National Portrait Gallery, to 22nd October
SOUTINE’S PORTRAITS The Courtauld Gallery 19th October to 21st January
National Portrait Gallery, to 22nd October Following closely in the wake of the Ashmolean’s magisterial show of Raphael drawings, this show subtitled ‘Drawings from Leonardo to Rembrandt’ is a joy and a triumph, if not quite of equal majesty. The two title artists are in fact represented by only one drawing each, but they would be worth a long journey just by themselves. Leonardo’s is a well-proportioned nude male, who stands completely posed on his feet, despite the absence of any background, and whose musculature is perfectly indicated in chalk and ink. The sheet of eight studies by Rembrandt range from masterly caricature to the tenderest doodle. Almost all the 48 exhibits deserve long, happy, study, and it is near impossible for me to pick favourites. Among them must be Annibale Carracci’s pen head of the lutenist Giulio Pedrizzano, whose spiky hair one can almost feel, which comes from Chatsworth...
I’m afraid this isn’t one of our four free articles available in full, which are set out in the first two rows of the ‘Magazine’ page.
Please click here to find them.
To buy a digital version of this issue for just £2.99, click here
