London part one

For the blog

August 7th, 2010
The first London leg of this trip has been all about museums and my sore feet. Our first day we saw the Soane Museum and the Sargent show at the Royal Academy. The first one fabulous the next less so. Sargent's sea paintings were done before. he had really finished his training and they lack the elegance and finish of his later work. The shop was, of course rather good.

Thursday night we went to the National Theatre's production of The Habit of Art. The second cast was in but they were excellent. The Auden / Britten connection is one I only knew a little bit about from my interest in early British documentary. This was fairly typical Alan Bennett, well-made play with a lot of men and boys angst. He manages to engage the audience in the characters despite their rather unattractive personalities and he also gets to make comments by making it a rehearsal of a play do so we have the actors commenting on their parts as well. It was so exciting to see the crowds and all the activity there. As a special treat we ate dinner in the mezzanine restaurant after the show. Michele is even more of a night person than I am.

Friday we took our time getting out and took a leisurely stroll up to the National Gallery. We ate a lovely breakfast there and then went to see the show about the technology behind painting analysis. It was fascinating. Some paintings were identified as fakes after complex analysis, some were acknowledged as contemporary but not by the hand of the master, and a few, including a personal favorite, the Ucello of St. George and the Dragon, were vindicated and confirmed as originals.

More to come...