Elegant art on show
by Beth Allan
What do Napoleon Bonaparte, shipwrecks and tigers have in common? They’re all represented in the Passion and Politics art exhibition currently showing at Auckland Art Gallery, that’s what.
The exhibition – subtitled Two Centuries of British Art – showcases fine examples of everything from portraits and landscapes, to imitations of the classical Roman style.
As you walk in, the earnest gentry stare out at you on one wall, while a chestnut racehorse stands brilliantly on another. In the next room, naked ladies find Moses in a pond.
Napoleon is represented by a death mask, which is a cast of the face made right after death. According to the wall notes, the mask on display is an 1833 copy of the original done 40 hours after the former general died in 1821. The delay was due to a lack of suitable plaster, and “the way gravity has drawn the flesh to the facial bones suggest rigor mortis is well advanced”. It is black and quite unsettling – I recommend you take a look if you’ve any inclination toward morbidity.
Death is also strikingly illustrated in For of such is the Kingdom of Heaven by Frank Bramley (1891). The painting depicts a child’s funeral procession. Sombre children are followed by equally sombre mothers carrying the tiny coffin – all dressed in white or pale dresses, with men wearing black suits following behind, and the shabby townsfolk looking on. The painting is large and the desolation engulfing.
In contrast, my favourite painting was small and tucked in the far corner of the exhibition, which occupies most of the second floor. “Asleep” by Samuel Fisher (1902) is of a well-to-do lady sleeping on a luxurious chair in a pretty pink dress. I wished I could trade places.
See this exhibition if you like great art and history - or even if you don’t.
It’s on until August 19, free of charge.