Cocktails with a Curator: Gainsborough's "Grace Dalrymple Elliott"
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- Опубліковано 18 чер 2020
- In this week’s episode of “Cocktails with a Curator,” Curator Aimee Ng studies Thomas Gainsborough’s scandalous portrait of Grace Dalrymple Elliott. Discover why this painting met with a negative reception when it was shown at the Royal Academy in 1782. Mrs. Elliott later moved to France, where she lived through the Reign of Terror and died in 1823 in the outskirts of Paris. This week’s complementary cocktail is the Pimm’s Cup, a traditional summer drink in Britain.
To see this painting in detail, please visit our website: collections.frick.org/objects...
Thanks for this wonderful program! I'm really enjoying all these chats. There is a great biography about Grace Dalrymple Elliott entitled An Infamous Mistress by Sarah Murden and Joanne Major.I thought I'd post it here in case anyone was interested in finding out more about her. It's a great book.
Thanks. I would love to read about her experience during the French Revolution.
gabriella canfield
I enjoyed this talk for many reasons. a superb introduction to the history of the times when Grace Dalrymple Elliott was living in Scotland, England and France. Well examined details of the painting such as her "make up," the black touch on her cheek, the locket and Gainsborough use of white on white were eye openers for any viewer. Alo excellent presentation of the provenance of this portrait An excellent talk. I hope Ms Ng will discuss other treasures in the Frick Collection
Ms. Ng knows how to tell a story well. Her talk is a model of how art history can and should be taught-with an emphasis on the people involved in the making of a painting. A cliche I realize, but life IS complex, and no matter what one's station in life, everyone and anyone is susceptible to sadness and pain. No one is sufficiently privileged to be immune to misfortune. This was an especially engaging and authoritative talk.
hello from London, I love the program
it is a highlight of my week, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and making the life interesting and the world beautiful, looking forward to next Friday ...
Firstly, wonderful presentation. I’ve come to the (totally unsubstantiated) conclusion that Frick surrounded himself with portraits of charming women and great men whom he could not associate in life. Especially in the dining room, the atmosphere is charged with charm and beauty. Just a thought...
Love the Frick... can’t wait to travel back to NYC to visit again
As an artist I was drawn first to the face of the portrait, so astonishingly sensual, so beautifully painted, but stayed to hear your lovely explanation. Thank you Ms. Ng!
So grateful for these punctuations to my shapeless weeks. Thanks to you curators at the Frick, I pause at paintings I used to walk by. Now even Gainsborough is fascinating to me.
I found Curator Aimee Ng's discussion of Grace Dalrymple Elliot's portrait the best so far. As have other discussions she introduced us to the appropriate cocktail and its historical context but then enriched her talk by giving the listener a brief but informative analysis of the the paintings qualities. Finally, she suggested a modification of cocktail to make it more fitting to Grace Elliot's time. Thank you very much.
Ms. Ng: Thank you, on behalf of our University of Oxford colleagues, for a fascinating presentation on this portrait, a close and most lively examination of its subject, and the delicious recipes for various Pims creations, all of which combined add education, fun and refreshment to our quarantined days. Most gratefully -- Cheers!
I have fallen in love first with Gainsboroughs drawings, and that is what enriches my enjoyment of his paintings, those swift and deft calligraphic brush strokes. Great to learn the details of daily life management, make up and presentation, cultural values. Wonderful talk. Thank you!
Wonderful, thank you for the excellent talk!
Absolutely wonderful, Thank you so much Aimee Ng (who is gorgeous as always) ! Super interesting I have always wondered about Grace.
Thank you for this wonderfully informative talk - the best yet in the series so far! Aimee, your enthusiasm for your subject is infectious and makes it a pleasure to watch; we all learnt so much and can’t wait for the next one. Thanks again.
This is a lot of fun and maybe even more fun since I can see art that’s not in local museums! I hope this continues even after quarantine ends
The diary of Grace Dalrymple Elliott was made into a truly mesmerising movie by the great late French filmmaker Eric Rohmer in 2001. Well worth seeking out.
Eric Rohmer’s innovative and visually stunning film adaption of Grace Elliott’ diary, “L’Anglaise et le Duc”, is a great marrying of film art and the 18th Century. A nice way to spend Sunday afternoon.
Thank you Aimee for a fascinating feature about Grace. You may be aware that with my co-author Joanne Major we have written her biography for British publisher, Pen & Sword Books, which covers not only her life and loves, but it also provides new information about her extended family, which gives more context about why Grace lived the life she did and about the influential female figures in her life - 'An Infamous Mistress'. There is a chapter specifically about her brother, who was very much opposed to the slave trade. We have also written a follow on book about which covers the royal connection, 'A Right Royal Scandal'.
There is also more information about how her portrait arrived at the Frick, on our blog All Things Georgian, along with other articles about Grace - wp.me/p3JTNy-3fj
Delicious. Thank you.
Just a slight historical note about colonial history, now such a toxic issue upon which precision is important. Grenada was a French Colony until the time Graces father became AG after it was ceded in a treaty. The British worked towards abolishing slavery and emancipating the slaves which was finally achieved in 1807, comparatively quickly.
In contrast the revolutionary French signally failed to honour the rights of man in the Carribean as the history of the great Toussaint L'Ouverture demonstrates. Although the British did indeed committ "atrocities" the story is mixed and nuanced and we need to be careful especially about words that carry very negative and inflammatory connotations or we will never move on constructively.
@Cynthia Pereira Every single country in history and most probably every nation in the world had a period of time when they accepted slavery. It was not invented by the British or by the US. But is it really necessary to bring this up when there is no real connection to the piece of art discussed?
Highly scandalous! Very interesting. Another fascinating Friday evening with the Frick. The portrait is lovely and the sitter tantalizing.
