Art to Go

August 5, 2007 9:15 PM

The Grand Tour. Until August 31st, the National Gallery in England is putting reproductions of famous paintings on the streets of London, with MP3 audio guides and maps available for download. The reaction has been good.
posted by djgh (22 comments total)

1 - Degas: After the Bath, Woman Drying Herself
2 - Bronzino: An Allegory with Venus and Cupid
3 - Holbein: The Ambassadors
4 - van Eyck: Arnolfini Portrait
5 - Titian: Bacchus and Ariadne
6 - Seurat: Bathers at Asnieres
7 - Monet: Bathers at La Grenouillere
8 - Rembrandt: Belshazzar's Feast
9 - Turner: Calais Pier
10 - Wouwermans: Cavalry Making a Sortie from a Fort on a Hill

More to come
posted by djgh at 9:58 PM on August 5, 2007

This is like... the best graffiti ever.
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 10:07 PM on August 5, 2007

11 - Holbein: Christina of Denmark, Duchess of Milan
12 - Manet: Corner of a Cafe-Concert
13 - Bellini: The Doge Leonardo Loredan
14 - Michelangelo: The Entombment
15 - Wright: An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump
16 - Koninck: An Extensive Landscape with a Road by a River
17 - Turner: The Fighting Termeraire
18 - Beuckelaer: The Four Elements: Earth
19 - Massys: A Grotesque Old Woman
20 - Eeckhout: Group Portrait
posted by djgh at 10:09 PM on August 5, 2007

Apparently the paper or whatever they're printed on is graffiti-proof.
posted by djgh at 10:09 PM on August 5, 2007

21 - Constable: The Hay Wain
22 - Reynolds: Lady Cockburn and her Three Eldest Sons
23 - Ingres: Madame Moitessier
24 - Drouais: Madame de Pompadour at her Tambour Frame
25 - Gainsborough: Mr and Mrs Andrews
26 - Velazquez: Philip IV of Spain in Brown and Silver
27 - Fragonard: Psyche Showing her Sisters her Gifts from Cupid
28 - Caravaggio: Salome Receives the Head of Saint John the Baptist
29 - Rubens: Samson and Delilah
30 - Claude: Seaport with the Embarkation of Saint Ursula

One more batch to come.
posted by djgh at 10:24 PM on August 5, 2007

This is a great way of bringing the art to the people. I wish that the museums here in Stockholm would do something similiar. Also, a great photo from the related Flickr group.

Thanks, djgh.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 10:25 PM on August 5, 2007

31 - Rembrandt: Self Portrait at the Age of 34
32 - Renoir: The Skiff
33 - Bermejo: St Michael Triumphs Over the Devil
34 - van Gogh: Sunflowers
35 - Caravaggio: The Supper at Emmaus
36 - Rousseau: Surprised!
37 - Le Nain Brothers: Three Men and a Boy
38 - Poussin: The Triumph of Pan
39 - Botticelli: Venus and Mars
40 - da Vinci: The Virgin of the Rocks
41 - Monet: The Water-Lily Pond
42 - van Gogh: A Wheatfield with Cypresses
43 - Stubbs: Whistlejacket
44 - Vermeer: A Young Woman Standing at a Virginal

So even if you're not in London, you can follow the audio guides!
posted by djgh at 10:44 PM on August 5, 2007

Foci for Analysis - I know. These are all available to view for free, but this is a much better way to, literally, get them out there. I'm just really annoyed that I've only just found out about this, when I won't be in London again until September!

I'd be really interested to see more examples of this around the world, even in different areas (like the Washington Post's Joshua Bell stunt).
posted by djgh at 10:48 PM on August 5, 2007

That's a damned good idea. Heres hoping other museums follow suit in time.
posted by edgeways at 10:48 PM on August 5, 2007

heh
posted by edgeways at 10:49 PM on August 5, 2007

What a simple and wonderful idea!
posted by LarryC at 10:57 PM on August 5, 2007

I also approve of this idea. In fact, I'd like to see bandana-disguised guerrilla museum directors out on the streets at night replacing bus-stop Calvin Klein underwear ads with great paintings.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 12:24 AM on August 6, 2007

Wow! Thanks for the great posting!
posted by homodigitalis at 1:33 AM on August 6, 2007

Yeah, these are all over town. It's really strange, but very cool, to be wandering down the street in Soho and see a beautiful painting like this hanging in the street.
posted by Happy Dave at 2:05 AM on August 6, 2007

One of my favorite things about the big museums in London is that they try to engage the public so much. This is just another good example of this.
posted by grouse at 2:57 AM on August 6, 2007

Wonderful scheme! I especially like the fact that there's a 'phone number with each reproduction, so you can make up tours of your own, or just find out about a painting, even if you had no idea that the National Gallery were doing this.

And, without getting too wanky and psychogeographical about it, going on one of the tours could well completely change one's understanding of that area of London.
posted by jack_mo at 4:12 AM on August 6, 2007

"All the paintings on The Grand Tour™ are beautiful reproductions produced by our sponsors Hewlett Packard, but you can visit the real thing every day free of charge in the National Gallery collection."

OK... so I get the idea of bringing art to the people... but if you're going to go to the trouble of getting a map or downloading an MP3 tour why not just go visit them in the museum?
posted by Jahaza at 4:31 AM on August 6, 2007

Jahaza - because it's fun! It is actually really nice to be wandering round London and see these pictures randomly on walls, totally out of context. It gives them something extra special which you don't get while shuffling round a gallery on a boring Sunday afternoon.
posted by Summer at 6:16 AM on August 6, 2007

Cockle-of-your-heart-warming quote from the Guardian link above:

"But most had at least one person poring over every detail, and many had clumps of people blocking the pavement talking about art, as startling a sight as I've ever seen in London."

(Whoever thought of this concept should be damn well knighted!). Super post, too.
posted by Jody Tresidder at 9:05 AM on August 6, 2007

I never thought I'd hear of National Gallery doing something so... Banksy. It's a great idea.

All I can say is that when street art shows so much artistic talent that people actually get arrested for painting over it... something is right in the world.
posted by miss lynnster at 9:41 AM on August 6, 2007

You can get up close to the Holbein painting and get a picture of the anamorphic skull (see the comments).
posted by vacapinta at 3:04 PM on August 6, 2007

I never thought I'd hear of National Gallery doing something so... Banksy. It's a great idea.

This is the exact opposite of what Banksy does nowadays, surely?!
posted by jack_mo at 2:45 AM on August 8, 2007