Wallace Collection: Sketching Venice by Canaletto

After limbering up with Mr Bonington (see Wallace Collection: Sketching Venice by Bonington), I moved to the next gallery at the Wallace Collection and got to grips with a big painting of Venice by Giovanni Antonio Canal, better known as Canaletto, (1697 - 1768).

I had a lot to choose from!

Sketch of Venice: the Bacino di San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore by Canaletto
11" x 16", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook

Canaletto is one of those painters who I find is liable to induce blind panic due to the sheer size of some of his paintings and the amount of perspective involved.  I picked one of the less complicated ones!  The sketch is of Canaletto's painting Venice: the Bacino di San Marco from San Giorgio Maggiore and it can be found in the West Gallery on the first floor.

These are some of the other paintings in the West Gallery.  Besides works by Canaletto, it also includes a few paintings by Francesco Guardi (1712 - 1793) and some imitators of Canaletto.

Why sketch paintings in art galleries

One of the reasons I like sketching paintings in art museums and galleries is that it's one of the best ways I know of learning how a composition works, the real colours involved in the palette and the real tonal values of seemingly light or dark parts of a painting.

So with this one:

• the horizon includes all the iconic buildings on that side of the basin and is below the centre line - although interestingly NOT on a third
• the apex of the triangular quayside in the foreground is however on "a third"
• the masts on the vessel in the centre of painting (and those of other ships) echo the strong vertical of the campanile on the right and are also echoed by the even taller mast on the left side (not included in my sketch - I ran out of time) which acts as a block and stops the eye straying out of the picture
• the water and sky are both a lot darker than first appears.  The darker tonal values sit either side of sunlit buildings on the horizon
• the boat coming in from the right persuades my eye to return to the centre of the painting
• there's a few little touches of red around the painting which enliven and energise the green/blue of the water and the ochre/sienna of the ground
• there's a lot more cream in the sky than I first realised - which warms the painting up.
• the figures in the foreground represent different aspects of Venetian life

This is what the Wallace Collection website has to say about this painting.

One of a pair of unusually large views, depicting the Bacino di San Marco from opposing vantage points. Here the viewer is placed on the steps of the church of San Giorgio Maggiore looking across the Bacino di San Marco towards the Canale della Giudecca on the left, with the opening of the Grand Canal in the centre of the canvas, and the Campanile (bell-tower), the Piazzetta and the Doge’s palace on the right. It is an attractive, clearly identifiable view of a type calculated to appeal to the Grand Tourist, with picturesque elements of local colour reinforcing the idea of Venice as an exciting cosmopolitan centre.

Paintings from the past are also a jolly good way of finding "views" of a place or what I call places to paint in The Art of the Landscape.  This particular one is a classic and quite possibly overdone view of Venice - but it's certainly one which presents a challenge.

This is the location of the view in Venice.  The painting is of the view from the island of San Giorgio Maggiore - looking northwest to the buildings either side of the Grand Canal - from Santa Maria della Salute in the west to the waterfront buildings of the SanMarco Sestieri in the middle and the east.


Wallace Collection:

• address - Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN (nearest tube: Bond Street; more info about visiting)
• website - http://www.wallacecollection.org/

Wallace Collection: Sketching Venice by Bonington

This is the first sketch I did before the Cornish Cream Tea. It's a sketch of the painting of Venice: the Piazza San Marco by Richard Parkes Bonington(1802 - 1828) in one of the galleries of the Wallace Collection

Sketch of Venice: the Piazza San Marco (1828)
an oil painting by Richard Parkes Bonington
11" x 8", pen and ink and coloured pencil in Moleskine Sketchbook

I chose it because I turned a corner and this painting just grabbed me and insisted I sketch it. I never demur when this happens.

Maybe it was something to do with the fact that it looked unfinished.  Maybe it was the composition.  It's usually about the colour when this happens and I suspect it was in this case. The web version on the Wallace Collection website definitely does not do it justice.

The context of the complementary colours of purple walls against old gold certainly got my retinal receptors zinging.

I learned that the Wallace Collection has one of the best collections of oil paintings and watercolours by Richard Parkes Bonington who died age 26 from consumption.  This painting was started in the year he died.

The Wallace Collection is fortunate to own probably the finest collection in the world of paintings by Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-1828) - ten oils and twenty-five watercolours. They represent most of his major areas of interest, ranging from richly costumed historical scenes to views in France and northern Italy, particularly Venice.

Everything I've ever seen of Bonington's work suggests he's an artist who's worth studying.  Below are some links to biographies of and work by Bonington

Wallace Collection:

• address - Hertford House, Manchester Square, London W1U 3BN (nearest tube: Bond Street; more info about visiting)
• website - http://www.wallacecollection.org/

Links:

• Handprint - Richard Parkes Bonington
• Tate - Richard Parkes Bonington
• biography
• works
• Wikipedia - Richard Parkes Bonington
• Wikimedia - Richard Parkes Bonington

Cornish Cream Tea at the Wallace Restaurant

Cornish Cream Tea at the Wallace Restaurant, Wallace Collection
11" x 16", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Last Friday I was totally clueless. I trotted off to meet up with the Drawing London Group without checking the location, taking the print-out of the email or taking my mobile with me!

Which is how come I came to draw paintings of Venice by Bonington and Canaletto in the Wallace Collection (to follow in the next post) - while everybody else was sketching at the Museum of London.

Duh!

Anyway, I had a great time followed by a visit to the Wallace Restaurant (run by the omnipresent Peyton & Byrne) for a very late lunch which turned into a Cornish Cream Tea instead as they'd run out of the dish I wanted for lunch.

I'll get verbally shot if "he who must not be bored while I sketch" sees this!  Cream teas are banned - we're both on a diet!

The details are:

• on the left finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off (naturally!) - egg mayonnaise, tomato and cucumber, ham and smoked salmon
• a very nice scone and Cornish clotted cream and preserves (very nice!)
• Jasmine tea

As always I got some funny looks from the waiters while drawing this before eating.  I then progressively ate my way through it very slowly while getting the colours right.

It's a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon sketching........

National Gallery - drawing children drawing art

Constable and the National Gallery Children - Room 34
8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Yesterday I met up with Jackie Simmonds (Jackie Simmonds Artyfacts) at the National Gallery.  We were going to have a chat about a few things over lunch at the National Dining Rooms so I suggested we meet up in the morning to sketch in the galleries.

Room 34 is always a favourite - because it has the best British paintings with the most comfy seats!  (see floorplan of the National Gallery / Level 2).  I've sketched there before more than once

Just after 10am when the Gallery opens, the rooms are more or less deserted - with a few art fans wandering around.  Then the small children arrive!

It seems to be a requirement that they must all have a very bright sweater on unless they are incredibly well behaved.  They split into small groups and then learn about a painting and/or draw it.

At the top of this post a teacher is explaining to her group about Constable's painting of Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows

Below a group of children are deep in concentration drawing a painting by Turner.  They are, of course, all moving all the time as well.........

Can you guess what the painting by Turner is before you click the link?  I've only given you a little clue........

Now draw this Turner painting....
8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

The Fighting Temeraire Class
8" x 10", pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

These were a group of very behaved young ladies in school uniform - who were all great at putting up their hands in response to questions related to The Fighting Temeraire by Turner. (Teacher's Notes)

I can highly recommend art galleries for practising quickie sketches of people.  Nobody stays still for too long and you haven't got a chance of ever catching a likeness.  However it does make you look at what makes a good group composition.

Other blog posts about sketching - paintings and people - in the National Gallery include:

• Drawing Monet
• Drawings from the National Gallery
• Drawing Heads - Velaquez and the Prince's Drawing School
• Activities in London Galleries and Museums
• A 'Day to Draw' at the National Gallery
• Sketching at the National Gallery: "Manet to Picasso"
• Renaissance Faces - in my sketchbook
• Looking at the Turners in the National Gallery
• Canaletto & His Rivals at the National Gallery

Links:

• Room 34, National Gallery
• J.M.W. Turner - Resources for Art Lovers
• Top 10 Art Galleries and Museums
• The Top Ten Museums in London

Lunch in the RA Friends Room

A couple of quick sketches from yesterday.  After visiting the preview of the new David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts, I grabbed some lunch in a pleasantly empty Friends Room.

I slightly indulged as I'd had to skip breakfast - so it's smoked salmon sarnies on the right, an apple and blackberry crumble on the left and a pot of Earl Grey tea in the middle.

Lunch in the Friends Room
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I then sketched a couple of ladies comparing ticketing adventures for various cultural jaunts.

Discussing Cultural Outings
8" x 10", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

I'm waaaaaaaaaaaaaay behind on posting sketches - but hope to get some posted in the next few days.

Links:

• Making A Mark - Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture
• David Hockney RA - The Bigger Picture at the Royal Academy of Arts

Lunch Chez Guy in Gevrey-Chambertin

Lunch at Chez Guy in Gevrey-Chambertin
11.5" x 16.5", pen and sepia ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook
copyright Katherine Tyrrell

Yesterday it was frog's legs and today it's escargots - snails!

