The National Gallery was the most traditionally beautiful art gallery I had ever seen. I personally don’t love baroque, still life, portrait style paintings but just to be in the presence of art made by names like Da Vinci, Monet, Van Gogh, and Picasso is an unreal experience. Still, I didn’t enjoy the actual art as much as I did the Tate. Modern art is just more fun for me, I feel engaged with it while trying to understand it whereas at the National Gallery I’m just walking around looking at masterpieces disappointed in myself for not knowing the history of every painting and artist. I felt like I was looking at art made by Gods. That type of art is just so impressive, especially for how old it is and I can’t possibly relate to it or the people that made it. Amidst all the seriousness on display, I came across one painting that I found to be intentionally funny. The piece was “The Idle Servant” painted by Nicolaes Maes in 1655. This piece depicts a sleeping maid who has dropped pots all over the floor and her Mistress looks directly at the viewer smirking as if she finds it funny. Meanwhile in the background of the piece there is a cat stealing food. I thought this piece was so fun and interesting because it was one of the only paintings I found that showed an intentional sense of humor or even joy. It feels like a picture that I would have of my friends today and I love the mischievous kitty.
A second painting that really stuck with me was A Girl with a Kitten by Jean Baptiste (1743). What I loved most about this piece were the gentle colors. The blues, whites, and greys are all so light and soft to look at and all complement each other so well. I have conflicting opinions about the actual girl in the painting. At first glance I see a cute little girl, but the longer you look the older she starts to look until she begins to look like an old lady. She for some reason has cleavage and grey hair. The gallery taught me that these old artists as amazing as they were, weren’t great at painting people who weren’t adults. These two paintings are a little under 100 years apart in age and I think that shows most in the clothes worn by the people in the paintings. I guess they have in common that they are both cat oriented. So yeah… cats 🙂
Theatre in London U of A 