Christmas comes early

JENNY AT THE NATIONAL GALLERY

Back yesterday from our trip to England, nay, London even !

On Wednesday (19/12/07), Jenny gave an evening lecture in the theatre of the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery to mark the publication of her book (see link top right). Afterwards there was a reception and book-signing. Not an easy assignment, given the (presumably) very mixed audience, but the girl carried it off with some aplomb, I think. Difficult for us to judge, given that she is our girl, and we knew many of the best lines already, but the audience seemed warm and receptive, and not anxious to rush off. We were told some 200 tickets had been sold in advance. I would guess the theatre was about 3/4 full, which probably implies rather more than 200 present on the night. Such is the wide appeal of Van Eyck.
A notable bonus of the setting was the gorgeous theatre-screen-size display of the pictures - not only the actual Van Eycks, but also some of the analytic/comparative detail (e.g. so many versions of what were probably just two or three original representations of the two brothers), and also the many 'popular' images Jenny has dug up, like a set of German 'chocolate cards', dating from 1904, or an engraving of the Arnolfini portrait from the Illustrated London News. To say nothing of the Habitat advert from last year !

I had hoped to lead this with a suitable photo, but all of ours (yes, every one!) have caught Jenny at the worst micro-second. We could have done with Ben's motorised super shooter.

On the Thursday, Jenny and I went into 'the Smoke' again, to meet a small group of her students and then, together at the Barbican, the curator of the current exhibition at the Barbican (of which no more at this point !). And then on Friday, the three of us had lunch at The Barn before walking on the downs with Brindle, returning to a take-away and sharing of gifts with Alex.
Altogether, a very happy three days.