This past week has been a bit of a vacation for me. My only exam was a week ago Wednesday and in the absence of course work and dissertation work I had a bit of a break! I went to the Wellcome Collection which is another medical museum in central London. It has more installation art than the other two medical-themed museums we've been to (the Hunterian Museum and part of the Science Museum) and I can't say it was my favourite place to visit. But it did have an interesting collection of medical-related pieces from the past (collected by Henry Wellcome himself in the late 19th and early 20th centuries): memento mori, paintings of medical practice from the past, an ancient mummified body (no museum is complete without one!), etc.
We had a nice barbecue with friends last weekend, and I visited a friend in Reading on Thursday. This past Saturday we went to the Tate Britain which is about 15 minutes walking distance south of the Parliament Buildings. Since the day was beautiful and sunny we had a lovely walk all the way down Charing Cross Road through the centre of town to the gallery. The Tate Britain, not to be confused with the Tate Modern, is dedicated to British artists from the year 1500 onward. The building is beautiful, built in the neo-classical style at the
tail end of the 19th century. It was the original location of the Tate gallery before the Tate Modern was created in an old power station which is across the river from St. Paul's Cathedral (I went there in the Fall). The Tate Britain has a huge collection of Turner paintings. I hadn't realized how early Turner was (1775-1851) yet his later paintings are very reminiscent of the Impressionists decades later. Lots of "fogs and slurries" as Bridget Jones's mother would say (but in a good way). There are also a few paintings I recognized by Pre-Raphaelites like the famous Ophelia by John Everett Millais (a print of which we had up in our apartment - a wee bit morbid but lovely all the same) and The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse (looking forlorn in a dinghy - when I was ten I was obsessed with a song about the Lady of Shalott sung by Loreena McKennitt and had this painting on a postcard). Always a thrill to see these paintings in real life!
tail end of the 19th century. It was the original location of the Tate gallery before the Tate Modern was created in an old power station which is across the river from St. Paul's Cathedral (I went there in the Fall). The Tate Britain has a huge collection of Turner paintings. I hadn't realized how early Turner was (1775-1851) yet his later paintings are very reminiscent of the Impressionists decades later. Lots of "fogs and slurries" as Bridget Jones's mother would say (but in a good way). There are also a few paintings I recognized by Pre-Raphaelites like the famous Ophelia by John Everett Millais (a print of which we had up in our apartment - a wee bit morbid but lovely all the same) and The Lady of Shalott by John William Waterhouse (looking forlorn in a dinghy - when I was ten I was obsessed with a song about the Lady of Shalott sung by Loreena McKennitt and had this painting on a postcard). Always a thrill to see these paintings in real life!
On Sunday I went to Notting Hill with a friend from school. We went to the Museum of Brands and Packaging which had a huge collection of memorabilia and packaging (food, household goods, toys, etc) starting in the mid-19th century. It was a bit limited in terms of explanatory signs but it was interesting to see the evoluation of brands that we still use today (such as certain chocolate brands, cleaning products, etc). It was also fun to see some of the games and toys I remember from the 80s!
