In addition to going to the Camden area, I also went to a couple museums this weekend. Well technically an art gallery and a museum. Both are cool and both are free!!!!
On Friday before class, Rick Steves London guidebook in hand, I headed over to the National Gallery. I really wanted to be able to look carefully at each painting and not just kind of wander through aimlessly so I brought the guidebook with me as a basic roadmap to where I should start and go to from there. I also appreciate the commentary on the pieces he deemed important enough to talk about, but I think the panels in the gallery actually do a pretty excellent job of getting the story across.
Of course I’d been here before on my last trip to London, and a couple weeks ago my Health and Society class took a trip here to practice our observational skills that have actually been proven in studies to be linked to more efficient clinical skills. I love being able to really dissect paintings and get the story from them, but it took us 2 1/2 hours to go through like 5 different pictures so I was hoping to be able to keep an element of that, but go at my own pace based on what I like. I appreciate knowing the backstory but I don’t like people telling me what I should be getting from a piece or what the “correct” interpretation is – the point of art is that it’s different for everyone and affects everyone differently! Ok rant over 
The guidebook proved a pretty handy tool although some paintings had been moved to different rooms for special exhibitions so I had to occasionally do a bit of searching. I started in the earliest time period and just made my way through and without further ado, here were my favorites!! 
1370-1, Jacopo di Cione
I loved all the rich colors and gold embellishments on these early pieces!
These were so incredibly life-like!
Carlo Crivelli, 1486
The detail here amazed me, and really shows you what Italian Renaissance towns would have looked like at during their height.
This painting actually looks like a carving; the artist did such a good job of creating a 3D image.
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 1815
I think that any landscape painted during the 1800s is absolutely beautiful; I love this style.
Claude, 1672, and Landscape with the Rest on the Flight into Egypt
Pierre Patel, 1652
Anthony Van Dyck, about 1625-7
about 1638, Anthony Van Dyck
The personalities in these 2 pictures made me laugh.
Anthony Van Dyck, probably early 1630s
Someone was trying to paint a copy of this and it seems to be a perfect match!!
Jacob van Ruisdael, about 1650-2
Bartolome Esteban Murillo , 1660-5
We never really see depictions of John the Baptist as a baby and he just looks so sweet here
Francisco de Zurbaran, 1630-4
This painting interested me because of my Peru background; it’s depicting St Margaret but she’s clothed in traditional South American dress!
Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768
William Hogarth, 1742
These 2 paintings we analyzed in my Health and Society class so I could tell you everything you ever wanted to know
And now we move into Impressionism. I think this is my favorite style – I remember going through all the different art museums in Paris and spending hours admiring the works in this style.
Edourard Vuillard, 1901
Anybody recognize this next one??
Claude Monet, 1899
Laurits Andersen Ring, 1912
I really liked that one. When you look at it long enough you actually feel the cold – when a painting can make you feel something like that, to me that’s the sign of a good painting!!
Georges Seurat, 1884
Henri Rousseau, 1891
Another famous one coming – I had to fight for this picture!
Vincent van Gogh, 1888
Vincent van Gogh, 1890
John Singer Sargent, probably 1875
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, 1875
I love this one!!! Definitely one of my top favorites.
And if you have made it this far, I congratulate you!! I really enjoyed taking my time through the National Gallery, and even though I didn’t see and take in every single painting in their complex, I did the vast majority of them and loved walking through time and seeing how painting styles and subjects have changed and evolved throughout time. We really can learn a lot about time periods and cultures by looking at what they paint!
Alright, one more museum.
On Sunday, I went to the Imperial War Museum. At this point, I’ve pretty much done all of the mainstream museums and galleries, and while I appreciate being able to see them for a second time after our first trip, I really wanted to make an effort to explore all of the other museums that London has to offer that might not make the itinerary for people only visiting for a week. Expect a lot more of those types of places in the days to come!
Like the National Gallery, I gave myself plenty of time to really go through the museum and read all the panels and really soak it up. I started on the first floor which was dedicated to the First World War. It was so well done. There was a huge wealth of information presented to really give you an idea of every aspect that the war brought with it. It was kind of similar to the Military Museum in Paris that has its own exhibitions over the first and second world wars. It is so interesting to hear about it from their (Britain and France) perspectives, especially since they were the ones actually doing 99% of the fighting (with Russia) on their side – NOT us. In America I think there’s this really common perception especially among young people that we “came in and won the wars for them.” Yeah no. We have no idea how this war truly affected the people of Europe and the sacrifices that everyone had to make. Exhibits like this really make you respect these people and I think help broaden our narrowed perspective that we have. And in addition to that, it really is just interesting to see how both sides evolved throughout the war and the weapon changes and political changes and social changes that emerged as a result. 
Basically I really enjoyed this section. Highly recommend!
My next stop was the floor above. They had a World War II exhibit but it wasn’t so much walking you through the war, as it was just a collection of some artifacts from the war that a curator had written about. I didn’t take too much time there, but they did have a section that followed a real London family through World War II. It included a model of their house at the time, and how each of the 10 children contributed to the war. This section looked more at how war was just affecting peoples personal lives, even if they weren’t out on the battlefield.
I went up another floor and found an exhibit called “The Secret Wars,” it was all about the different spy units (MI5, MI6, etc.) in the UK. This was pretty interesting too, I mean who doesn’t want to know more about the lives of spies!!
Items taken from spies! Invisible ink!! Ooooh!!!
My last stop was the top floor housing the section on the Holocaust. Another really well done area with lots of personal accounts, stories, and a huge model of a concentration camp walking you through what happened there. Painful to think about, but so important to be armed with the knowledge of so that we never ever let happen again.
All in all, I think I spent around 3 hours!! at the museum. I actually really enjoyed this museum and I think even if you’re here for a short time, you should at least go to the First World War section because it is so well done.
And with that, I think it’s about time for me to sign off. Stay tuned for a post about a day trip that I recently took, coming soon!!
Thank you for reading and putting up with all my pictures
-Katie
Katie, a senior Biology major, is spending the Fall 2017 semester studying Health & Society at King's College in London through Arcadia University.
Read more from Katie at https://katientheuk.wordpress.com/
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