Another Tryst with Turner at the Tate, A Visit to London's East End and Dinner with a Former Student's Family

Another Tryst with Turner at the Tate, A Visit to London's East End and Dinner with a Former Student's Family

London

Saturday, May 21, 2022

    Today we were a bit more sensible about waking up and got cracking quickly. Showers and breakfast done (Muesli with honey yogurt, bagels with passion fruit curd and decaff coffee), we set out for the day. Our first stop was the Tate Britain at Millbank--which is a rather difficult part of the city of London to reach as the nearest Tube stop is a good ten minute's walk away. From there, I thought I would take Llew into the East End of London where I had once rented a home. I wanted to show him the Victorian house I had rented for six months on one of my scholarship stints.We were aware that we needed to get back home and save some part of the afternoon to pack up our things as our friend Bande would be returning to London while we were still in Oxford and we did want to get our own stuff organized. Tomorrow, we will be leaving for a week's stay in Oxford and the Cotswolds, so it made sense to return home in good time. Later in the evening, we had a dinner date at the home of one of my former NYU students in Kensington.  

Off to the Tate Britain:

    We left home at 10.00 am and took the Tube from Paddington to Westminster. At Westminster, the full force of London's tourist energy hit us. The city is heaving. Crowds thronged Westminster Pier and Bridge as everyone tried to take pictures of the newly-scruffed up Big Ben Tower. It does wear its new finery proudly. The gilt is gleaming, the stone is breathing again. I knew we'd have to walk along the Embankment from Westminster Bridge towards Vauxhall to get to the Tate Britain and, luckily, we had a lovely day. The sky was blue, the temperature was just perfect for a leisurely jaunt and the city wore its most welcoming hat. We could not have started for a better morning and I have to tell you that my heart sang--to be in my favorite city in the world with my favorite company in the world--for what more could a gal ask?

    Along the way, we passed by the Embankment Gardens where I pointed out to Llew the reproduction sculpture of Auguste Rodin's The Burgers of Calais. We have, of course, seen the original in the Rodin Museum in Paris and there is a similar reproduction in the Met Museum in New York. So, it was like saying hello to an old friend. 

Mudlarking! Londoners' New Pass-Time:

    As we walked along the Embankment, I also pointed out to Llew the sight of Londoners indulging in their newest passion--Mudlarking! If you have never heard of it (or of the word), I believe it is a new coinage. The hobby refers to the passion some people have developed for scouring the banks of the river Thames at low tide to try to retrieve antiquities from the past. Some of them use metal detectors, but the majority use only their eyes. Over the centuries, the Thames was used as a garbage dump by Londoners of several generations. Much of the garbage remains buried in the mud of the rivers. As the tides turn, the waters are churned up and, if you are lucky, you will come upon all manner of debris that, over the centuries, have acquired importance as artifacts from the past and, in some cases, have also acquired value. I follow a few of the mudlarkers on Twitter and know that the more persistent have found dozens of pipes (mainly bowls but, in some cases, intact ones with foot long stems in bone or ivory), badges, seals, coins, buttons, beads, glass bottle stoppers, whole bottles, shards of ceramic ware...you get the idea. In fact, these mudlarkers are now looking out for suitable containers to showcase their finds--mainly accountants' cabinets with multiple shallow drawers. The rule says that if you find something more than a hundred years old, you are required to report it to the Museum of London. If they are interested in using it to expand their collection, they will compensate you for it. If you find any item in gold, you are required to report it too. Anything else is up for grabs. So popular has this hobby become that you are now required to pay for and acquire a mudlarking license to scour the Thames' banks. So now you know as much as I do about mudlarking!

    On we walked to Lambeth Bridge where we stopped so that I could point out Lambeth Palace to Llew. This set of medieval buildings are ( and have been historically, through the centuries), the London headquarters of the Anglican Church of England. There is a Bishop of Lambeth, a Black female called Rose, for whom I was invited to pray by Dean Robert Willis of Canterbury Cathedral when I listened each day to his Morning Prayer Service online.  I have also been privileged, together with my friend Shahnaz and her daughter Azra, to get a private tour, a few years ago, of Lambeth Palace (as is it known) organized by my friend Bishop Michael Colclough as, in normal circumstances, Lambeth is not open to the public. I remember what a fantastic tour it is and how thrilling we found it. We took a few pictures and moved on.

