After spending a month in London and visiting a plethora of museums, they all are beginning to blur together in my mind. I have an easier time remembering specific pieces included in the museums that I loved rather than the overall museum itself, but I’ll try to relay my general sentiments of my final two destinations, the Sir John Soane and the Victoria and Albert Museums.
I felt that the Sir John Soane Museum was fascinating, but was distracted by how much was packed into such a small space. I wasn’t able to fully enjoy what I was looking at simply because I got a bit claustrophobic. On the flip side, though, it certainly was impressive how much was packed into the equivalent of three townhouses. One of my favorite aspects was the collection of clocks included in the house, because it reminded me of our trip to Greenwich and the importance of early timepieces. His particular collection stuck me because it really showed how clocks were once a symbol of status, specifically that which was made for Christopher Wren by Queen Anne.
Although the Sir John Soane Museum had interesting artifacts and art, I much preferred the Victoria and Albert Museum. My favorite section was the sculptures portion on the ground floor, and I spent a great deal of time exploring there. I enjoyed reading the captions to each, for example, a plaque under a bust of Albert Einstein stated that he was a culmination of “the humane, the humorous, and the profound.” Another statue, a monument to one Emily Georgiana, moved me in saying “I who dreamed wildly and madly/am happy to die.” The writing on that statue seemed simultaneously inspiring and sad, and I’ve thought of that quote often since reading it for the first time. My favorite actual work was a bronze piece created to hang above a fireplace depicting a nude man and woman entwined while being watched by a shocked and disgusted crowd. Made by Charles Sargeant, “Scandal” was interesting to me because it showed not only a couple in love (as many works do) but also the rarely shown negative reaction of the surrounding community. Lovers in art are so often isolated, so seeing a different perspective within the work was certainly interesting.
To summarize my previous blog entries regarding museums, I was unaffected by the British Museum, disliked the Tate Modern, moderately enjoyed the Cabinet War Rooms and Churchill Museum, and loved both the National Gallery and the Victoria and Albert museum.
