Victoria Hinshaw – Page 35 – Number One London

Notes from Lisbon

Victoria here, writing from Lisbon, where it is sunny and delightfully breezy. Above, the statue of Marquis de Pombal, at the foot of Parque Eduardo VII, named for the British King who visited here in 1903 to confirm the continuing alliance of Portugal and the United Kindom. Below, the view from the top of the park, looking down toward the statue, the broad tree-lined boulevard beyond it, to the River Tagus.

The Marquis de Pombal (1699-1782) was a distinguished statesman who provided strong leadership after the terrible earthquake and tsunami that devastated Lisbon November 1, 1755. He also abolished slavery in Portugal and her colonies, reorganized the army and navy, and improved the administration of colonial Brazil, among other accomplishments. His statue overlooks the Avenida da Liberdade, a broad boulevard with gardens and restaurants and lined by banks, hotels and smart shops.

The sidewalks are paved with small stones, often in patterns, as along the boulevard.

We stopped for luncheon at one and sat outside under the shade of huge plane trees and beside a large palm. One of the cafe’s specialities was a smoothie called Splash. Delicious.

As one strolls the Avenida, there are wonderful views up the cross streets, which lead into the hilly old town areas, most of which predate the earthquake and survived the floods.

Since we are to leave on our cruise tomorrow, we went down to the River Tagus to see the port. Across the street was the Military Museum honoring the centuries of Portuguese domination of large areas of the world Brazil, Mozambique, Goa, and Macao, to name a few. It is often pointed out here that Portuguese is the third most widely spoken European language in the world.

The museum has a huge collection of artillery, from gigantic cannons down to pistols and daggers. In the courtyard, many cannons can be see arranged in front of the story of the Portuguese in beautiful blue-and-white ceramic tiles.

Inside the museum were displays of events from the discovery of sea routes to India by Vasco DaGama through the Napoleonic invasions to World Wars I and II. Below the uniform of Portuguese troops fighting with Lord Wellington early in the Peninsular Wars.

Finally a few pictures which fail adequately to show the beauty of the blue/purple blooming trees found all over town. I think they are Jacaranda trees, a beautiful shade that reminds me of periwinkle blue. Stunning!!

Canaletto and His Rivals

Victoria here. It seems like ages since I was in Washington D.C. with my friends Diane Gaston, Julie Halperson and Carol Stroud, but seeing the calendar page turn to May reminded me that I have not yet posted on our visit to the National Gallery to view the exhibition Venice: Canaletto and His Rivals. The exhibition will close on May 30, 2011, so you have a limited time to enjoy the show, as we four did last March. Above is The Piazza San Marco and the Piazzetta, Looking Southeast, c. 1743, from the National Gallery’s permanent collection, gift of Mrs. Barbara Hutton.

For more information on the exhibition and the National Gallery’s collections, click here.

The Catalogue

The exhibition was organized by Washington’s National Gallery and the UK National Gallery in London, where it was seen October 2010-January, 2011. Here is a link to the UK’s description of the exhibition.

Canaletto, The Entrance to the Grand Canal, looking West, with Santa Maria della Salute, about 1729
© The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The Robert Lee Blaffer Memorial Collection, gift of Sarah Campbell Blaffer

In the 18th Century, the city of Venice was a magnet for travelers, a city that fascinates even today with its unique setting, magnificent architecture and amazing cultural assets. Many of these travelers were British aristocrats and students on their Grand Tour, an essential part of a gentleman’s education. Among the mementos of their travels, many chose to buy views of Venice to be shipped home for the admiration of friends and associates.

The Stonemason’s Yard, National Gallery, London

Works by Canaletto were especially prized by these travelers, though a number of painters also created majestic cityscapes, both of the principal government buildings and festivals and of the ordinary people going about their daily tasks. The paintings usually had a panoramic sweep of city views combined with very detailed portraits of individuals and animals. One huge canvas had hundreds of gondolas, other boats, people, birds and fowl, and, at a very close look, a dog relieving himself against a building. We examined many of the pictures for all these details and could have spent many more hours before we exhausted the possibilities: a woman peeping out of a window, a sailor tipping his hat, a lady holding tight to her skirts in the breeze.

