An impromtu visit to the RA to see the Vuilliard and Philip Guston exhibitions.

The Vuillard was excellent. Jane explained how his early compositions were inspired by photography. I thought that was certainly true of the lighting in which figures were silhoutted against a bright background:

Jed was inspired by a later Vuillard portriat. His "Lazy Dentist" relaxes (union jack in hand) whilst his robot goes to work on one of his NHS patients. Patent pending!

 

Not to be left out, i had a crack at a copying a painting we decided looked like "Phoebe and Grandad":

 

The Guston exhibition was less fun, though Jed decided the menacing "hoods" were probably "nice" since they liked painting themselves and "only nice people paint":

 

Lucy wondered if some of his cartoon like figures were based on Nixon. This seems very likely:

On the way back Lucy asked Phoebe (3) if she had liked the pictures: "yes, but i don't want to go back there again!"

Links:
Royal Academy