Painted Hall and George Stubbs at Greenwich

Main Hall, The Painted Hall, Greenwich

I wondered how different the Painted Hall at Greenwich looked after its recent partial cleaning and found the answer was - quite a lot. The interior looked much brighter than I remember it, and I hope it doesn't take too long to raise the funds to clean the rest of it. The Hall was designed by Sir Christopher Wren and Nicholas Hawksmoor in 1698 and was originally intended to be the dining hall for the retired sailors at the Royal Hospital for Seamen. Sir James Thornhill spent 19 years from 1708 painting every surface with both figurative and trompe d'oeil work, celebrating British royal and naval history. When the work was finished, it was realised that the end product was far too grand for a dining mess and the place became one of London's first tourist attractions. Fittingly, Nelson's body lay in state in the Hall in 1805 before his state funeral in St Paul's Cathedral.

Part of the cleaned West Wall

I also took the opportunity to look at the two paintings by George Stubbs which the nearby National Maritime Museum is trying to save for the nation. They are of a dingo and a kangaroo, surprisingly accurate representations considering Stubbs painted them from skins, sketches and descriptions not from life. The paintings were bought by a private Australian buyer, but the Museum argues it should have them as the are linked to the voyages of Captain Cook and the Museum has the major collection of artifacts connected to Cook. The Museum is trying to raise the price for which they were sold, which would enable the paintings to stay in Britain. I was slight ambivalent about this (although I did contribute), as Australia also seems a suitable place for the first western paintings of Australian animals, but I wouldn't be surprised if the funds are raised and they stay where they are.