What I am showing these days

For those of you who read this blog, you know how much I believe in our National Gallery in Ottawa on Sussex Drive. It is a 150 year old Institution and in fact it is older than that, as early as 1820 Lord Dalhousie a staunch Scottish Presbyterian who was the Governor General of Canada residing in the Chateau Saint-Louis in Quebec City, the site is now occupied by the Chateau Frontenac Hotel, a man of letters and highly cultured and a patron of early Canadian Art who gave the first 140 art works to Canada.

George Ramsay, 9th Earl of Dalhousie, Governor General of Canada (1820-1828)

Here are some of the works I have been showing in the last few weeks to the public in what is called the Docent's Choice or Le Choix du Guide, I give these 10 minute mini lectures on art to anyone who wishes to stop and listen.

La danseuse by Antonio Canova (1818)

PierAntonio Bandini by Agnolo Bronzino (1550)

Daniele Barbaro by Titian (1555)

a copy of this painting is in the Prado in Madrid.

Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West (1770) with the new 18th century frame.

In the coming months I will also present the following, so I prepare by reading on the works and the artist and what motivated the creation of the painting or sculpture.  

Salisbury Cathedral seen from the Bishop's Garden by John Constable (1820)

Pope Urban VIII, Barberini, by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Venus by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1518)

The Age of Bronze by Auguste Rodin (1877)

If you happen to come by the National Gallery I may see you.

Benjamin West, painter

This week in the mail I received a financial solicitation from the National Gallery of Canada regarding the purchase of the original frame of the painting entitled The Death of General Wolfe by Benjamin West, 1770. See www.gallery.ca
In 1918 Hugh Lord Grosvenor the 2nd Duke of Westminster gave this painting to Canada in recognition of our heroic contribution to Victory during the First World War as part of what was then called the War Memorials. The painting has become an unofficial national treasure.

The Neoclassical frame was made in London in the same period as the painting. It is carved with various classical motifs, has its original matte and burnished water gilding. For unknown reasons we only got the painting and not the frame. So the National Gallery of Canada now wants to purchase the frame so it can be reunited with the painting.

Death of General James Wolfe, on the Plains of Abraham, September 1759, Quebec City

It is a very interesting picture and depicts the moment of the death of Wolfe as a messenger arrives to inform him that the British forces have won the battle. General Wolfe was 32 years old. By today's standard he would be considered a War criminal but then he lived in the 18th century when such concepts simply did not exist. Of course in French Canada, General Wolfe is a controversial figure as much as the Marquis de Montcalm, commander of the French Army at the Plains of Abraham is seen as a figure to pity, he too died at the battle. Whereas Wolfe is buried at Greenwich in the Church of the Naval Academy in London, Montcalm's body is in a Mausoleum in the Cemetery of the Hôpital Général de Québec. He was previously buried at the Ursulines Convent in a bomb crater.