Frameworks Visits to Bath on June 1st

It has taken me a long time to process the photographs from this visit and put them onto the blog. The visit to the Victoria Art Gallery and the Holburne Museum in Bath was arranged by Frameworks, and organisation which is doing a brilliant job at highlighting the brilliant museums and art galleries in the west of England. Those participating are Swindon Museum and Art gallery, Bristol Museum and Art gallery, The Wilson in Cheltenham, the Victoria Art Gallery and Holburne Museum in Bath.
We were due to start our day at the Victoria Art Gallery at 10.30am, and as we waited outside, I noticed the Bath Society of Artists had used one of Tim Carroll's paintings for their poster above the door:

 We were welcomed by Michael Rowe, Chair of the friends of the Victoria Art Gallery who introduced us to the Victoria Art gallery. We were then passed on to Jon Benington, manager of the gallery who talked firstly about the significance of the paintings on loan from Swindon Museum and Art Gallery, and also quite a lot about the wonderful collection we have in Swindon.

The five are 'The Sybil' by Cecil Collins, and here is Jon talking about it.

 Secondly  'Gisette Neveu' painted in 1945 by Raymond Mason, and thirdly 'The Artist's Sister Deborah' by Mark Gertler painted c 1911.

 And the fourth and fifth paintings below 'The Potteries' by Julian Trevelyan 1938, and 'A Procession' by LS Lowry also 1938.

 The most popular painting in VAG is this one, 'The Watersplash' painted in 1900 by Henry Herbert la Thangue

'The Bride in Death' by Thomas Jones Barker in 1839 comes a clsoe second in popularity

 There is some beautiful coloured glass made in Bristol which is worth close examination

 From the exhibition on the first floor, we had a look at the stores in the basement, this was fascinating, and included a look at miniatures:

 And this fine jug which has been assembled from pieces which had become separated from each other, possibly after the site was bombed.

 It was very interesting to look at the paintings in the store

 including a Cecil Collins, this is a detail of the painting.

 From the Victoria Art gallery, we walked to the Holburne and had a very pleasant lunch in their cafe, and had a look at the nearby canal

 We were hoping to look round the 32 paintings in the Gwen John to Lucien Freud: Home and the World, Dexter Dalwood selects from the Swindon Collection exhibition, but were unable to do so because of the leaking roof to the gallery

 However in a very small gallery/room called the Wirth Gallery, I discovered a real gem, The Observer Observed: A Portrait of Don McCullin by Charlotte Sorapure.

 On the way home, I made a couple of attempts at photographing the white horse at Cherhill

What a great day out. I'm hoping we can reciprocate before too long.