Canaletto, The Bacino di San Marco, about 1738-9, © Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Abbott Lawrence Fund, Seth K. Sweetser Fund, and Charles Edward French Fund

The description of the exhibition states, “Venice inspired a school of competitive view painters whose achievements are among the most brilliant in 18th-century art. The exhibition celebrates the rich variety of these Venetian views, known as vedute, through some 20 masterworks by Canaletto and more than 30 by his rivals, including Michele Marieschi, Francesco Guardi, and Bernardo Bellotto. Responding to an art market fueled largely by the Grand Tour, these gifted painters depicted the famous monuments and vistas of Venice in different moods and seasons.”

Entrance to the Grand Canal from the Molo, Venice, 1742-44
National Gallery of Art, Washington
Gift of Mrs. Barbara Hutton

Giovanni Antonio Canal (1697–1768) was known as Canaletto, was the most famous of these Venetian vedute painters. The wealthy British merchant in Venice, Joseph Smith, introduced Canaletto and his work to many British aristocrats as early as the 1720’s. In 1746, Canaletto brought his skills to Britain, where he painted many famous London landscapes and buildings.

The 1746 view of Westminster Bridge hangs in the Yale Center for British Art
Canaletto returned to Venice in 1755, after painting in London and as far afield as Warwick Castle.

Above is Canaletto’s portrayal of London’s St Paul’s Cathedral, hanging in the Yale Center for British Art.

Above, Warwick Castle, painted for Lord Brooke (later Earl of Warwick) in 1748-49, also at the YCBA.

Canaletto, The Thames, from the Terrace of Somerset House, Looking Toward Westminster, c.1750
also Paul Mellon Collection, Yale Center for British Art

These last four paintings from the British stay of Canaletto are not part of the National Gallery exhibition, but fit well with the theme of this blog nevertheless.
To return to the exhibition Canaletto and His Rivals, we conclude with this view of the Rialto Bridge by Francesco Guardi (1712-1793), perhaps the last of the Venetian vedute painters to achieve lasting renown.

Francesco Guardi, Grand Canal with the Rialto Bridge, Venice, probably c. 1780
National Gallery of Art, Widener Collection

If you can get to Washington D.C. this month, be sure to visit this excellent exhibition.

Chicago Janeites Hold a Spring Gala

Three entertaining and informative presentations filled Saturday’s meeting of the Greater Chicago Region of the Jane Austen Society of North America – “Staging Sensibility: Jane Austen and the Performing Arts.” Along with many conversations centering on the Royal Wedding, members were fascinated by talks by Dr. Gillian Dow and Dr. Erin Smith, as well as an appearance by Jane Austen herself, in the person of Debra Ann Miller, all celebrating the 200th anniversary of Jane’s Austen’s first novel, Sense and Sensibility (1811).

Maggiano’s delicious continental breakfast and sumptuous luncheon made us feel like we were attending the royal wedding celebrations.

Dr. Gillian Dow (l), of Chawton House Library and Southampton University; Regional Coordinator for GCR, Jeffrey Nigro; and Dr. Erin Smith of Western Governors University.

Dr. Gillian Dow is a Lecturer at Chawton House Library in England and at the University of Southampton School of Humanities where she specializes in the literature of the 18th c, particularly French literature in Britain 1780-1830, cross-channel migration of ideas. Her topic for the morning was fascinating. “An Excess of Sensibility (for which we were always remarkable): Jane Austen, Marianne, and the French Tradition.”

Addressing the theme of female hysteria in literature, she began by discussing Jane Austen’s Love and Freindship, from her juvenilia, in which Laura, writing to Marianne (advice to her friend’s daughter), relates her hyper-sensibility, alternately swooning and fainting at every turn of the plot. It is the kind of parody of exaggerated characters and overblown plots that the clever and witty young Jane Austen wrote for the amusement of her family. The female hysteric was a very familiar character in fiction of the time in Britain and on the continent. Dr. Dow introduced us to the novels of Pierre de Marivaux, a popular French author of the 18th c, whose novel La Vie de Marianne was popular in England in the early years of the 18th c, and was considered to be an influence on Fielding, Richardson and Fanny Burney, among others.

Dr. Dow related the enlightening story of the French translation of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility by French novelist Isabelle Montolieu (1751-1832). From the letters of Austen sister-in-law Eliza de Feuillide. we know that Jane Austen read Montolieu’s novel entitled Caroline de Lichtfield (1780’s), but Austen probably never knew of the translation. Dr. Dow compared passages of the novel in Austen’s original English to the corresponding translated French passages. Montolieu certainly added dramatically to the passages describing Marianne’s emotional behavior, to a comical extent in the view of most of the audience. Or did that surprised laughter reflect dismay at the transformation of our Jane’s sacred text?

