A visit to London’s Tate Britain
Please access the googleview tour here! Tate Britain is one of the biggest galleries in the UK, holding mostly pieces of British art from 1500 to the present day, and also some modern and contemporary art from around the world.
To me, the Tate has always presented itself as a study of British society and its veneration and pride of the past juxtaposed with quirky and sophisticated present. The selected pieces aim to demonstrate this dichotomy.
Unfortunately, only a few rooms are available for us to visit today, yet we can still learn a lot. Our first stop is in a room dedicated to artwork from 1540–1650.
Our first stop is to our left, in front of a painting by an unknown artist entitled “The Cholmondeley Ladies,” painted around 1600–10. The painting apparently depicts identical twins who may have also given birth at the same time.
You may be wondering at the interesting and well-defined shapes that the pillows and subjects in general are depicted. What do they make you think of?
The format actually seeks to mimic tomb sculptures of Victorian period.
Now look around you, what do you notice? What’s usually depicted in the artwork of this time? Keep in mind that Britain is and was a monarchy — was the practice of painting an aristocratic one? Were the subjects of these artworks resticted to members of the aristocracy?
At the back wall of the same room we can find another artwork we will be exploring:
“The Lady of Shalott” by artist John William Waterhouse painted in 1888.
This canvas was inspired by a poem of the same name written by English poet Alfred Tennyson. If you have a thorough browse through the museum you will see there are many more artworks dedicated to female protagonists in the works of acclaimed British writers. (I’ve linked some here, here, here and here!)
As you may be noticing by now, though these artworks depict women, they are not painted by women. If we are to think about the woman in this poem and canvas as well as the ones in the work I linked above, they all seem to end up in very unfortunate circumstances or have major character flaws. In the Tennyson poem the lady of Shallot is cursed and destined to die after daring to leave her home for falling in love with a prince and the outside world. This is all clearly symbolic of how women were viewed in that era — belonging in the home and destined to great misfortune if daring to act differently from how they were expected or told to behave. As you look around think about how women are depicted and whether you can find any paintings by female artists. If you cannot, can you think of why that may be?
Our third piece can be found when you click the bottom right arrow twice. It is the fifth thumbnail at the bottom of the current page.
An artist many Brits are proud of is J. M. W. Turner, and as a matter of fact he donated many of his works to Tate Britain upon his death. This artwork is entitled The Shipwreck (1805).
As the time period suggests, this was a period of exploration and great ponderance at the force of natural elements. Think about how this painting compares to the previous ones we look at. Does this strike you as more realistic? How does it make you feel? How would the people in the painting be feeling? What may have led Turner to want to paint this?
Unfortunately, our google tour doesn’t allow us to view this work in the room where it currently stands. However, I feel it’s important that we also explore more current British art. Click here to view and read more about “Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy” by David Hockney.
Hockney’s paintings are usually full of colour and vibrancy. Interestingly, Hockney has synaesthetic associations between sound colour and shape — may that have something to do with it? Also, note his subjects, do they appear comfortable? Note how the painter faces a window; imagine this were a photograph, how would this fact change the image?
