpture, and mostly two dimensions.

It’s always a pleasure to have breakfast in Spitalfields:-

I walked through the leafier parts of Kensington west from the Natural History Museum:-

Through squares I scarcely know, Queen’s Gate Gardens, Cornwall Gardens, a market garden until the 1860s, with its grand French Renaissance apartment blocks at the end:-

Lexham Gardens:-

Stratford Studios:-

Abingdon Road (I think):-

To Edwardes Square, named after the family of Lord Kensington who sold the land to a developer Louis Leon Changeur in 1811:-

It was the first day when I experienced people not willing to shake hands, for fear of the plague.

I was tipped off by Nicholas Thomas who I met in the tube about the display Concealed Histories: Uncovering the Story of Nazi Looting which reveals the problematic provenance of objects in the Gilbert Collection.

This beaker is thought to have belonged to Alfred Pringsheim, a Professor of Mathematics at Munich University:-

A clock, which belonged to Nathan Fränkel, a clockmaker in Frankfurt:-

The third item are gates from a monastery in Kiev owned by the dealers, J&S Goldschmidt. Interestingly, it does not speculate how they had acquired such an amazing piece of eighteenth-century Russian goldwork:-

The exhibition brings to public attention the complex issues surrounding provenance. My only regret is that it does not reveal more. For example, the Snuffbox which was seized from Maximilian von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, was given to the Frankfurt Museum. So, how and when was it sold to the Gilberts ?

Being in South Kensington, I thought I should call in on the small, but excellent exhibition, Landscape and Language, in the cases outside the National Art Library, about the way landscape, exploration, and topography have been reflected in, and inspired, artists’ books.

It begins with an early work by Richard Long – A Day’s Walk Past the Standing Stones of Penwith Peninsula, produced by the Coracle Press for Anthony d’Offay in 1990:-

Hamish Fulton was the other pioneer of the genre, with Twilight Horizons (1983) also produced by Coracle Press:-

Ian Hamilton Finlay had already collaborated with Simon Cutts who ran Coracle Press in a tiny book, Straks, published by Finlay in 1973:-

I liked the little self-published book by Stephen Willats documenting a walk in Roydon:-

Then, in a case all by itself, is Romilly Saumarez Smith, Newfoundland, a book of such refined photography (Verdi Yahooda), typography (Nicola Barnacle and Dan Edwards), layout and design, including anagrams by Gavin de Fiddli and M.M. Hamar Ritz that I am pleased to see it in such company:-

We started in Lucie Gledhill’s room, where she has collaborated with Kasia Wozniak, a photographer, who uses wet plate collodion-

We liked the work of Ikuko Iwamoto, a ceramic artist represented by Cavaliero Finn:-

Nina Bukvik:-

Rie Taniguchi:-

Last, the magnolia chandelier by Christopher and Nicola Cox:-

I’m really sad to read on Twitter of the death of Fiona MacCarthy – a wonderful, charming, life-enhancing writer and gregarious friend, who started life as a deb (see The Last Curtsey), then went to Oxford, worked as the design correspondent of the Guardian in the 1960s, married David Mellor, moved to Sheffield and, in 1989, published her startling and revelatory biography of Eric Gill, based on love of the subject and archival research. This was followed by William Morris in 1994, which won the Wolfson History Prize, Stanley Spencer in 1997, Byron in 2002 (she did a small exhibition about Byron at the NPG), Burne-Jones in 2012 and, most recently, Walter Gropius. All her books were enlivened by her deep interest in people and their foibles and a passionate engagement in the art and practice of design. So sad to lose her.

I have been asked whether or not it is appropriate for members of the public to attend the public inquiry about the future of the Bell Foundry. Here is the answer, as below. Yes, it is. I gather that there is a strong feeling on the part of our legal team that good public attendance by the public will help to demonstrate to the Inspector the strength of public feeling. I will hope to be there as much as possible myself.

https://spitalfieldslife.com/2020/02/29/a-date-for-the-bell-foundry-public-inquiry/