Friday, August 29, 2008

Column Week 30

This is my newspaper column, in print today in the Cambs Times and Wisbech Standard:



I recently took my Son Harry on his first visit to the Fitzwilliam museum in Cambridge, where we spent the afternoon sketching and browsing.
The building itself, designed by George Basevi, first opened to the public in 1848 and is nothing short of spectacular.
In 1816 Richard, VII Viscount Fitzwilliam of Merrion, bequeathed to the University of Cambridge his works of art and library, together with funds to house them and there began the foundations of a collection that has continued to grow ever since. Paintings and prints by artists such as Goya, Picasso, Constable, Monet, Titian, Pissarro, Degas, to name but a few, decorate the gallery walls, scattered in rooms between marble columns and decorative plaster.
The Charrington print room currently houses an exhibition entitled 'The field calls me to labour' showing watercolours of nineteenth-century rural Britain by Robert Hills and his contemporaries and the Shiba gallery displays ‘Fifty Etchings 2005’ by Christopher Le Brun.
Of course, there is a lot more to the Fitzwilliam than paintings, sketches and sculptures; coins, tombs, mummies, jewellery, armour, manuscripts…the list goes on. The Fitzwilliam is a huge trinket box filled to the brim with delicious gems and entrance is free!

http://www.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/ (closed Mondays). Tel: 01223 332900
If you would like to see more, my daily journal entries can be found on my blog : http://artbyanita.blogspot.com/.


4 comments:

susan said...

the museum sounds wonderful. your children are so lucky to be exposed to such worldly treats...at such a young age...what an education. do you write your column from home? what are the primary topics that you write about in your columns...places to visit, etc.? I love your sketches

Kathleen said...

I love museums like the Fitzwilliam thanks for sharing your sketches - the alcove statuary is especially nice

Joan said...

Sounds like a great place to wander and sketch. I love the entryway statue!!

susan said...

Hi Anita, thank you for the comments on my blog...You asked about VSD...I received a blog from Quilt Knit that got me interested in this and decided to participate: I am attaching what she relayed to me: VSD is Virtual Sketching Date. All are welcome to come and make their interpretation and rendering of the photo. Either the color or the Grayscale. Do both or one. All you have to do is post a comment at: http://virtualsketchdate.blogspot.com That you are doing a sketch. It can be whatever inspires you. Tommorrow the results will be posted of all the entries for the ornamental cabbage...August's sketch.