Suzy Says

Love/hate for Friday, July 26, 2002
Art Museums

As long as I can remember, I have loved going to art galleries and museums. My father started taking me when I was quite small, and to this day I count a love of art as one of the best gifts he ever gave me.

I was about 10 years old the first time he took me to the National Gallery in Washington. I remember it very well, because the cherry trees were in blossom and it was impossibly beautiful, like being in a fairytale. On the same trip, we visited Monticello (I was already a huge Jefferson fan, and have found no reason to revise my opinion over the ensuing 30 years), which is one of the most beautiful houses in the world.

When my father retired back to his native England, I visited him at least once a year, and during these visits, one of our greatest pleasures was going to art exhibits together, both in the UK and on the Continent. We ventured as far as Russia, just to see the great collection in the Hermitage. We went every day for four days, but still didn’t see it all. In London, there were certain galleries we visited every year: The Tate, The National Gallery, The Courtauld, and The Queen’s Gallery.

I would still rate the US National Gallery as one of the greatest collections in the world, though I have a deeper affection for the National Gallery in London, whose collection is certainly as good as its American counterpart. The NG in London houses one of my all-time favorite paintings, by my all-time favorite painter, JMW Turner: Rain, Steam, and Speed: The Great Western Railway. Turner was Monet 50 years before Monet, who himself acknowledged his debt to Turner.

Which brings me to the Tate Gallery, which houses the Turner Bequest, the greatest collection of Turners in the world. Dad and I would visit our favorites and when our feet gave out, repair to the glorious Restaurant, decorated by Rex Whistler, for wonderful food and wine.

The Courtauld is housed in an elegant Georgian building in the heart of London. The star of the collection for me is the Impressionists, including Manet’s Bar at the Folies Berg&egraveres and Renoir’s painting of his radiant auburn-haired mistress dressed in white. If I could be painted by anyone, it would be Renoir, even though my father used to dismiss his portraits as “chocolate box.”

The Queen’s Gallery has changing exhibits from Her Majesty’s vast collection. If you are fortunate enough to be in London when Buckingham Palace is open to the public, do go if only to see the paintings. The most remarkable for me is one by Rembrandt of a woman called Agatha Bas, painted with her hand on the frame as if she could lean right out of the painting.

I guess if you develop a love for something as a child, it never leaves you. I used to feel like Frederick the Mouse on my trips to London, absorbing enough art and beauty to sustain me until the next time.