After visiting the Clementine Churchill Hospital for another check-up with the Physiotherapist he gave me a new set of exercises. The session lasted for less than 20 minutes and I get I had to string it out for that long. I felt he wanted to cut it even shorter.
I walked down to Sudbury Hill tube station to travel to State Modern and the Sickert Exhibition. I planned to meet Harry at 11:30 but I arrived much too early. I tried unsuccessfully to fill in the Times crossword while I waited. However Harry never showed up. when I eventually managed to speak to him he told me he was on the golf course. Of course, he apologised profusely and said he had no excuses. He even told me later that the meeting was in his diary.
Anyway I went round the exhibition on my own. I found some of the paintings quite interesting but the exhibition as a whole didn’t inspire me.
They had filled the first room with self-portraits. I found these two the most interesting.
As a young man he had assisted Whistler in his London studio and been heavily influenced by him. The use of dark sombre colours was a hallmark of his early work.He
He then spread his wings and became involved with Degas and other French artists following many visits to Paris and Dieppe.
I particularly like his portrait of Aubrey Beardsley. Set in Hampstead Church graveyard where Beardsley had been attending a memorial to Keats who died of tuberculosis. Beardsley happened to be suffering from the same disease at the time.
Other pictures I enjoyed included the following.
