When: closing November 25, 2018
I know, I know, I've been timing my visits very close to the deadline lately - this show closes tomorrow. What with rainy weather, a bad cold and some very busy days at work, my fall has been a season of discontent, at least as far as going to museums is concerned. My plan is to re-commit myself to getting some culture at mid-day for the rest of 2018!
The marvelous model ship pictured here is from the National Gallery's exhibit on Dutch water paintings. The 17th century was the Dutch Golden Age, and it was all about the water. They sailed on it; they skated on it; they fished on it. And they painted it.
I'll confess that seascapes are not my favorite type of paintings, and naval battles are not my favorite type of seascapes, so the beauty of those offerings was lost on me. Frankly, I find battle depictions of any sort (text, art) only but so interesting.
Happily, there were also more homely scenes on offer, including one by Hendrick Avercamp, called "A Scene on the Ice." It looked quite familiar, and I'm pretty sure I saw it in the small show the National Gallery had several years ago on the Dutch Little Ice Age. The Little Ice Age is the name given to a period of time in the 1600s when it was extraordinarily cold, and the canals froze solidly enough to support all manner of winter sports, including something called kolf, which was a sort of golf/ice hockey hybrid. Paintings of the Dutch enjoying themselves in their winter finery is much more my cup of tea.
The model ships are very impressive - the one pictured is perhaps the best, but all are worth a look.
Verdict: A good show, although if you like seascapes, you'll like it more than I did.
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