Happy BIrthday to Me!!

It's my birthday - wont say how many but it's not pretty!!

As per Alan's instructions I took the day off. I had no idea where we were going. We headed off to London and ended up at the Royal Academy of Arts. Why? Because Alan had seen the adverts for the Citizens and Kings exhibition on one of his trips to the capital. The reason for him to take note was that the painting used to advertise this exhibition was none other than The Death of Marat which I had been carping on about ever since I saw the Simon Schama programme about the artist Jacques-Louis David. If you'll have read previous blogs you'll know this this bloke fascinated me - so much so that I trapsed round the Louvre for hours seeking out his work.

David was a propaganderist in a time where TV, radio not even photo's could slightly distort the picture or gee up the opposition - his tool was the painting and this particular work was possibly one of the most loaded pieces of propaganda until the works of WWII!

Marat was a pro-French revolutionary and Marat was a friend. The painting shows him in almost Christ like pose as he hangs over the edge of the bath, the quill in one hand and the note from Charlotte Corday in the other (although this is not a true transcript of the real note but yet again attempts to make Marat a martyr). This is such a powerful painting by such an incredibly talented if sometimes ill-informed revolutionary. It was even more powerful seeing it in the flesh. It usually resides in Belgium so was incredibly fortunate to be able to see this amazingly famous painting so close.

To make this an even better day the sun was out, it was amazingly warm as this picture shows in the courtyard of the academy. Afterwards we went to an old haunt, Cheers and had a very typical American lunch - hamburger!! It was yummy!