I had a giggle when I realised I could complete the set of unusual things the French are renowned for cooking.  After my dinner of "brown food" on Saturday night I continued north through Burgundy in central France and had a very fine and appetising Sunday lunch on 3rd July in the red splendour of the terrace parasols at a restaurant called Chez Guy in the centre of the village of Gevrey-Chambertin.

 I remember when I first started travelling through France being absolutely amazed at how the names of  wines which are well known all over the world often relate to what turn out to be small villages in France - completely surrounded by vineyards.  Gevrey-Chambertin is one such village on the Côte de Nuits in the northern part of the Côte d'Or which is worth driving down if you ever get the chance - I did a special detour to do so!  More about the village and the wine at the end of this post.

Chez Guy

The restaurant offers a number of options depending on how many courses you want to eat.  I had the Menu de Carte (Entre, Plat, Fromage, Dessert) - partly because one of my delights is to eat good French food and partly because the aim of the exercise was also to give me a good break in the middle of a long day's drive.  I hasten to add I had a very light meal when I got to my overnight stop at Epernay!

As I was in for the long haul I ordered a Sarah inspired Suze and tonic to drink while I read the menu and drank Badoit over lunch.  Such a sin to come to a restaurant in the middle of such good wines and have no wine to drink - however I was driving - c'est la vie!

Chez Guy Menu Carte
right click and open in new tab
to see much larger image

The Menu is in French however I got some help from the staff who were a lot friendlier than my experience the night before.

The courses were as follows (preceded by an indication of where they were in the above drawing:

• (top right) Amuse Bouche - two glasses of fresh light mousse concoction (avocado and shellfish?).  I know what the taste of my appetiser was at the time but have forgotten now
• (Bottom left) Fricassée d'escargots au beurre persillé, poêlée de girolles, sauce pesto (Fricassee of snails in herb butter, sautéed mushrooms, pesto sauce)  All I can say is snails are yummy!
• (top right) Filet de Bar, pâtes crémeuses au basilic, tapenades d'olives noires (Fillet of Sea Bass, creamy basil pasta, black olive tapenade) - a bit odd to choose fish on a Sunday in the middle of France however, while I wanted to enjoy my meal I was leaning towards the lighter courses so as to avoid feeling too sleepy after lunch!
• (centre bottom) Assiette de fromages régionaux de chez Gaugry, fromager à Brochon (Cheese platter with regional Gaugry, cheese Brochon) - this was a good range of local cheese served with decent bread.  The cheese was served on wood from a crate of local wine which added a nice touch which was only slightly cheesy!
• (Bottom right) Crumble de fruits rouge et rhubarbe, emulsion de thé vert, sorbet fromage blanc red berry and rhubarb crumble, emulsion of green tea, cottage cheese sorbet - a very light and refreshing way to end the meal.

My notion of cooks having preferred colour palettes is further upheld.  This one is a lot more colourful with ample doses of red, creamy yellow and green.

My bill including my suze aperitif, bottle of Badoit and a coffee at the end came to €52.50.

I did tackle a second sketch of my view, however - unlike Saturday night - I was so interested in the food that it hardly got a look in and is unfinished.  So here's a photo of the view from my table - taken at the end of the meal when the people at the other tables had left.

The view from my seat in Chez Guy

I sat on the outside terrace at the front of the restaurant, underneath a huge red parasol which provided good shade but cast a red tint over everything!  Trying to determine the colours of my meal was interesting and the photos are of no help at all!  It had to be done while I was there.  Hence the white dish of snails does not have the red colour cast it had while I was drawing and eating them.

Chez Guy - and a vintage pink cadillac in the centre of Gevrey-Chambertin

This is a photograph of Chez Guy complete with an amazing vintage Cadillac with enormous fins - painted dark pink - which turned up towards the end of lunch, parked right outside - on the bit which I thought appeared to indicate 'no parking'!  Out trooped a rather larger than life middle aged 'guy' and his large entourage which included children.  He was obviously well known at the restaurant and I spent my dessert and coffee wondering whether he was the owner or a local rock star with taste.

I'd definitely recommend this restaurant to anybody passing through the area - however do book ahead and arrive in good time - unless of course you're a passing rock star of repute!

The vineyards of Gevrey-Chambertin

Gevrey-Chambertin is located in Burgundy.  It's located on a limestone ridge about 12 km south of  Dijon and about 30km north of Beaune.  The village has just over 3,000 inhabitants and an awful lot of vineyards.  Its inhabitants are called Gibriaçois.

