Could afford to be ignored

Bill Oddie died a couple of days ago. He was 85. How well I remember him in The Goodies. (In fact, back when I was working at Telewest, I dealt with Tim Brooke-Taylor‘s son at one point and when I said I had watched The Goodies, he said “You must be Australian because it only played once in the UK and most people didn’t see it.”) Given that Tim died back in 2020, it only leaves Graeme Garden. So sad.

Not so sad was the National Gallery, London lecture I attended tonight. It was a one off, deep dive into the life and works of Édouard Manet, presented eloquently by Dr Amy Mechowski. She gave the lectures at the series I attended recently looking at art from 1800-1900.

She said tonight that when asked who her favourite artist is, a question that is ridiculously impossible to answer, she always states that one of her favourites is definitely Manet. I am starting to agree with her.

Manet was an amazing artist. He defied the mores of his time and became the father of modern art by doing so. While he was trained in the heroic tradition of painting great monumental works depicting ancient myths and imagined scenes, he, instead, preferred painting ‘real people’ of his own time.

Because of this, the art viewing public was shocked and disgusted. He was not accepted by the art world. This was particularly true when he exhibited The Absinthe Drinker and Olympia. Just imagine, a portrait of a local drunk and another, of a prostitute hanging beside a painting of Homer. Unthinkable.

This didn’t stop Manet. He was fortunate to have been born into a wealthy family and could afford to be ignored. He kept painting his works and, eventually, was accepted for his brilliance.

Other than that, my day was spent cooking and walking the dogs. Cooking because we ate early today and walking the dogs because…well, just because.

We had to walk to the second level of the ski slope because a family was barbecuing outside the korv cabin, effectively blocking access to the benches where I had intended to throw the ball for Emma.

Speaking of Emma, she started a season today. Here she is looking somewhat dismayed.

And Freya continues to improve. Tonight she even growled at a cat that strolled by the house. She hasn’t done that for ages.

As well as Bill Oddie, Phyllida Law died today aged 94. She was the mother of Emma and Sophie Thompson and appeared in an extraordinary amount of TV, film and stage performances.