Tuesday 18 June 2013

An Interlude In The Art Gallery

I had a day off work today; I was supposed to be meeting up with a friend in Sydney, but she had a family bereavement and had to cancel on me. However once I have a day off work booked I get psyched up, so I decided to go up to the big city anyway.

I spent some of it at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, which is a nice place to go as they allow you to take photos. Which is what I'm going to share with you - a few photos of the exhibits which you might enjoy.

Specifically there's one for Ralph in our gaming group, who's more of an Aussie newbie than even I, and may not have seen it yet. But first - this:



It's one of my favourite paintings in the gallery. The first time I went to the Art Gallery of New South Wales I know I made what my daughter would call 'sqeee' noises when I saw it, because it was a painting I recognised from various Zulu War books. It's Alphonse de Neuville's 'The Defence of Rorkes Drift'. Enjoy. I only have to go up the road (relatively speaking) to enjoy it for real.

And for Ralph?

This:


And here it is. I've seen these pictures in books, but I'm still gobsmacked at how big this is. So I wanted to include a person for scale in my photo. Of course, what happens when you try and take a photo of a painting someone's standing next to is that they politely move out of the way. In the end one of the gallery assistants took it for me, so I was able to use my lovely alter-ego, Rachel, for scale. 5' 8", plus a bit for the heels.


And then I stepped back to get a less blurry, full view photo of the painting. And someone ended up in shot. He appears to be 5' 8", but without heels.


Anyway, Ralph, if you haven't been to see this particular painting yet, you now know where to go. Full Details.

In other gaming news I bought a copy of Tsuro.

4 comments:

  1. Iconic paintings and a nice surprise to have them downunder. Mmm, need to plan a visit to the gallery sometime soon. Any excuse to strike a pose, Rachel!

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    1. Have you never been to the gallery? Come on, Aussie-boy! ;-)

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  2. More time off!

    Thanks Alan, very considerate of you to recommend this. As it happens, I had heard of this treasure on our doorstep, after using the (pre-restored) version as background on a poster to advertise one of my games at a convention. It really does capture the epoch!

    But your post has encouraged me to find time to schlepp up to the big city to view it in person, I had not realised it is quite so big!

    By the way the museum shop online sells copies for about $25 - but scaled down a little!

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