A Room with a View Photo Essay

image credit: https://advantageinvintage.co.uk/tag/john-soane-museum/

This photo is of one of the many levels of the John Soane Museum. It's hard to chose one stand-out piece of art; however, all of Soane's collections are respectable representations of what one may see when traveling to Italy or Greece. 

This is An Old Man holding a Pilgrim-Bottle, painted in the 1650s by an unknown artist and exhibited in the National Gallery. I liked this picture because it showed an old man, perhaps near the end of his life, reminiscing on his memories of travel, which are still as lovely as if he had gone yesterday. I believe that he travelled to experience the beauty of other places, rather than to see the sights he was expected to see. I like to think that this is old Mr. Emerson reflecting on his travels. 

This picture from the National Gallery, Venice: Upper Reaches of the Grand Canal facing Santa Croce by Bernardo Bellotto, painted in the 1740s, shows an idealistic tourist Venice. While Lucy visited Florence rather than Venice, it is easy to picture her exploring Santa Croce and taking in the sights, aided by her Baedeker. 

In my opinion, this was the most interesting painting that I encountered at the Tate Britain. I could not get a good picture of it because it was so high, but this is Forum Romanum, for Mr Soane's Museum by Will Turner, exhibited in 1826. Mr. Soane commissioned Mr. Tuner to paint this for his museum. Notice how unlike the Venice paintings, this painting shows a more realistic version of Rome, complete with decaying architecture. 

This is Turner's The Dogano, San Giorgio, Citella, from the Steps of the Europa, painted in 1842 and also found in Tate Britain. Compare this picture with the one above. This shows a much more idealistic and expressive version of Italy. This is the Italy that British tourists such as Lucy and Miss Bartlett would have gone to see.