The Carl Larsson Portrait Collection, Carl Larssons porträttsamling, Sundborn, Sweden The portraits are of local citizens who were involved in keeping village life ticking over. Larsson painted these ‘fine villagers’ for the parish of Sundborn, and donated the portraits to the village in 1916, with the condition that they remained there and were not moved. This has clearly been a struggle,…
National Museum, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, Sweden When I last visited Stockholm in 2015, I was disappointed by the fact that the National Museum was closed for renovations. Then in October 2018, I saw on our French news that it had finally reopened. They showed images from the fine building, the paintings, the Carl Larsson frescos, and I wished I could visit.…
Granet XXe Collection Jean Planque, Aix-en-Provence, France It’s an interesting juxtaposition for the modern art of Aix-en-Provence to be housed in a pretty little chapel built in 1654. It’s been adapted to house the impressive collection of Jean Planque, which is 20th century heavy, and made up of works which he sometimes got straight from the artists, which is pretty…
Granet Museum, Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France It’s not surprising that the smart, prosperous town of Aix-en-Provence has a major art gallery – especially considering the fact that two major artists were born here. Before the start of the French Revolution, the town hall housed a collection of historical and archaeological objects and in 1821, a cabinet of curiosities belonging to…
The Fabre Museum, Musée Fabre, Montpellier, France Montpellier doesn’t have many museums, but it does have what is said to be one of the finest art collections in France. The Fabre Museum is home to a good collection of paintings that not only shows off some of the country’s best known artists but specifically highlights some local boys, like Frédéric Bazille.…
National Gallery of Art of Cagliari, Pinacoteca Nazionale Di Cagliari, Sardinia, Italy Over the years I have changed my attitude towards art quite drastically. When I was a teenager, I loved the Old Masters, the Renaissance, and the Italian world generally. Then I realised that I preferred the pre-Renaissance period. That I didn’t really like Italian paintings. That actually I…
Danish Golden Age The art historian/critic and professor at the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, Niels Lauritz Høyen, became the curator of the royal collections in 1839. He used his power and influence to buy Danish art. He was instrumental, therefore, in the creating the fine collection of works by CW Eckersberg and his followers. That Denmark was able to…
National Gallery of Denmark, Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark Like practically everywhere else in Copenhagen, the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK), which I was expecting to be not that interesting, was absolutely fantastic. The Danes are masters of doing everything wonderfully. The museum itself is attractive, the art is great, the lighting, the level of information given – everything was…
Basel Art Museum, Basel Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland I had been looking forward to visiting Basel’s Art Museum ever since I first read about it in a guide book. Apart from the fact that it has a formidable group of works by the city’s son, Holbein the Younger, the museum also supposedly has one of the largest and best collections in…
The Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland Every great capital city needs a great art gallery and so it makes sense that Edinburgh, which is a great city, has a great art gallery. There is a formidable mix of Scottish and international paintings and sculptures, in a nicely ‘old-fashioned’ setting, and the quality and range of what’s on display can probably…