Today I only had one class. It was such a waste to go all the way into the city just for an hour, so after class I visited the National Portrait Gallery.
There were so many school groups there. One of them had kids sitting in front of the portraits of the Tudors, drawing their own version. Some were pretty cute. At the end one of the staff members was talking to them: "Now, these paintings were done over weeks, sometimes even months, and you guys have done yours in 20 minutes, so you've all done very, very well." Sometimes I want to be back in primary school.
I went to a few exhibitions: Tudor and Elizabethan (1485-1603), Stuart and Civil War (1603-1714), Georgian (1714 to ummm I don't know when, the website doesn't say), and Victorian and Edwardian (1837-1901). By the time I got to the Victorian bit I was a little bit tired and hungry, so I just walked through it fairly quickly. And I totally just skipped the 20th century art that was in the room next door.
I saw Teresa and Beth while looking at the Stuarts. None of us had planned to go there together, and just happened to find each other. When they came and stood next to me I was reading a plaque, and saw them someone in the corner of my eye and I actually thought it was another one of those annoying tourists that stand too close to you at art galleries. Then I looked up and realised it was someone I knew.
I also found the portrait of the Duke of Monmouth. He was the one whose head took several blows to sever when he was executed at Tower Hill, the one that the Beefeater at the Tower of London was telling us about. The one where they sewed his head back on after they'd chopped it off, so that he could have a portrait. Ew.
There were so many school groups there. One of them had kids sitting in front of the portraits of the Tudors, drawing their own version. Some were pretty cute. At the end one of the staff members was talking to them: "Now, these paintings were done over weeks, sometimes even months, and you guys have done yours in 20 minutes, so you've all done very, very well." Sometimes I want to be back in primary school.
I went to a few exhibitions: Tudor and Elizabethan (1485-1603), Stuart and Civil War (1603-1714), Georgian (1714 to ummm I don't know when, the website doesn't say), and Victorian and Edwardian (1837-1901). By the time I got to the Victorian bit I was a little bit tired and hungry, so I just walked through it fairly quickly. And I totally just skipped the 20th century art that was in the room next door.
I saw Teresa and Beth while looking at the Stuarts. None of us had planned to go there together, and just happened to find each other. When they came and stood next to me I was reading a plaque, and saw them someone in the corner of my eye and I actually thought it was another one of those annoying tourists that stand too close to you at art galleries. Then I looked up and realised it was someone I knew.
I also found the portrait of the Duke of Monmouth. He was the one whose head took several blows to sever when he was executed at Tower Hill, the one that the Beefeater at the Tower of London was telling us about. The one where they sewed his head back on after they'd chopped it off, so that he could have a portrait. Ew.
Sorry for the bad quality, I found it on Google.
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