17th century art @ The Weiss Gallery

Sign outside the Weiss Gallery, London

The sign above caught my eye a few weeks back when walking in Jermyn Street ...

Christie Crawfurd Collection exhibition in Stow-on-the-Wold (Apr - Oct 2013)

The Death of a Cavalier's Wife, by Eugene Sibendt, 1919.

A major collection of English Civil War paintings are going on display this spring ...

Peter Lely @ The Courtauld

Peter Lely: A Lyrical Vision runs at the Courtauld Gallery, London until Jan 12 2013.

The reputation in the UK of the Dutch artist Peter Lely rests largely on his portraits of the many beauties who caught the eye of Charles II. Some of these appeared last year at The Wild, the Beautiful and the Damned exhibition at Hampton Court.

The current display at the Courtauld chooses to examine Lely's pastoral and religious works. Previews frothed over risqué mythological scenes splashing acres of female flesh - scenes not often associated with the puritan Interregnum (when many of the works are meant to have been completed). So how did Lely get away with it?