The Sybaritic life of food and fulsome appreciation of the nearest star must surely be tempered from time to time with a soupçon of culture. Yesterday it was with a visit to La Caixa Forum in Barcelona and a viewing of the exhibition “Portraits of the Belle Époque” – a period defined in this exhibition as the years from the 1880s to The Great War.
As is my wont I led Emma into the shop to buy the catalogue and was rather staggered to find that it was only available in hardback and cost a healthy €58! On the positive side though, it was also available in English for once so I felt fully justified in buying it!
The exhibition was divided into sections from “Self-portrait” to “Crisis” which included a typically assured portrait by John Singer Sargent in the first section to a primitive mask-like painting by Kirchner in the last in the year of the start of World War I.
This was a fascinating exhibition with a stimulating selection of works. It was not overwhelmingly large but gave enough to justify a self-congratulatory menu del dia in the restaurant attached to the gallery.
Highlights for me included the extraordinary portrait of Asher Wertheimer the art dealer by his friend Sargent which could almost serve as a portrait for Nazi anti-Semitic propaganda as Wertheimer is presented as a shark-like business man whose cold calculating stare makes you feel that you are unlikely to get the better of him!
Asta Nørregaard’s “In the studio” is an exceptional painting of great stillness with a delicacy of lighting effects which are captured with amazing confidence. It is a subdued canvas but immensely satisfying with the tress seen through the barred window of the studio counter balancing the trim figure of the artist in a harmonious composition.
Munch, Sorolla, Casas, Zoen, Boldoni, Repin, Kokoschka, Schiele, Anglada-Camarasa and Toulouse-Lautrec all figured in an exhibition that I would recommend without reservation. And it was free!
After lunch we wandered around the Gothic Quarter where I bought more books and Emma bought a pair of embroidered pumps made by the Barcelona house of Cuesto.
In spite of being prostrate with exhaustion on our return to Castelldefels, the invigorating effect of a shower enabled us to attempt more of the Ruta de Tapas with the result that I am down to single figures of those tapas which are left!
We were frustrated in our attempt to get one of the more “distant” establishments ticked off the list when we found, after scaling the one-in-one heights of upper Castelldefels to find the obscure restaurant that it was closed on Mondays!
The end though, is in sight and I am bolstered in my determination by the stated support of Andrew and Stewart to aid me in my quest!
Although it is sunny at the moment we are promised (well, 40% promised) thunderstorms at some point in the day. Yet another case of the Pathetic Fallacy as the summer holidays come to an end!
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