Parallels

On occasion I find myself taking a stroll across Vauxhall Bridge to visit the Tate Britain.   I like art,  I am not a critique or anything like that…..  I just enjoy looking at paintings from a time gone by. The Tate Britain is a favourite gallery of mine. Last Summer I spent many of my lunch breaks surrounding myself with all it had to offer.

I hadn’t been to the gallery in a while, and decided to pop in as I had time to spare.

It is a beautiful building set aside from the busy Milbank area of London.

Once inside I began to take in all of the paintings. I find this funny, as I am sure they do not change the exhibitions often, however it always seems so new to me. It is as if I am walking into the gallery for the first time and being bowled over by the quality of work.

I am not going to bore you with lots of pictures but here is a painting that I found fascinating.

The above painting is of an area in London called St-Martins-in-the-fields. The painting is by William Logsdail (painted 1888)

I took a closer look at the painting and it depicted a scene of a poor girl selling flowers.  In the background there is a woman looking on, maybe wanting to buy some flowers. Behind the woman  is a small girl,  not much younger than the other selling flowers.

My main focus was  the contrast between the two little girls. One was ‘poor’, the other ‘rich’, however both little girls did not seem happy. The scene saddened me a little, as I gazed on at the picture.  I imagined the life the older girl lived, poverty, sickness and disease which was so rife in Victorian England. I then thought about the smaller girl,  maybe she was in the process of being  groomed to  become an aristocrats  wife, not by choice but by expectation maybe she could not be the little girl she wanted to be.

I thought more about the pictures, what has really changed in today’s standards? We find in our cities there is still poverty as well as extreme riches London alone is testimony to that. What has really changed? Children are still taking on roles they know nothing about.  All this from one picture.

Tate Gallery Britain

Milbank London SW1P 4RG

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