Tag Archives: National Gallery

Rokeby Venus

18 Thursday Mar 2021

Posted by in art, Crime, History, Poetry, Social Comment, Writing

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Rokeby Venus: National Gallery, UK

 

unsuccessful MP   beautiful paradigm   refused breakfast

backward glance

ageing face   gawping men   mirror image

five slashes

almond-eyed Madonna   broad-shouldered detectives   opened newspaper

pretend sketching

broken glass

slippery parquet

thrown Baedeker

crowd’s fury

cooling-off room

six month sentence

force-fed

newspaper image   backward paradigm   ageing men

broad-shouldered Madonna

 

Fake or Fortune?

11 Sunday Mar 2018

Posted by in art, Personal, television

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I found this little drawing at a fair years ago.  It was

well drawn and in the style of Gainsborough.  Indeed it was

like some sketches he did of his daughters which I subsequently

saw at The National Gallery.

I sent a photo of it to Philip Mould for investigation and he

was convinced enough to send the photo to the international

expert on Gainsborough, who said it wasn’t by the master, but

gave no particular reasons.

For a while I doubted this judgement, as the paper was lined in

the correct way for paper of that time and it was faded. Also, the

dealer who sold it to me had only charged me £50, so wasn’t

trying to deceive anyone.  The frame was very old and was ebonised

and gilded, though distressed.

However, I was disappointed, so sold it, having told the buyer the

whole story.  I sold it for little more than I had paid for it.

Sometimes I regret selling it, but have done a copygainsborough for myself this week.  I won’t be signing it ‘T Gainsborough!’