the national gallery

When we first arrived in London, we stumbled into an art gallery called Tate Modern. Housed in what used to be a coal factory, it sits on the south bank of the Thames, not too far from London Bridge. In its own right, it is quite a popular gallery and is often on lists of London’s prominent tourist attractions. The free general admission is quite a good attraction. It has a number of different levels and we happened to end up on the floor with the exhibit on surrealism. This visit led us to the conclusion that we don’t really get art.

More recently, we decided to give art another chance and paid a visit to the National Gallery, which is the dominant building at the north end of Trafalgar Square. Admission to the National Gallery is also free, although they kindly request voluntary donations to help with funding. Depending on which box you happen to walk past, they recommend either £1 or £2.

We must say, the gallery is very impressive. Of course, we haven`t been to the AGO that many times and aren’t too well-versed on the collection there. And, we have yet to visit the Louvre. But nevertheless, there are some fine paintings in the National Gallery; this is art we can appreciate. There are works by Degas, Cezanne, Manet, Monet. There are a few by Van Gogh*, Renoir and Rembrandt. We’re pretty ignorant as far as art is concerned, but even we’ve heard of these guys. There were lots of other paintings that we really liked, but by painters whose names elude us now (good thing admission is free so we can always go back to jot them down). Caspian found he likes paintings by Joseph Mallaire William Turner, whose works have a nautical theme. That the artist’s name contains the name for a prominent character in a certain Disney pirate franchise is purely coincidental.

*If you're a fan of Samurai Champloo, you may be interested in the fact that one of the Van Gogh works featured is one of his studies on sunflowers.

The interior of the gallery is beautiful as well. There are large walls decorated with a subtle and elegant tone-on-tone damask pattern. If you get tired walking through the endless rooms, there are very nice brown leather chairs, sofas and divans for you to rest your weary feet. One of the rooms in the centre of the gallery features marble tile and a wonderful dome that is naturally lit. Teresa mentioned that, if we were to get married again (or renew our vows or whatever), she’d like to do it at the National Gallery since it’s so breathtaking. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take pictures inside so you’ll have to take our word for it.

What struck us as we went through, though, was how many paintings were based on religious themes. In fact, if you go to the visitor’s centre and hop onto one of the computer guides, there is a tour dedicated to paintings of Christ. We thought it was incredible that people dedicated so much time to painting stories from the Bible. Some were the size of one of our walls. And it wasn’t even necessarily crucifixion or nativity scenes (although there were quite a few of those). Some were of lesser-known biblical narratives, like when the Israelites were plagued by snakes or when Elijah was fed by ravens. It made us think about how in those times, many people weren’t able to read and these paintings helped them to learn about Scripture. It also led us to reflect on how lucky we are to be able to read and experience God’s Word in our own homes.

We guess art’s not that bad after all. // www.nationalgallery.org.uk