#v&a

Victoria & Albert Museum, London, 02 IX 2017

'The Letter', life study by Sir Edwin Landseer, made ca. 1830-40.

London, sometime in the 1840s. William Edward Frost stands in front of a canvas that no one asked him to paint. His "Life Study of the Male Figure" wasn't a commission. It was preparation. Frost had won the Royal Academy's Gold Medal in 1839 and built a career on mythological scenes full of nymphs - polished fantasies that Victorian patrons hung in rooms where nudity required a classical alibi. But alone in the studio, he kept making these. A model on a low platform, arms raised, head tilted upward. Light falls from the upper left and carves the torso into zones of pale flesh and deep amber shadow. Every rib, every abdominal plane observed with a patience no patron paid for. The background is nothing - raw umber dissolving into grey. The feet trail off into looser brushwork, unfinished, because this was never meant to leave the room. Now it lives at the Victoria & Albert Museum, horizontal cracks pressing across the paint surface like time leaving its own weight on the figure. The private record of an artist staring at a body with no myth to hide behind. Just light, muscle, gravity, and time. Quelle: meisterdrucke.com

Rupert Graves with James Wilby and Dame Judi Dench at the unveiling of the A Room With A View permanent costume display at the Victoria and Albert Museum on November 4.

Costumes from the Theatre and Performance Collection, V&A, London

This illustration was on display at the Victoria and Albert museum, Dundee, Scotland. It was in an exhibition of art and illustration of the architecture and planning of new towns in Scotland. I think it's by Michael Evans for Geoffrey Copcutt, part of the designs for the town centre in Cumbernauld, but I'm not certain. If you've any additional information about this illustration, I'd be glad if you might leave a comment.