Saturday 23rd August 2025, 17:12
Before going to the cafe I visited the art gallery in the Pump Rooms. There wasn't as much to see as I expected because they are doing a lot of work on the roof so a lot of rooms are closed. But what is open is good and the small exhibition of women's art is very good.
Three pieces in particular struck me as worth a close look, each for different reasons.
Lady with Powder Puff. I'm attracted to this one not for it's technique but for it's every day direct down to earth-ness
A copy of a Rafael. This kind of painting always astonishes me, how is it possible to lay the paint down so smoothly with no obvious signs of the brush?
When I saw this one my first thought was "Where was this photograph taken?"
But as I walked up to it I could see that it was a carefully constructed fake. And also that the fakery was deliberately imperfect with the lighting arranged so as to cast shadows where parts of the collage had not been completely stuck down:
