National Gallery - Clark and Fuseli

... sunset at the Rideau Canal ...

I spent the morning in the National Gallery. 

There were two lecture highlights: one at 11 and one at noon.

The docent talks are supposed to be 10 minutes.

 I was there along with another Canadian.

The docent spent 45 minutes with us at each painting, which was a thrill for me.

Henry Fuseli (Johann Heinrich Füssli) - Oil

 I rode the bus into Ottawa with Mary and then walked in the mall downtown until the gallery opened.

By noon I was just thrilled with what I had seen and heard.

The first was a painting by Henry Fuseli called “The Dream of Belinda”.

This is a scene from The Rape of the Lock, a satire/tragedy from the romantic period.

... Parliament Hill ...
... yes, I am really here ...

Since the group was small the woman giving us the lecture showed us how the painting fit in with all of the other paintings in the room and she described this period, showing us the artistic symbols that helped me to understand the paintings.

The second picture was “Petroushka” by Paraskeva Clark.

There was so much in the room to understand, that I went back after lunch to see the details on the other paintings.

Petrushka by Paraskeva Clarke

And in the late afternoon I looked at both Inuit sculpture, and at a room that was dedicated to large scale paintings by Emily Carr.




I am planning on going back tomorrow … and tomorrow … and tomorrow.