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!