February - month of St Valentine's Day! Time to fall in love with art

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For the romantic month of February, with St Valentine’s Day around the corner, how about a trip to Paris? If you can’t manage that, you might like to visit the city in spirit, through the lens of a present-day photographer who presents the city to us in images that would have been recognizable to the Impressionists and their contemporaries. Take a look at Beth Williamson's review of Paris: City of Light and fall in love with the work of Christopher Thomas. Then maybe the plane or the train will beckon irresistibly….

Can you afford your dream home? These days, probably not and possibly dreams have always tended to outstrip reality. How appealing, then, to be able to have the house one wants, furnished and decorated just as one prefers…in miniature. Dolls’ houses have been around for centuries and a fascinating exhibition at the Victoria & Albert Museum’s specialist Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green explores their history. Jenny Kingsley went to investigate and found that there is much more to dolls’ houses than child’s play.

The painter J.M.W. Turner would not be most people’s idea of the romantic hero, but his works have emotional as well as aesthetic resonance and his rise from humble beginnings to painting ‘stardom’ is romantic in itself. Mike Leigh’s film Mr. Turner, starring Timothy Spall as Turner, was partly shot at Petworth House, home of Turner’s patron, Lord Egremont. Some of Turner’s work is still there, in place on the walls as it was when he was alive. The National Trust, which owns Petworth, is presenting an exhibition to tie in with the film. Sue Ecclestone went to the press view, meeting Timothy Spall and other members of the cast and production crew. Read her report this month.

We have reviews for you on exhibitions of Pop art and its successors, abstract art’s development in the 20th century, and how the Virgin Mary has been depicted through the ages.

Throughout the next few years there will undoubtedly be many books published about the First World War. The art of that period – and later wars – is not being neglected. Readers who enjoy Patricia R. Andrew’s reviews in Cassone will want to read her own contribution to the art history of that war, A Chasm in Time:  Scottish War Art and Artists in the Twentieth Century, reviewed this month by Victoria Keller.

Our other book reviews cover Picasso, Michelangelo  (traditionally thought to have designed the Swiss Guards' uniform, shown on our homepage carousel), Velazquez, Robert Delaunay, Mary Cassatt and her friend Edgar Degas, and a new look at the Renaissance. Whatever your art interest, there is something here for you to enjoy this month. Fall in love with art this February!

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Cassone – ca-soh-neh – the elaborately  decorated chest that a wealthy Italian bride of the Renaissance period used to hold her trousseau: a box of beautiful things.