Dr. Dow discussed Jane Austen’s attitude toward sensbility, in which she differentiates between sensibility that is real and pure, as in Marianne Dashwood, and the phony and overly emotional sentimentality of other characters, such as the Steele sisters. The same kind of contrast, she said, could be found in Austen’s portraits of Colonel Brandon and Willoughby, the former being an honorable man of feeling, complex and well-rounded, the latter showing the wrong side of sensibility, i.e. impulsive and ill-considered behavior reflecting shallowness and sham sincerity.

Everyone was buzzing about the amazing French translation and surprise that it, not the original English text, was sometimes used as the basis for translation of Sense and Sensibility into other European languages for many years. What, we wondered, would we have thought of Jane Austen if this exaggerated and hysterical version was our first introduction to her work?

Dr. Erin Smith and Elisabeth Lenckos of the University of Chicago, Program Director for JASNA GCR.

“Jane Austen and Ballet: Dances of Hysteria in Sense and Sensibility and Giselle” was Dr. Smith’s topic. Her research into the theatrical ballets of the late 18th c. and up to the 1840’s when Giselle was created lead her to believe that the romantic sensibilities of the period grew out of shared themes. Common to many balletic structures are young women on the brink of marriage, a moment of many dramatic possibilities, including alteration into a story of a female scorned and abandoned. Ballet was particularly well suited to portraying the “restless pain of mind and body” of the hysterical woman who goes “mad for love.” In fact, Dr. Smith pointed out, these are almost the very words Jane Austen uses as Col. Brandon describes the fate of Eliza I.

Dr. Smith demonstrates some of the most characteristic movements and gestures of 18th c. ballet.

Before, after and during luncheon we shopped at the Emporium — beautiful shawls, fashion prints, jewelry and hats were extremely tempting.

Miss Jane Austen herself graced our meeting — in the person of actor Debra Ann Miller, who presented a charming account of Miss Austen’s life, mainly in her own words.

Among the honored guests were Marsha Huff, previous past-president of JASNA (l) and Karen Dow, proud mother of Dr. Gillian Dow, visiting from Yorkshire, on her very first trip to Chicago.

Mother and daughter, Karen and Gillian, enjoying the afternoon and looking forward to a return visit to the Art Institute of Chicago to see the famous Thorne Rooms, miniatures which reproduce iconic rooms from history, especially British palaces. For a look yourself, click here.

Thanks to everyone at JASNA GCA for a scintillating and thought-provoking day.

Westminster Abbey, Royal Connections

Westminster Abbey was founded in 960 and is the tallest medieval church in the country, reaching 102ft at the highest point of the nave; and its facade is the tallest of any English church, at 225ft. As the site of coronations since William the Conqueror in 1066, Westminster Abbey is closely associated with royalty throughout history. According to the Abbey’s website, it has also been the venue for fifteen royal weddings, about to be sixteen. And since we love nothing more than tickling our “Fun with Wills and Kate” itch, here are some spectacular pictures of royal weddings at the Abbey from the past.

On November 20, 1947, Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) married Prince Philip of Greece, who was made Duke of Edinburgh. They were the tenth royal couple to marry at the Abbey. Their wedding was broadcast by radio to the world. Rationing was still in effect and wartime austerity continued, so the wedding was a time for great national celebration.

In 2007, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary at a special ceremony in the Abbey. She is the first ever English monarch to achieve a diamond wedding celebration. in 2012, the Queen will observe her Diamond Jubilee, the 60th anniversary of her accession to the throne.

The Queen’s sister Princess Margaret Rose (1930-2002) wed Anthony Armstrong-Jones in the Abbey on May 6, 1960. After two children, their marriage ended in divorce in 1978.

The Queen’s only daughter, Anne, Princess Royal, married Captain Mark Phillips in Westminster Abbey on November 14, 1973. They have two children.

After divorcing Phillips in 1992, Anne married Timothy Laurence, in Scotland on December 12, 1992.

Prince Andrew married Sarah Ferguson on July 1986, They became the duke and duchess of York. They have two daughters, but separated in 1992 and divorced four years later.

We are awaiting the big day on Friday, April 29, for the next royal wedding at Westminster Abbey.