    About ten minutes later (roughly 25 minutes' walk from Westminster), we arrived at the Tate Britain--a stunning Neo-Classical building that is a solid New York block in size. We walked around the side of the building, past a whole bed of fragrant, soft pink David Austin roses, before we found the entrance. There is no charge to view the permanent collection but you do need a ticket to see the 'specials'. Right now, there is one going on that features the work of Walter Sickert. We were, however, headed to the Clore Galleries to see the Turners. 

Viewing the Turners at the Clore Gallery at the Tate Britain:

    The Turner Bequest is the largest ever that a museum has received. It was Turner's dream to make his work available to the general public, not just to the moneyed who could afford to buy it. Hence, by the terms of his will, his entire oeuvre was bequeathed to the Tate Britain--and this runs into thousands of items if one includes every drawing and sketch he made.  The Museum actually had to build an extra wing (the Clore Galleries) to house the collection as it is massive. The good thing is that, because they have such a large number of Turner's works (he was a most prolific artist), they keep changing the oil canvases on display--hence, you will see different Turners every time you visit the Tate (and I have gone there on every trip to London). 

    This time round, we came so that Llew could see Turner's works as we had been to his home yesterday. We were lucky to find a range of his work on display today--from the very early Realistic canvases that depicted scenes from Greek mythology or from the Bible to the last works he completed, by which point his style had become distinctly Impressionistic. There was a whole gallery devoted to Turner's incomplete works--works he had intended to exhibit at the annual summer exhibition at the Royal Academy of Art at Piccadilly after he was voted in as a Fellow. We saw the vast impact of the sea on Turner's mind and art--eg. the swirling waters of the ocean at Margate in Kent where he made frequent visits, lived in a cheap boarding house and become romantically involved with the widowed owner, Mrs. Booth (all of this is brilliantly depicted in the film Mr. Turner with Timothy Spall in the lead role). There was also a room devoted to an understanding of Turner's use of color and light and his insistence on depicting movement in art. Yes, it was all quite wonderful indeed and Llew and I kept thinking of the special 'Turner as Maritime Artist' exhibition entitled 'Turner and the Sea' that we had seen in Mystic, Connecticut, with our friends Laureen, Bonnie and Art, a few years ago. To have learned so much about the life of Turner, about his gigantic success at such a young age, about his skills as a technician and colorist--all of this was such a revelation for me on tis trip.         

    Another thing that struck me as we viewed the exhibition was the uncanny and unwitting artistic connections that Llew and I have been making on this trip. We started off, quite by chance, a week ago, visiting Sir John Soane's House and Museum at Lincoln Inn Fields as he is one of my favorite London architects and I did want to introduce Llew to his intriguing and most unusual home. Well, as it turned out, Turner was a very close friend of Soane. It was Soane who advised and helped Turner design his home, Sandycombe House, in Twickenham (which we visited yesterday). And then, when we arrived at the Tate Britain, we saw a large canvas on the wall that Turner created specifically for Soane's House-Museum. Clearly, this was never placed in the house--because, had it been, it would still be in the house. The connections for me were striking.

    Finishing up with the Turner Collection, we paused to look at a gallery containing about six paintings by the American artist, Mark Rothko. Rothko had been a long-time admirer of Turner. When he received a commission to paint about eight canvases for a local New York hotel, he painted depictions of anxiety, tragedy, gloom, and despair using just two colors--magenta and black. These did not seem to sit well with his clients and Rothko pulled out of his contract with them. He, instead, bequeathed his eight canvasses to the Tate and made the request that they would be placed right besides the works of his hero, Turner, in the Turner Collection as Rothko could not think of a better place to have his work displayed.     

    I did not want to leave the Tate without seeing the collection of Pre-Raphaelite Art as, for some reason, they too have become very much of a theme through this trip. I asked one of the guards to guide me to the relevant gallery and then spent the next several minutes feasting my eyes on their works--Millais' famous canvas of Ophelia is here (it often features as a cover in modern editions of Shakespeare's Hamlet), Tissot's depiction of a Ball on a 19th century cruise ship, a bunch of paintings by Edward Burne-Jones and Dante Gabriel Rossetti (both of whom used Jane Burden Morris as their model), Willaim Holman Hunt's many depictions of daily life as well as mythological scenes--yes, there are many charming examples of their style and obsessions in this gallery. 

