Monday, 30 November 2009

The Ultimate Spanko Painting?

A trip to London today to see a friend ended up in the National Portrait Gallery, in an attempt to escape from the rain (and boy, was it raining today: I'm still slightly damp two hours later).
Now, I have been to some of the big art galleries in the world – the Prado, the Louvre, the Musée D'Orsay, the Met in New York... but I have never made it to several of the major London galleries, despite only living 40 miles down the road. I know, I know, someone should be spanked.
Anyway, this was my first visit to the National Portrait Gallery. Some of it was great. The Tudors and Stewarts galleries were best taken with a hefty dose of irreverence, the photographic exhibition was fantastic, but it was wandering into the early 20th Century gallery that I came across the ultimate Spanko painting.




Amazing, isn't it? Now I know I'm a pervert and all that but seriously – she's standing in the corner hands on head, bottom suspiciously red. That's what the painter intended that we see, right?
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11 comments:

  1. Abel123430 November 2009 at 12:34

    Do you think the staff realise that the people buying the postcard of that photo in the shop are all spankos?!

    I so love that painting - and the NPG as a whole, possibly my favourite London gallery.

    As for your comment that "I'm still slightly damp two hours later" - I'm not saying a word...

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  2. Karl Friedrich Gauss30 November 2009 at 13:52

    Another piece of evidence for the existence of the spanko interest throughout antiquity.

    Whatever is Abel on about regarding the "slightly damp" comment?

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  3. Abel123430 November 2009 at 16:27

    @KFG - read the end of the first sentence of the post and you'll see!

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  4. Julie30 November 2009 at 16:46

    That's priceless - I so wish we'd analyze that in History of Arts. Who's the artist and what's the title, by the way?

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  5. Karl Friedrich Gauss30 November 2009 at 16:57

    Abel, I think she meant it was from the rain. She was damp from the rain.

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  6. Abel123430 November 2009 at 17:02

    @KFG: *really*?

    !!

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  7. Dom Tom30 November 2009 at 18:19

    Someone asked who the artist was in this painitng, and SHE is Laura Knight. The painting is a self portrait! This was unheard of in its time--a woman painting nude women. 1913.

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  8. Paul30 November 2009 at 18:29

    Eliane, I haven't been to the NPG for more that 25 years, then it was wonderful, to my shame I don't remember that self-portrait.
    Yes the weather is pretty awful at the moment.
    Warm hugs,
    Paul.

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  9. Scarlett De Winter30 November 2009 at 23:52

    I was perving on that on Friday! Great minds!

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  10. Alyx1 December 2009 at 18:13

    LOL, you're so funny! Thank you for introducing me to Dame Laura Knight, though. I love her work!

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  11. Master Retep4 December 2009 at 11:05

    Maybe we can start a craze, see my two November posts on the same theme http://masterfulstrokes.blogspot.com/2009_11_01_archive.html

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