Premier Crus vineyards above Gevrey Chambertin

There are 550 hectares of vine "Pinot Noir" on a gentle slope which lies to the east of the wooded limestone ridge.  This area has nine Grands Crus (the highest level of classification of AOC wines from Burgundy) which lie to the south of the village and 27 Premiers Crus which mainly lie to the west of the village.  The best wine lies close to the limestone at the top of the slopes while the more ordinary wine which can also be labelled Gevrey Chambertin is on clay soil in the valley bottom.

It seems likely that the very first vines planted in Burgundy were planted at Gevrey Chambertin.  There's evidence from archaeological digs that there were Gallo-Roman vines planted in the area dating back to the 1st Century BC.  Pliny the Elder wrote about wine in this area!

Pinot noir grapes in July in Gevrey Chambertin

The next links are to a couple of Burgundy wine sites which:

• show where all the Grand Cru and Premier Cru sites are Gevrey Chambertin lie
• provide a detailed profile of Gevrey Chambertin and its vineyards

Links:

• Chez Guy 3 Place Mairie, 21220 Gevrey-Chambertin, France 
• Tel: +33 3 80 58 51 51
• Location on Google Maps - Chez Guy 
• Burgundy Report - Gevrey Chambertin - Village Profile - a very detailed listing and analysis of the vineyards, crus and producers associated with the village
• Château de Gevrey-Chambertin - on the outskits of the village
• Official Village Website www.ville-Gevrey-chambertin.fr 
• Telephone: 03.80.34.30.35
• e-mail: @ mairie.gevrey nerim.net 
• Area: 2746 ha 3120 inhabitants
• website of the commune of Gevrey Chambertin

Les Quatre Saisons in Bourg en Bresse

Interior of Les Quatre Saisons in Bourg en Bresse

Dinner at Les Quatre Saisons in Bourg en Bresse was interesting rather than pleasurable.  I felt a little bit like I'd stepped into a 1980s time warp as I don't think the restaurant had been decorated or had a makeover in a good 25 years.

On the other hand the bright yellow tablecloths and blue walls made for a colourful sketch and made up for the fact that my meal seemed to lack any colour at all.

The chef contributed yet more evidence to my theory that chefs cook the food in the colours that they like.  This chef liked brown.  See my sketch of my meal below.

Meal at Les Quatre Saisons in Bourg en Bresse on Saturday 2nd July 2011

The menu was as follows:

• (top left) an Amuse Bouche  I have absolutely no idea what this was!
• (bottom left) Grenouilles a la verre et ciboulettes - I knew what the Grenouillles (frogs legs) were but was less certain of the ciboulettes (chives).  My first frogs legs - quite tasty and not at all chewy
• (top right) Volaille de la Ferme de Valaisant, creme morelles and Vin Jaune - this should have been tastier than it was.  The worst bit was that the fact that there was nothing that made it look appetising - wall to wall bland!
• (Bottom right) I think this was a Tarte Tatin with a very ordinary ice cream but forgot to make a note of the dessert having become totally disinterested in the food by this stage.  Lack of colour is a real turn off for me.  I'd switched my focus to my sketch of the interior which was Bright with a capital B!  You can always tell how good the food is by the relative merits of the sketches of the meal and the place where I ate it!
• (centre) The only spot of colour came with the petit fours!

My own impression was that the restaurant would be fine for people who spoke French well, liked a more traditional French way of cooking food and enjoyed discussing the food.  My French is limited and their English was virtually non-existent.  With no translation on the menu or from the waiter I had a rough idea what I was eating.  It's probably more accurate to say I had to opt for courses where I had an idea of what it was.  I'm not sure a single woman who doesn't speak much French was very interesting as a customer to them.  That's said in the context of having been in other restaurants in France where I've been very well looked after and had an enjoyable time despite the language barrier.

However this was in Bourg en Bresse which is not a tourist destination and it would be totally unreasonable of me to expect restaurants to cater for English tourists.  A shade more hospitality wouldn't have gone amiss though.  More colour in the food would have been even better!

The whole meal (including coffee but without wine) came to €42 which I thought was a bit steep.

What's really odd though is that my two worst meals of the entire trip were a short distance from Lyons which is supposedly the gastronomic centre of France.  Very odd.

I went to bed very much looking forward to my lunch the next day in Gevrey Chambertin in the Côte de Nuits in the northern part of the Côte d'Or, which is home to the vineyards which line the limestone ridge that is at the heart of the Burgundy wine region.

Links

• Les Quatre Saisons, 6 Rue de la République, France - 01000 Bourg-en-Bresse
• Phone 0474220186 | Fax0474211035