Off to Visit my Previous Digs at Stepney Green:

    After using the facilities, it was time to move on, however, and we did. This time, we walked to the back of the Museum to take the 88 bus to Westminster. We crossed a crowded Parliament Square and disappeared down the Underground stairwell to take the District line to Stepney Greene where I hoped to show Llew my previous digs. We could get the Tube as far as Tower Hill, but we had to take substitute buses beyond this point to go beyond Stepney Green Station. Once we arrived at the station, we hopped off and made a left on to Globe Road where we walked down several blocks to get to my former home. The place is currently clearly rented out as we saw a postman deliver mail and someone appear in the living room to pick it up. I had not enjoyed living in this home--it was antiquated yes, but simply too outdated for my liking and much too dull. The neighborhood had been most unappealing and I could not wait to get away. I had then rented a place in Ealing which was infinitely better and which I truly loved. But I was keen to show Llew the place and give him an understanding of why I got out of my tenancy contract.

    That errand accomplished, we walked to the other end of Globe Road and stood for a bus not far from the London Buddhist Center.  This bus took us as far as Liverpool Street Station from where we jumped into the Tube to ride to Paddington. It was about 4.00 pm when we returned home to eat a fairly late lunch as we really did need to finish off all the food in our fridge before we leave our Paddington pad for the next stint of our stay in Oxfordshire. So, finish our chicken, leek and ham pie and our vegetable samosas we did. Everything was absolutely delicious and I was glad. 

 Packing Up for the Next Stint of our Travels:

    We spent the next two hours then sorting through our stuff--all the stuff that Llew had brought me from the US--plus all the stuff I have bought from here to take back to India...yes, its enough to fill two suitcases and I am thrilled. However, Llew is very worried that I have already exceeded my weight allowance, although I am not. We shall see...the bulk of my shopping has been done and I am ready now to launch into the next phase of our travel--in the beautiful Cotswolds. 

 Dinner at the Home of my Former Student:

           After two steady hours of getting our stuff redistributed and re-organized, we were ready to get dressed to leave for our dinner engagement. My former student Elise who has settled down in London had invited us for dinner to her home in Kensington at 7.30 pm. We got dressed and took the Tube to High Street Kensington from where we found our way past the warren of little lanes to their lovely home. I have visited Elise before in this new home to which she moved about six years ago, while Llew had visited them with me when they lived in a flat, prior to this house, right opposite Hyde Park. I was really keen to see them again as we have become close family friends with Elise's lawyer husband James and their children Thomas and Elektra. I had last seen them for a pub lunch at The Builder's Arms when the children were still seated on laps. To see them today would be to find grown-up versions of their baby selves and I could not wait. 

    This time round, as the day was so glorious and there is daylight right up to 9.00 pm, we sat outside in their little garden behind their home in the midst of lovely little yew tree hedges that formed a kind of Elizabethan knot garden. James was already at the grill when we went down into the garden after Elektra opened the door and let us in. Of course, we all had an uproarious reunion as I was just delighted to see them all again. Yes, the children had grown but they had only grown more delightful. Both of them were talkative and friendly and not the least bit shy of strangers. Well, needless to say, we had a really terrific time with them.

    James was grilling steaks and after he switched the grill off, he came to join us at the table where Elise had opened a bottle of champagne and poured me a glass. Salami, cheese and chips were the nibbles served as they opened the bottle of Chateau Saint Emillion red wine that we had taken over for them. I had also taken Elise a necklace from India and a box of chocolates for the children. As we enjoyed drinks, the children had their dinner. With champagne and red wine warming us up, we were thoroughly in the mood for an entertaining evening. The children then went off to watch a movie and we, grown-ups, were left alone to get on with dinner. I helped Elise bring the rest of the food down from the kitchen into the garden: the excellent foccaccia she baked, an heirloom tomato salad with goat cheese, olives and fresh basil leaves in a balsamic vinaigrette, and a green salad--all these, of course, were served with our steaks (medium-rare for us). Everything was delicious and our chatter was companionable and non-stop. For dessert, Elise served strawberries with her own homemade vanilla ice-cream! Lights dimmed, of course, in the garden, as we kept chatting and finally it was 10.00 pm, when we got up to leave after what had been another fabulous evening with friends.

    All that was left was to say goodbye and thanks to our generous, warm and lovely hosts and to their gorgeous children and to walk to the Tube station at High Street Kensington from where we took the Circle Line to Paddington. Back home, we spent about a half hour getting ready for bed and slept in the knowledge that we would leave tomorrow for Oxford.

    Until tomorrow...cheerio!           

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