Bristol's Harbour

This is my second painting of Bristol's Harbour (England), after The John King. This boat is named Bee and moored not far from the Mshed museum.

Bristol's Harbour - Oil on canvas (18" x 14") by Benoit Philippe

The Glasgow School of Art's Charles Rennie Mackintosh

Tragic news from yesterday: the Glasgow School of Art's Charles Rennie Mackintosh caught fire. The fire started in the basement, where students worked on their end-of-year project (apparently, a projector started the fire) and the flames leaped to the upper floors. The fire services arrived immediately but had to fight the blaze until late in the day.

Major newspapers and news channels reported the dramatic incident: The BBC, The Independent, and the Evening Times for instance.

Charles Rennie Mackintosh, born in Glasgow (Scotland), was a major figure of the Art Nouveau mouvement. This building is representative of his art and unique.

I had the chance to visit the School of Art building a year ago, when I went to Glasgow with my family. Below are the pictures I took then.

Whistler and the Thames

I recommend that you read in The Economist the article "A river runs through it" about the exhibition “An American in London: Whistler and the Thames” on show at the Freer-Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC.

Nocturne in Blue and Gold: Old Battersea Bridge – Oil on canvas by James McNeill Whistler - Tate Gallery, London (UK) [Source: Wikimedia] 

This exhibition has already been shown at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London and the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts.

The video in The Economist's article (embedded below) is worth every minute of your time.

Details for the exhibition

“An American in London: Whistler and the Thames”
May 3–August 17, 2014
Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
1050 Independence Ave SW
P.O. Box 37012, MRC 707
Washington, D.C. 20013-7012

Website of the gallery


Related resources

• “An American in London: Whistler and the Thames” at the Freer-Sackler Gallery in Washington, DC. 

• “An American in London: Whistler and the Thames” at the Dulwich Picture Gallery in London.

• “An American in London: Whistler and the Thames” at the Addison Gallery of American Art in Andover, Massachusetts.

• Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts.

On beauty – Rodin’s artistic Testament

Monument to Balzac - Bronze by Auguste Rodin (1898 - cast 1954) - MoMA New York

"Everything is beauty to the artist, as in all beings and all things, his penetrating gaze discovers character, that is to say the inner truth that is reflected behind the form. And this truth is beauty itself."

Auguste Rodin - Testament

And here is the original quotation in French:

« Tout est beau pour l’artiste, car en tout être et en toute chose, son regard pénétrant découvre le caractère, c’est-à-dire la vérité intérieure qui transparaît sous la forme. Et cette vérité, c’est la beauté même. »

Auguste Rodin dictated the text of the Testament to Paul Gsell in 1911 so that it could be published after his death. The text has been reproduced in 1922 in l’Histoire générale de l'art français by André Fontainas and Louis Vauxcelles (Volume 2 page 259 and subsequent) and is available online on Wikisource.

Related resources

• The artist’s inprint in all parts of his work – Rodin 
• Sculptures at the V&A museum
• Art is not always about beauty
• The impossible task of writing about art
• On being true – Rodin’s Artistic Testament
• On beauty – Rodin’s artistic Testament