Exhibitions

Another Saturday, another trip to London to see a couple of exhibitions. The Vilhelm Hammershoi at the Royal Academy certainly counts as enigmatic. You would never call his paintings colourful, with a palette of black, brown and white, and it often feels like you are looking at them through a haze. Some of the interiors brought to mind Vermeer, in the arrangement of rooms and the way light falls through windows, and one painting of a woman sewing immediately made me think of the Vermeer seamstress in the Louvre. Mostly the interiors are unsettling: deserted rooms, or a solitary figure with her back to the viewer. It feels slightly voyeuristic. My favourite work was a pencil and oil sketch of boats at Christianshavn Canal, which felt less claustrophobic and controlled than the rest.
In contrast the De Bray Family exhibition at Dulwich is vibrant. I'd seen some of the portraits at the National Gallery's Dutch Portraits exhibition a while back so it was interesting to see more work by the family. Salomon's delightful portrait of the new-born twins Clara and Albert de Bray is a highlight but his sons were equally talented. Jan's group portraits of various regents in Haarlem sit alongside paintings of his own family (most of whom were to die of the plague), while both Joseph and Dirck painted still life. Dirck in particular playfully juxtaposes items in stark contrast to the cornucopias of Jan van Huysum which are on display elsewhere in the gallery.