This Friday, the Abbey’s 10 bells will ring out as William and Kate leave the royal wedding service. Westminster Abbey’s bells only give a full peal on important royal or national occasions. It was sounded on the day of the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday – August 4 2001 – and rung half muffled less than a year later after her funeral on April 9 2002. The 50th anniversary of the Second World War milestone V-E Day was commemorated by the bells in May 1995. Note: A full peal features a minimum of 5,000 different changes (or sequences) and lasts more than three hours.

Watch an interview with the royal florists, who will be creating an Avenue of Trees within the Abbey and using flowers from Windsor Great Park.

Read the latest story on how florists are currently transforming the Abbey into a Fairytale Forest.

Partying with Jane Austen

Yesterday I wrote about Jane Austen in London correcting proofs for Sense and Sensibility. She wrote her letter of April 25, 1811, to her sister Cassandra who was staying at Godmersham in Kent, their brother Edward’s estate. Jane reports on the musical party given by her hosts in Sloane Street, her brother Henry and his wife Eliza, the former Comtesse de Feuillide.

“Our party went off extremely well. There were many solicitudes, alarms, and vexations, beforehand, of course, but at last everything was quite right. The rooms were dressed up with flowers, and looked very pretty. A glass for the mantlepiece was lent by the man who is making their own. Mr. Egerton and Mr. Walter came at half-past five, and the festivities began with a pair of very fine soals.

Yes, Mr. Walter — for he postponed his leaving London on purpose — which did not give much pleasure at the time, any more than the circumstance from which it rose — his calling on Sunday and being asked by Henry to take the family dinner on that day, which he did; but it is all smoothed over now, and she likes him very well….”

Sloane Street today is a busy thoroughfare but in Jane Austen’s day, it was on the edge of town, a newly developed residential area. In her letter to her sister Cassandra of April 18 , 1811, she mentioned that she and her sister-in-law Eliza would “walk to London” to buy decorations for Eliza’s musical party. On April 25, she went on:

“At half-past seven arrived the musicians in two hackney coaches, and by eight the lordly company began to appear. Among the earliest were George and Mary Cooke, and I spent the greater part of the evening very pleasantly with them. The drawing-room being soon hotter than we liked, we placed ourselves in the connecting passage, which was comparatively cool, and gave us all the advantage of the music at a pleasant distance, as well as that of the first view of every new comer.

Finchcocks Musical Museum Collection

I was quite surrounded by acquaintance, especially gentlemen; and what with Mr. Hampson, Mr. Seymour, Mr. W. Knatchbull, Mr. Guillemarde, Mr. Cure, a Captain Simpson, brother to the Captain Simpson, besides Mr. Walter and Mr. Egerton, in addition to the Cookes, and Miss Beckford, and Miss Middleton, I had quite as much upon my hands as I could do.

Poor Miss B. has been suffering again from her old complaint, and looks thinner than ever. She certainly goes to Cheltenham the beginning of June. We were all delight and cordiality of course. Miss M. seems very happy, but has not beauty enough to figure in London.

Including everybody we were sixty-six — which was considerably more than Eliza had expected, and quite enough to fill the back drawing-room and leave a few to be scattered about in the other and in the passage.

Finchcocks Musical Museum concert

The music was extremely good. It opened (tell Fanny) with “Prike pe Parp pin praise pof Prapela”*; and of the other glees I remember, “In peace love tunes,” “Rosabelle,” “The Red Cross Knight,” and “Poor Insect.” Between the songs were lessons on the harp, or harp and pianoforte together; and the harp-player was Wiepart, whose name seems famous, though new to me. There was one female singer, a short Miss Davis, all in blue, bringing up for the public line, whose voice was said to be very fine indeed; and all the performers gave great satisfaction by doing what they were paid for, and giving themselves no airs. No amateur could be persuaded to do anything.

The house was not clear till after twelve. If you wish to hear more of it, you must put your questions, but I seem rather to have exhausted than spared the subject….

* Jane Austen and her niece Fanny, according to Deirdre Le Faye, had a nonsense vocabulary formed by putting the letter P in front of every word. The chorus words are actually, “Stike the Harp in Praise of Bragela.”

More information on the songs mentioned can be found in the notes to Letter 71 in LaFaye’s Jane Austen’s Letters. In the Biogrphical Index, there is material on several of the people mentioned, some old friends of the Austen family.

Now you know what music to have at your next Jane Austen Musical Evening. To see more about Finchcocks Musical Museum, click here.