Bristol Museum: Art Collection

Bristol Museum has a good art collection, with older artwork as well as some modern works including a couple of Banksy pieces. I really enjoyed looking around it, although I was distracted by an extremely noisy school group. Thankfully a gallery attendant told them to stop running riot and find their teacher!I thought this picture was really interesting as it was so detailed it looked almost like a photograph, and had an unusual perspective. It also feels like you are glimpsing the woman unawares, so it has a slightly voyeuristic feel. I always like paintings of interiors, probably because I am nosy and like seeing what other people's houses look like!

I used to have a postcard of this up on my bedroom wall, but I now can't remember the name and stupidly forgot to write any of the names or artists down. It's a really beautiful picture though, it perfectly captures the fading light of a sunset and the relaxed feel of people walking home from work and starting their weekend. I don't think much has changed since this picture was painted!

This painting reminds me of the Botanical Gardens in Bath, I like the muted colours.

There are several Pre-Raphaelite pieces in the Museum's collection. As anyone who read about my trip to the Waterhouse exhibition will know, I am a complete sucker for Pre-Raphaelite art. Also, can I just add, Aidan Turner in Desperate Romantics=super hot. Anyway, back to the painting in question, which is by Lawrence Alma-Tadema. I really like his paintings, he used a gorgeous colour palette-lots of bright pinks, soft purples, turquoise and aqua blues, and burnished gold tones. Alma-Tadema wasn't part of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood but worked in a Pre-Raphaelite style, although his paintings mainly focus on Grecian looking settings rather than the Arthurian or Shakespearean theme of many of the paintings by the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. Alma-Tadema was one of Waterhouse's biggest influences, and they both used similar settings and colours in their artwork.

This is by Frederick Leighton, another artist who often worked in a Pre-Raphaelite style. When I was little I loved this picture because it had a mermaid in it and I was obsessed with them, but now I realise it has much darker and more sexual undertones than I saw then! I still like it though, and I wish my hair still looked like the mermaid's! I can't wait for my hair to grow.

Edit: When I wrote this I didn't realise it was my 100th post! I am so pleased I've finally got to 100 posts, and hopefully the next 100 will come much quicker! I have so many things planned for this blog, I just can't wait to share it all.