“'As painting, so poetry”. Like all siblings, the Sister Arts are rivals and allies. In the mirrors they hold up to nature we see ourselves reflected from varying angles and by different lights.
The National Gallery in London houses some of the finest European paintings in the world. Many record the places where men and women have spent their lives: working, listening to music, enjoying each other's company or the fleeting beauty of flowers and sunshine, taking pride in well-tilled fields and bustling cities. Others depict dream voyages through time and space, paradises lost and Utopias gained. Writers in turn, have kept diaries, celebrated familiar or exotic sights, evoked lands unseen.
By exploring the paintings in detail, often discovering aspects we never 'knew' were there, and by the pairing of text and image in sometimes unexpected yet always apt combinations, Places in Art enhances the descriptive powers of both painting and literature, encouraging us to hone our responses to each.