Venus at the National Gallery, London

Well here I am in the National Gallery in London. The purpose of this trip was to get a good look at the painting on which my work will be based. This proved necessary as every reproduced image of Velasquez’s Rokeby Venus I have acquired through prints and books or have seen to date has proved so varied in their representation that I found myself hesitating before my own canvas. The last thing I wanted to get caught up in is false starts so it was time to get the image sorted out in my own head.

I had a difficult enough time trying to get a picture of the painting with my model as the anti-camera police were in full force. I had managed to get about six pictures, all of them with a very nervous Spanish model smiling hesitatingly whilst the Gallery’s staff intoned with profound gravity and seriousness “no cameras, no pictures”! By the end, it was all very cloak and dagger, I with my camera, she with her embarrassment as I whispered, “go and stand beside it now, they’re not looking” and they with their sudden appearances and no small amount of frowning and censuring. Yet, here is the picture and a few close ups for my own look at how Velasquez handled the brushwork.

It’s a fantastic painting to see in life. It is far more impressive by far to see it to scale than it is in reproduction. There’s a lot to be said for how the size of a canvas can contribute to the overall effect of an image. They have it framed behind non-reflective glass now and given its history, it’s easy enough to see why. I will post the article regarding its 1914 attack at a later date.

My model, who is herself from Seville, got it into her head to buy a puzzle of the painting. She believes she can finish putting it together before I finish my painting and she is probably right! It made me smile to see that the image portrayed on the puzzle box she had just bought is one of the best reproductions of the Venus I have seen.

So, back to Dublin, the studio and my paint brushes!

Thanks for reading!

About the Velasquez Venus Project

Welcome all to the first update of what I hope will be many.

For those of you who know me and my work, it may not surprise you to learn that I have recently got it into my head to paint my own “Venus with a Mirror” or what is more popularly known as Velasquez’s “Rokeby Venus”. Why this painting? I suppose it has been a fascination of mine for a long time now. I remember looking at it many years ago and thinking how absolutely beautiful the woman was. She seemed set apart from any woman I had ever seen in life. I was essentially captivated by the painting. I believe it can be safely said that by looking at the woman in this painting I had experienced my first intimation of the existence of what is more popularly known as the muse.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez probably summed it up best when he wrote:

“That night I discovered the improbable pleasure of contemplating the body of a sleeping woman without the urgencies of desire or the obstacles of modesty.”

I suppose the lasting impression this painting made in part explains why I paint women or the idea of women. So here I am, many years later attempting to produce a work that will hopefully stand.

I shall do my best. I hope to include an on going blog detailing the progress of the painting. I hope to include a few video feeds as well as preliminary sketches and notes. I hope everything runs smoothly enough. Cross your fingers!

Just to say, Velasquez was from Seville in Spain and auspiciously enough, so is the girl I am using as a model for this painting. I take it as a good sign that all will go well, hoping that talent and hard work doesn’t fail me.

A point of interest regarding the history of the painting is that it was mutilated in 1906 by the Suffragist Mary Richardson in protest for the wrongs done to a Mrs. Pankhurst.