The Easel

5th December 2023

On Frans Hals

Julian Bell | London Review of Books | 30th November 2023

Unlike a recent piece on Hals (September 19) this one has a more intimate focus on the artist and his work. Hals had a happy, “devil-may-care” attitude and was given to painting “louder and more flamboyant” works that his Delft contemporaries. He had a “quickfire” style of working but “his comprehension of heads and hands … was consummate”. And those rumours about boozing? “It feels unmistakable to me: beer and chasers, this exhibition fairly reeks of them”.

Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec @ the Royal Academy

Simon | astrofella | 2nd December 2023

Impressionist drawings – just another Impressionist crowd pleaser? Surprisingly, this London show offers more.  Art materials technology developed greatly in the 1860’s – better paper, more colours in tubes and crayons. These innovations brought artists outdoors and elevated drawing’s status as a medium. Inevitably, the critics also roll out familiar Impressionist critiques. One notes that Renoir on paper is still “bland” and Degas is still “an old perv”. Yet, even on paper, the magic of that group is still there.

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