Well done, this one of my favorite paintings at the Frick! I always enjoy my visits and can't wait to visit again soon.
Thank you Aimee. Wonderful presentation.
I love this series! Have watched them religiously and been so inspired I am switching to studying Art history at university.. Thank you so much they are wonderful! Is it possible to do an episode on Holbein's portrait of Sir Thomas Moore? Thank you!
Fabulous series! Perfect! Well done Frick Gallery...will make a bee line to visit you again when I get a chance to visit NYC.
Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful, thank you so much!
So interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. Thank you.
This is my favourite weekend stop off - I am a huge Frick fan but I am now so much more informed about parts of the collection that I can hardly wait to stand in front of these works of art again with a wholly new appreciation - thank you so much for these amazing visits and of course for the excuse to have a cocktail! Cheers!
The Frick was my favorite museum when we visited NYC. I enjoyed tonight’s talk very much .
This was a truly excellent talk. I learned so much. Thank you!
This was a joy to watch! I’m dying to return.
I love your videos, Aimee! Thanks for taking us through such a deep reading of this wonderful, mysterious portrait.
Thank you for stirring wonder and thought
Thank you so much Aimee, this is lovely. Please keep these posts up when Covid-19 is (please God) a thing of the distant past!
What a story! Thank you, Aimee.
What a wonderful, and erudite, presentation. Than you, Aimee.
So informative and so entertaining. Thank you to all the Frick people.
Excellent! Thank you!
Interesting. Just bought a book on Gainsborough yesterday as the book shop opened. It’s all fascinating. A world.
I enjoyed your talk about this painting a lot. What a fascinating story you tell. Thank you so very much.
Thank you for this lesson. I hope that one day you will show us one of Vermeer's paintings that you have there at the Frick. Ciao from Italy.
Hello from Iowa. This was very informative, very good. Thank you.
Love the story.....entwined with art.
Always fascinating and refreshing
What cool stories, Aimee Ng. And wait 'til you meet Sharese Bullock-Bailey. She's a new board member at the Frick. That place is in great shape with the likes of you two on the team.....>
Excellent. Aimee: you rock!
Thank you! Worthy of a "Pimms Royale"
Thank you. What a fascinating story!
Thank you!
Hi TFC team. Enjoyed every bit of information and explanations given in association with the painting. However, in your next episodes please consider to talk about the creative aspects of paintings as well. This may include about the style of painting, techniques, lighting, backgrounds, posing, strokes, props, production + location set up and many such. For example, two tone background was well separated by skin tone contrast at one side and separation lighting on other. This too added to the subtlety and totality of the art work in my opinion. Thanks and regards.
love this! greetings from nebraska
'Negative attention' is surely the silliest, over-used, prim, evasive, clumsy, colorless and unimaginative art-historical phrase in the books. And properly used, it refers to the kind of attention sought by misbehaving children. Try notoriety, criticism, scandal, outrage, shock, disapproval, opprobrium . . .
Mark Shulgasser Grace was a huge scandal even in an era infamous for scandal.
Gainsborough was e very good portait painter and had cosen variant nice ladies and princ of the English society. THANKS for schowing me.
Gainsborough.was.a good painter.Thanks to you
brilliant
for whatever it's worth..Franz Hals did not just paint little red face drunk people. he had a large body of portraiture of burghers that even border on the austere.
Info starts at 2:30.
Pimms..like Jaegermeister...🍸#cheers
Lets have cocktails and talk art
What a woman! ( The one drinking PIMMS).
Size is 30 x 25 inches
The visitors' clothing in the first scene in the dining room sets up a clangor of cognitive dissonance in my eyeballs.
aimee you are aimazing
The age of the demi monde and syphillis
In
She was also most notably known for her love affair with Duke of Orleans (pre-revolution), who was the cousin of King Louis XVI, and voted for his death.
The reason why he was guillotined is because he wanted to be the next king and he was going along with the socialist plan. There was absolutely nothing admirable about going along with the "revolution".
I read her memoir a couple of months ago, which can be read for free and I posted the link.
Journal of My Life During the French Revolution
By Grace Dalrymple Elliott · 1859
Grace Dalrymple Elliott was a Scottish courtesan, writer and spy resident in Paris during the French Revolution. She was an eyewitness to events detailed in her memoirs, Journal of my life during the French Revolution published posthumously in 1859.
Although there are a number of inconsistencies in her account, her work has become one of the best-known English-language accounts of The Terror, documenting the movements of the Duke of Orleans and those within his aristocratic Jacobin circle at the Palais-Royal.
In the spring of 1793, however, she was arrested and imprisoned and spent the rest of the Terror in prisons, including the Recollets and the Carmes, where she claims to have met Joséphine de Beauharnais, although this has been questioned by historians. Her writings detail her harrowing prison experiences, the violent coercion she experienced, and the illness and deprivation endured by her fellow prisoners.
www.google.com/books/edition/Journal_of_My_Life_During_the_French_Rev/TfFnAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1
I like Grace and women should be able to embrace their sexuality
That's supposed to be her teeth we see between her lips? I thought that was her tongue which would've definitely added some shock value to the 1782 exhibition.
"Colonization with its attendant atrocities"; why make such a statement ? If you mean slavery then just say it but why use this phrase at all ? I would have thought living in France during the Revolution would merit inclusion of the phrase 'attendant atrocities'. I don't listen to these marvellous broadcasts for opinions on politics but the wonderful art you have. Badly done Ms Ng, badly done.
Colonialism is much more than slavery so why should she say such a thing?
If you were listening she referred to the French Revolution as tumultuous times. She doesn’t have to use the same words to describe two different events. Stop trying to look for problems when there are none just for the sake of being offended.
Thank you!
Excellent, thank you!