Jesus speaking: ‘ Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God’. ( pure in heart: honest, kind, good intentions, fully and totally devoted to God.) Matthew 5: 8.
A short visit to a place free and open for us all. It’s a treasure!
The Oxford English Dictionary definition of a tree is: ‘A woody perennial plant consisting of a trunk and branches that can grow to a considerable height.’
First, we will look at the mists that give London a mysterious feel. Then we will look at paintings with winter trees and lastly walk outside and see them in the London streets.
It is grey and misty.
We are standing on the balcony of the National Art Gallery London. First, we will see two paintings that match the feeling of today. The day is misty, so let us look at Claude Monet’s view of a newly built Victoria Embankment.
Notice the wooden pier being built.
Then let us notice the mist or fog in Sisley’s painting . We will cross the Charing Cross Bridge twice as we walk between Waterloo train station and the National Art Gallery. Here, the bridge is seen in 1874.
Charing Cross Bridge, 1874.
Alfred Sisley ( 1839-1899)
Secondly, let us look at three paintings with trees: a painting by Claude Monet (1840-1899) and two by Camille Pissarro.
The first is a steely palette of blues and greys with accents of colour. Are branches reflected in the ice and snow?
by
Claude Monet.
Trees stretching up tall in front of a small town. This is our first painting of two by Camille Pissarro, who painted these trees close to his home near Pontoise, a Paris suburb.
The Côte des Boeufs at L’ Hermitage in 1877.
Our last painting takes the trees into early spring. Camille Pissarro’s captures ‘ The Avenue Sydenham, 1871’. Look carefully at the right-hand pavement. What can you see?
He has painted out a seated female figure. A reuse of a canvas.
by
Camille Pissarro .
We will leave the Art Gallery and notice the skeleton trees in front of the red London busses. The trees stand in a row, with people sitting on the edge of the fountain and in a row on the benches. Flags hang limp. It is still. It is cold.
Embankment Park on the left.
Here are two quotes about trees:
‘ A fool sees not the tree that a wise man sees.’ William Blake
‘ Trees are poems that the earth writes upon the sky.’Kahlil Gibran then continues : ‘ We cut them down and turn them into paper that we may record our emptiness.‘
Do we forget the deeper meaning of life?
Thank you for letting me share our experience on a misty, cold day in London after a sunny weekend.
Take care,
Sandy 🙂