The Lady in the Gallery

In addition to our lovely morning hike and cupcake picnic, my friends and I also went to the National Gallery of Scotland yesterday.  The museum has a lovely collection of art, both from Scotland and throughout the world.  I had a lot of fun looking at the portraits, on loan from the National Portrait Gallery while it undergoes a massive renovation.  There was one of a Highland military man who had designed is own uniform, complete with red argyle socks, green tartan trowsers, a sporran, and a tartan drape over his military jacket!! I haven't been able to find a picture of it online, so you'll just have to take my word for how spectacular it was.

another portrait I loved, by Grant, 1857

As I've mentioned before, I love late nineteenth century art--especially Impressionism.  I was thrilled to discover the 19th century gallery, located off the main floor.  When I reached the top of the stairs, I turned to look into the gallery and came face to face with an old friend!

Lady Agnew of Lochnaw, John Singer Sargeant 1892

This is Lady Gertrude Vernon Agnew.  Her portrait was done by American artist John Singer Sargeant in 1892.  The reason this was so exciting for me is that I wore her dress to my first ball at the Astors' Beechwood Mansion in Newport, RI.
...well, sort of.  The first year I attended Newport Vintage Dance Week, the wonderful Katie Bishop loaned me some dresses she had made so that I would have something to wear to the various events.  The dress I wore to the 1890s ball at the Beechwood was after the dress in this painting.  I thought this was really neat, and spent a lot of the night attempting to take a picture of myself in the same pose as the original.  It didn't go particularly well, but here is the best attempt:

Had my posture been better, it would have worked, I think.

 I definitely jumped up and down and squealed a bit in the gallery, and everyone looked at me like I was crazy.  oh, well.

We saw a lot of other really lovely paintings, including a Seurat and several Degas.  Degas is one of my favorite artists, so this was really exciting.  Also one of his bronze casts, but a less famous one so it was new to me! yay!

Arabesque, c.1882-1895

La Luzerne, Saint-Denis by Georges Seurat

We saw a lot of other beautiful work too, from many different periods.  In particular, the National Gallery has (shockingly) a great collection of Scottish art.  Raeburn is the most famous, I think, for Americans, but there were lots of others I had never heard of.

the Raeburn I think is most famous, Reverend Walker Ice Skating on Duddingston Loch

One I really liked was Joseph Paton.  I'd seen The Reconciliation of Oberon and Titania before, but not its pair.

The Quarrel of Oberon and Titania

There were also some names I did recognize, like James Drummond.  I had never seen his work before, but I live just across from Drummond Street!