Category: Radio
4
Date: 16.08.2005
Printable version
On 25 July 2005 the Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4 Today
programme, in partnership with the National Gallery, launched a poll
to find the Greatest Painting in Britain. Voting
for the longlist closed on Monday 8 August.
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A panel consisting of Martin Gayford
(art critic), Jonathan Yeo (artist) and Deborah
Bull (Creative Director, ROH2 at the Royal Opera House) oversaw
the selection of the shortlist of ten paintings.
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The top ten shortlisted paintings span over five centuries
of European art (from 1434 to 1971) and include works by British, Italian,
Dutch, Belgian and French artists. The paintings can be seen in galleries
from Edinburgh to London.
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The shortlist (in
date order)
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The Arnolfini Portrait - Jan van Eyck (National Gallery, London)
The Baptism of Christ - Piero della Francesca (National Gallery, London)
A Rake's Progress - William Hogarth (Sir John Soane's
Museum, London)
Revd Dr Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch - Sir Henry Raeburn
(National Galleries of Scotland)
The Hay Wain - John Constable (National Gallery, London)
The Fighting Temeraire tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838
- J.M.W Turner (National Gallery, London)
The Last of England - Ford Madox Brown (Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery
/ The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge)
A Bar at Folies-Bergére - Edouard Manet (Courtauld Institute of Art,
London)
Sunflowers - Vincent Van Gogh (National Gallery, London)
Mr and Mrs Clark and Percy - David Hockney (Tate Britain)
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Voting on the Shortlist
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From 8.30am on 15 August, the public can vote for their
favourite from the shortlist of the top ten paintings. Voting is again
via bbc.co.uk/today.
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The Today programme is hosting three weeks of debate
around these shortlisted paintings.
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The Final
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On Monday 5 September at the National Gallery, Today presenter,
James Naughtie, and National Gallery Director, Charles
Saumarez Smith, will announce to the nation live on Radio 4
the result of The Greatest Painting in Britain, as chosen by the British
public.
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Notes to Editors
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Portrait of Giovanni
(?) Arnolfini and His Wife
Short title: The Arnolfini
Portrait - Jan van Eyck (1434)
The Arnolfini family were Italian merchants, some of
whom lived in Bruges in the Low Countries, where van Eyck worked. It
is uncertain which member of the family is represented but the male
figure may be Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini. Although it has often been
interpreted as a depiction of a marriage ceremony, the picture may be
no more than a portrait of a married couple. National Gallery, London.
Bought 1842.
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The Baptism of Christ
- Piero della Francesca (1450s)
Christ is baptized by Saint John the Baptist. A dove,
the symbol of the Holy Spirit, hovers above. The angels attend with
Christ's robes. This was probably painted as an altarpiece for the chapel
of Saint John the Baptist in an abbey in Piero's native town of Borgo
San Sepolcro. The landscape resembles that around San Sepolcro. National
Gallery, London. Bought 1861.
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A Rake's Progress
- William Hogarth (1733)
The eight paintings in the series tell the story of
Tom Rakewell, a young man who follows a path of vice and self-destruction
after inheriting a fortune from his miserly father. It was Hogarth's
second 'modern moral subject,' and principally known through the engravings
made by the artist. Sir John Soane's Museum, London. Bought in 1802.
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Revd Dr Robert Walker Skating
on Duddingston Loch - Sir Henry Raeburn (1795)
The serene skater is thought to be the Reverend Robert
Walker, minister of the Canongate Kirk and a member of the Edinburgh
Skating Society. The club - the oldest of its kind in Britain - usually
met on the frozen lochs on the outskirts of Edinburgh. Walker's pose,
as he glides across the ice, looks effortless, but would have been recognized
by fellow skaters as a difficult and sophisticated manoeuvre. This small
picture, showing a figure in action, is quite unlike other known portraits
by Raeburn. National Galleries of Scotland. Bought 1949.
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The Hay Wain - John Constable
(1821)
The 'hay wain' is the horse-drawn wagon shown crossing
a ford. In the distance, labourers can be seen cutting hay in the fields.
The scenery is that of the River Stour in Constable's native Suffolk.
The red-roofed, whitewashed building on the left was the home of a local
farmer, Willy Lott. National Gallery, London. Presented by Henry Vaughn,
1886.
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The Fighting Temeraire
tugged to her last berth to be broken up, 1838 - J.M.W. Turner (1839)
The painting depicts the last journey of the Temeraire,
a famous warship sold by the Royal Navy in 1838. It was towed up the
Thames from Sheerness in Kent to a ship-breaker's yard in Rotherhithe,
South London. Turner contrasts the veteran ship, seen against the setting
sun, with the modern steam-propelled tug. National Gallery, London.
Turner Bequest, 1856.
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The Last of England - Ford
Madox Brown
There are two versions of this painting in Britain -
in Birmingham (1852-55) and Cambridge (1860). It was inspired by an
intensely miserable time of life for Brown and his thoughts turned to
emigration. It shows a young couple and their young baby departing for
a new life on the deck of a ship bound for Australia. Brown himself
posed for the painting, along with his partner and future wife, Emma,
and their children. Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery, bought 1891
/ Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, bought 1917
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A Bar at Folies-Bergére -
Edouard Manet (1882)
According to the recollections of Manet's friends,
this is a portrait of Suzon, a young woman who worked at the Folies-Bergère,
one of the great Parisian cafés-concerts. Courtauld Institute of Art,
London. A gift from Samuel Courtauld, 1934.
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Sunflowers - Vincent Van
Gogh (1888)
Van Gogh associated the colour yellow with hope and
friendship. He suggested that his four Sunflowers canvases, painted
as decorations for his house in Arles, might express an 'idea symbolizing
gratitude.' He seems to have been especially pleased with this picture,
which he hung in the guest bedroom in anticipation of the arrival of
his friend, the artist Paul Gauguin. National Gallery, London. Bought,
Courtauld Fund, 1924.
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Mr and Mrs Clark and
Percy - David Hockney (1970-1) Hockney painted this
portrait of his friends, the fashion designer Ossie Clark and Celia
Birtwell, shortly after their marriage. Hockney, who was best man at
their wedding, took great pains over his composition and painted Ossie's
head at least a dozen times. The couple modelled for the work on numerous
occasions in Hockney's studio. Presented to the Friends of the Tate
Gallery, 1971.
