A London Journal

In my brief visit to Glasgow I experienced three world class works of art that nearly reduced me to tears. The first was Seurat’s Boy Sitting in a Meadow in Kelvingrove. Every piece of Seurat’s that I’ve seen is memorable but this is the primus inter pares. Off-kilter simplicity that left me incapable of description. So I just sketched it and wrote ‘This is genius’ at the top edge where he has a strip of abstract sky and ‘As is this’ in the centre of the field which thrives under your eyes. It’s hard to explain.

The second was Chardin’s Lady Taking Tea in the Hunterian. There’s a certain similarity of atmosphere to Seurat’s canvas in that we are witnessing a moment in time, a moment of exquisite stillness. There’s also a similarity in that although both contain a significant human figure it’s the details of the background that grab the attention. In this case the red card table (with its typically open drawer), the brown teapot and the whisp of steam rising from its spout. It is perfection.

It is also flanked by two quieter masterpieces of a Cellar Boy and  Scullery Maid. These are fine pieces of characterisation and empathy. By contrast to the Dutch Masters’ depiction of servants (excepting perhaps De Hooch) Chardin always makes us empathise with his subjects rather than objectify them. And his servants have as much dignity as their masters. I like that.

The third is the pizza dough at Paesano’s. We were seated (after a bit of a wait but we hadn’t booked) next to two tubs of fermenting dough. And then the finished product arrived. Two rough discs of beautifully cooked pizza that I could quite happily have eaten without any topping. But the topping was good too – one of tuscan sausage and asparagus, the other spicy pepperoni and peppers. It was the best pizza I’ve ever had, simple as that. Salads on the side and a bottle of red made me happy, as did the service from cheery Glaswegians.

9/10

To see which other restaurants I’ve visited in 2016/7 check out my GoogleMap