We planned to see four art galleries today. The
first one was the Wallace Collection. It was an amazing collection. Especially
the extensive Sevres porcelain collection with the odd Canaletto thrown in. A
lot of the material was bought as a consequence of the French Revolution with
the Republican Government selling off the contents of the Trianon Palace to
fund their activities. Some of the items had belonged to people like Marie
Antoinette and Madame Pompadour. The items were of the highest quality and they
allege that it has the best collection of Renaissance weapons in Britain, and
it was very impressive.
Our next visit was to the London Guildhall Museum.
Their art collection was small, nice but the more interesting was the remains
of a Roman amphitheatre – not Pompeii by any stretch of the imagination but it
was imaginatively presented. It was an opportunity to donate some loose change
and get rid of those old 1 pound coins that we couldn’t get rid of.
We then made our way to Tate Modern, via the
Guildhall Church where we listened to the beginning of a very good organ
recital. The Tate Modern was worse than we could have ever imagined, any bits
of junk strung together is regarded as art. Check out this installation which
looks rather like surplus NHS (National Health System) stock.
By this stage it was a little wet and the umbrella
was out. We made our way across a different Waterloo Bridge that Elizabeth
remembered from the film. We walked along the embankment to see Cleopatra’s
Needle and the Battle of Britain memorial and the tail end of a protest against
Donald Trump who was in town. We finished at the Tate Britain and we saw so many Turner paintings it was rediculous. It was a very productive day, and apart from the
rain, it was a very good day, finished off with an Italian meal.
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