London Retrospective 2: National Portrait Gallery and St. Martin-in-the-Fields

Saturday 8 March 

An afternoon in the National Portrait Gallery and an evening of candlelit Gershwin, Price, Copland and Shostakovich at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, accompanied in the latter by my London-based friend, Bev Murray.

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1 Queen Mary, 1544, attributed to ‘Master John’

2 Queen Elizabeth 1, 1575, unknown artist

3 Queen Elizabeth 1, about 1600, unknown artist

4 Katherine Parr, about 1545, unknown artist

5 Jane Seymour, mid-16th century, Studio of Hans Holbein the Younger

6 Anne Boleyn, about 1500-36, unknown artist

7-8 The Phoenix Portrait, Queen Elizabeth 1, about 1575, Nicholas Hilliard

9 Queen Elizabeth 1, 1572, Nicholas Hilliard

10 Sir Walter Raleigh, about 1585, Nicholas Hilliard

11  Self-portrait with model Ella Louise Naper, 1913, Dame Laura Knight

12 Virginia Woolf, 1912, Vanessa Bell

13 Vanessa Bell, about 1913, Duncan Grant

14 Gwen John, about 1900, Self-portrait

15 Germaine Greer, 1995, Paula Rego

16 Gluck, Self-portrait, 1942

17 Portrait, Eyes Lowered, 2019, Celia Paul

18-20  St. Martin-in-the Fields with Bev Murray 

Vale Richard Harding

Dearest Richard Harding, I’m still trying to fathom a world without you in it - and failing miserably.

These photos (the most recent ones I could find) are from the blog post I published on Tuesday, 13 December 2016. The following text is an edited extract from the same post. 

On Friday evening, 9 December, the Australian Print Workshop held an artist party to thank the artists who contributed to its biennial fundraiser, IMPRESSIONS 2016.

Like many of the people I spoke to that night, Shane and I look forward to the event as a rare opportunity to catch up with old friends from whom we are increasingly separated by time (or rather, lack thereof) and distance.

Pictured top, L-R are: Richard Harding, Shane Jones, Lesley Duxbury and Catherine Pilgrim. Richard and Lesley are former colleagues from my teaching days in the Printmaking Department at RMIT University - and very happy days they were too. 

Pictured above, L-R: a slight regrouping, comprising myself, Richard, Lesley, Raymond Carter and Catherine. (Photo credit: Shane Jones).

Fortunately I’ve occasionally seen Richard since 2016, but not nearly often enough. Awhile back, we spoke about getting together for a coffee, but somehow never got around to it.

You will be sorely missed, Richard. My heart goes out to Tad, Lyn and all your family. 

London Retrospective 1: Picasso Printmaker

Tuesday 4 March

Directly following are selected highlights of the recent exhibition PICASSO PRINTMAKER at the British Museum. (Apologies for the lack of individual captions, which will be added shortly). 

This was one of several stunning exhibitions that happily coincided with a recent three-week trip to London. Owing to technical issues, I was unable to report on any of them directly from London. Instead, over the next few weeks, I will intermittently publish a series of retrospective posts on some of the galleries, museums and special exhibitions I visited during my all too brief stay.

PICASSO PRINTMAKER ran from 24 November 2024 - 30 March 2025.