Let’s start by having a conversation about my favourite art gallery – The Courtauld. Quite the best place to spend a rainy afternoon in London, or a sunny one, for that matter! For me, it saves its best for last, as you have to climb up the beautiful spiral staircase to the top floor to find its Impressionist and Post-Impressionist rooms.
As it is difficult to do justice to painting in words, here is a quick visual tour by the actor Bill Nighy:
One of my personal favourites is Vanessa Bell’s ‘A Conversation’ – a work that speaks to a certain moment of individual and artistic liberation. Standing in front of this painting, I always felt like the third listener, or perhaps, confidant. For there is something mysterious and conspiratorial about these figures, the woman on the left, deep in conversation. What is she saying?
