The well attended August visit was to view the current exhibitions at the Southampton City Art Gallery, which included paintings loaned from the National Gallery. We had a curator for an hour-long tour highlighting the major exhibits, part of which was entitled ‘Building a National Collection’. He explained how they approached the task of spending the generous Chipperfield Bequest Fund with which they were endowed at the commencement of the collection. With guidance from various famous Directors of the National Gallery they have managed to acquire thousands of post WW2 paintings from artists at an early stage of their careers who later became famous (and prohibitively expensive).
The modern works, both figurative and abstract, have been complimented by old masters, British School and Impressionist paintings which cater for all tastes. Our tour ended with a short visit to the separate Portraits exhibition, where they were showing in 2 galleries a selection of their collection of mostly living artists’ work. We then broke for a short lunch at the café in the adjacent Sea City Museum, and subsequently returned to the Art Gallery to have a more ‘in depth’ look at the many works unavoidably missed during the curated tour. The very high standard of paintings viewed tended to support Southampton’s claim that they have the best collection in the south.

The coronation of the Virgin is some 650 years old and by far the earliest work in the Southampton collection. It was created at the point where medieval art was beginning to be challenged by the new ideas of the Renaissance. Allegretto Nuzi came from Fabriano in central Italy. He seems to have spent time in Siena and also worked in Florence. Nuzi was a painter of church altarpieces usually made up of two or more panels. He worked in egg tempera, a difficult medium that provided bright and lasting colours.

The Classical style of the main gallery building, allowing much more light to enter, further enhanced the overall experience, which proved to be probably the best paintings exhibition we have visited to date. Certainly, all of our Group who attended found the visit to be most enjoyable. Whilst we all have our favourite painting, mine was probably Southampton’s own Monet which out classed the adjacent National Gallery loan.​​

Click on the images to enlarge them

The Church Vetheuil – Monet

The church was the subject for a series of paintings, viewed from different positions at different times of year. This version was painted from a boat on the River Seine. To capture constantly changing effects of light and colour Monet had to work quickly using rapid dabs of the brush, this is particularly noticeable in the shimmering reflections on the river.

The Committee was extremely pleased with the success of our first organised outing last month, we confidently went ahead with our July excursion to this venue.
The group this month was smaller, but no surprise as everyone needed to catch up with family and friends following Covid lockdown.

This month’s organiser was John Alchin arranging Members to leave Andover at 9.30am arriving at the D-Day Museum for 10.45am, for coffee and a quick catchup before pursuing our tour. We began with clambering around the last surviving Landing Craft LCT 7074 from D-Day. The conditions on board were very cramped, cold, and wet; being a flat bottom craft the trip across the channel must have been very scary with many probably suffering from sea sickness.

There were visual displays and a running commentary explaining the equipment used and the landing at Arromanches as part of the Normandy battle.
We then went into the newly refurbished Museum which was divided into two major displays. Beginning on our right was the historical collection of artifacts of medals, guns, uniforms, flags, and photographs and much more all explaining their uses and connections with the war. There were many personal moving stories leaving us with no doubt in our minds what so many sacrificed for the following generations. By this time, we all felt we deserved some lunch and took advantage of the on-site Café facilities enjoying our refreshments outside in the sun.
Now refreshed, we moved onto the left side of the purpose-built building to house an embroidery exhibition. This was commission by Lord Dulverton in 1968 and really is a wonderful piece of art, in-fact it was mind blowing, not at all what was anticipated. This was 83 metres long, made into panels of 2.4 x 0.9 metres. It took 5 years in its making with each panel depicting a story telling the events of the D-Day from the U.K. to the Normandy beaches; this was outstanding. It is one of those things when you say, “seeing is believing”.

We all then took the short walk through the gardens to 1500c restored Southsea Castle built by Henry VIII; this was fun and interesting. In the Keep there were small exhibitions, a restaurant and shop giving an in-sight to its history. We then climbed the ramparts and parapets to the top to enjoy the wonderful views across to the Isle of Wight and the coastline. By now we all deserved a sit-down for an ice-cream and tea. The weather was still wonderful with a nice breeze, so we took advantage of this and strolled along the esplanade to the Southsea Pier and enjoyed a fish and chip supper. Thanks to John for planning a great day out.

Rosemary Crumplin-Clark
Our next visit will be to Southampton Gallery – Thursday 26th August ‘21.