Dec 31, 20193 minDogs at the Museum of Fine Arts, BostonBed Oak and pine veneered with mahogany; Ebonized pine; patinated bronze; gilded metal; modern upholstery, c. 1810, probably by Thomas...
Dec 29, 20192 minAlcott's LaurieJo, Meg, Amy, Beth, Marmee ... sure the March women are equal in literary fame and stature to the great heroines of Jane Austen or George...
Dec 27, 20193 minLittle Women, Big HeartsLittle Women, dir. Greta Gerwig, 2019 If ever we needed film to supply a much-needed tonic for our caustic, worrisome times, Greta...
Dec 27, 20191 minIn praise of sight and soundPan's Labyrinth, dir. Guillermo del Toro, 2006 I saw this on a restored 35mm print: what a revelation. The depth of colours, the rich...
Dec 24, 20193 minThe Virgin with the Sleeping Christ ChildOil on canvas, c. 1610, by Orazio Gentileschi, (1563 – 1639) For the week of Christmas, a scene of the nativity. This is one of several...
Dec 17, 20195 minTarantino's Nirvana?Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, dir. Quentin Tarantino, 2019 To watch this new movie is to witness Tarantino not as we’ve come to expect -...
Dec 17, 20193 minSummer Scene (with bathers)Oil on canvas, 1869, by Jean Frederic Bazille (1841 - 1870) I was drawn to this painting primarily because it vividly echoes one of the...
Dec 10, 20193 minBrainbow of a HippocampusMicroetching on photographic paper, 2007, by Jean Livet, Ryan Draft and Jeff Lichtman Coming across this lithograph, one immediately...
Dec 3, 20193 minMother and ChildOil on canvas, 1901, by Pablo Picasso (1881 – 1973) Of the several Picassos hung in the same space, Mother and Child is by far the most...
Dec 2, 20192 minA Tangled WebThe Spell, by Allan Hollinghurst, Chatto & Windus, 1998 What is remarkable about Hollinghurst's fiction is what is usually not remarkable...
Nov 26, 20193 minHanging WoodcockOil on canvas, 1897, by George Cope (1855 – 1929) There is something immediately very disarming about Hanging Woodcock which also invites...
Nov 22, 20192 minGrass, Anyone?Greener Grass, dir. Jocelyn DeBeer, Dawn Luebbe, 2019 Set in the syrupy world of soccer moms, everyone in this turgid town wears braces...
Nov 19, 20192 minHenry Lee HigginsonOil on canvas, 1903 by John Singer Sargent (1856 – 1925) Higginson is described by the curator as being a Civil War Veteran and a banker,...
May 24, 20183 minFeeding the HabitOpen Book – A Literary Postcard by Ian Holding, broadcast on BBC Radio 4, May 2018 For a bibliophile, living in a country like Zimbabwe...