5 June - Bristol

After last night's amazing meal (accompanied by lots of amazing wine) I was moving a bit more slowly than usual. Bruce headed out before me to explore Bristol. I managed to get out the door and to the train station in late morning for the short ride to Bristol. I had stayed with Bristol acquaintances when I was there 30-some years ago, but I remembered very little about it. I took a cab from the station to the cathedral in the center of town. It was definitely walkable, but because it was so chilly and windy, I was glad I sprang for the cab. As I approached the cathedral I found myself suffering from cathedral fatigue. When I worked on cruise ships we were required to escort all of the shore excursions. The city tour became known as the ABC tour among the staff - Another Bloody Cathedral. Today, I decided I would skip the (A)BC and walk up the hill to the Bristol Museum and Art Gallery. (Photo from Art UK)

Like many museums I've been to lately, it was an eclectic mix of things: taxidermy, anthropology, pottery, glass, paintings and misc. other stuff. The entrance hall illustrates this pretty well.

I did love the Banksy sculpture, Paint Pot Angel.

Banksy is one of Bristol's famous sons, along with Cary Grant. I find I'm enjoying his art more and more. (Banksy's, I mean. I was already a big fan of Archie Leach.)

One of the featured exhibitions was National Treasures: Constable in Bristol "Truth to Nature". It featured his paintings as well as paintings by other masters who either influenced him or were influenced by him, and their representation of nature. I've seen a lot of Constable paintings on this trip, and I was expecting more of the same, but I have to say I came away from this exhibition awed by what I saw.

I learned a lot about Constable and the attitude that other artists and critics had toward him. Here are a few of the quotes from the exhibition that I found enlightening.

"The Hay Wain was shown in the Paris salon of 1824 where it won a gold medal,

although Constable didn't visit. He met the French romantic painter Eugene Delacroix

when the latter visited his studio in England. They [the French Romantics] admired in Constable what some English critics saw as "mechanical" or unidealized copying of nature."

Among the French artists who were influenced by him were Gustave Courbet, Alfred Sisley and Georges Seurat.

Sunset by Georges Seurat:

The Entrance to the Village by Alfred Sisley:

In turn, there were paintings by artists who influenced Constable.

Two Shepherds with a Mule and a Dog in a Hilly Landscape by Aelbert Cuyp:

Figures Resting and Promenading in an Oak Forest by Jan van der Heyden:

There were also paintings by contemporaries of Constable on display.

The Avon at Clifton by Francis Danby:

Stoke Cottage near Bristol by Samuel Jackson:

There were a number of Constable's studies of clouds, which were his signature, if that's the correct terminology. He thought that clouds were key to the success of a landscape painting.

The piece de resistance was a Constable painting on loan from the National Gallery, the Hay Wain, mentioned earlier as the gold medal winning painting from the Paris exhibition of 1824. It's fairly massive, one meter by 2 meters.

There's no way that a photograph can convey the beauty of this painting. Because this is a small gallery in a small-ish city, you don't have the same restrictions as you do at the National Gallery. You can get right up to the painting and really study the detail and the brushwork. Constable's use of texture was amazing.

I sat there on the bench for close to 20 minutes just taking it in. I can't put my finger on it, but there was something so compelling about it. Just brilliant.

There were contemporary works in the gallery as well. My favorite was Dilabole Slate Circle Bristol by Richard Long.

About this work he says," There is a point of view that if you go into the landscape you should only leave footprints and take photographs. The other extreme is making monuments. I have no interest in making monuments. But I think there is a fascinating territory between those two positions. I can move things from place to place. I can manipulate the world by leaving stones on the road. And they don't disappear because the stone is still in the world, but anonymous." Interesting perspective, I thought.

Views from the upper floor of the back atrium:

It always feels so arbitrary, sharing some images but not all, but I guess that's part and parcel of a blog. I have no pretentions of being an art expert and here I will utter a variant on the phrase that every artist and art critic despises: "I'm not an expert, but I know what I like." With that in mind, here are some other paintings I found appealing.

Holidays by Harry Watson:

Dog Tired by Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson:

Portrait of Madame Bruguiere by Antione-Jean Gros:

The Young Catechist by Henry Hoppner Meyer:

Mojisola Elufowoju by Kehinde Wiley:

Noah's Ark by Jan Griffier the Elder:

The Turkeys by Lucien Pissaro:

I spent a little time in the natural history section and had thought to go see the collection of Japanese porcelain, but I gave in to the fact that I was pretty tired. I messaged Bruce & we met at Mowgli. (We're determined to eat at every Mowgli in the county.) On the way I passed a bit of street art.

After Mowgli I started walking to the rail station and found the Bristol Covered Market.

It's partly a covered market with an added-on street market and has everything you could ask for and lots that you never would.

I'm not sure if the plaster work on the walls and ceiling goes back to when the original building was built (1743) . The original glass roof was destroyed in a WWII bombing raid and was replaced in 1949. It is now the last 18th century building of its kind in the UK.

Leaving the market I passed this great sign. It almost made me want to hang around till the bar opened just to get one of those boujee pink swan cocktails.

Caught the train to Bath and stopped at Sally Lunn's because it's illegal to visit Bath and not have one. (not really, but it might as well be because they are so famous and have been around since 1680 in this same building, which dates to 1482.)

Our time in Bath is drawing to a close. Tomorrow it's off to Wales!