After Roy dropped Elaine off at the public dock and she scrambled over the railings at spring tide to try and keep her legs and feet dry, it was time to meet Angie and her mother, who is visiting from South Africa, at the entrance to Echo Point Park. Elaine certainly picked up a few strange looks from the motorists driving by, while she stood waiting on the roadside in a very upscale area, surrounded by multimillion dollar homes.
Fortunately Angie arrived as planned and we set off on our girl's day out. We were also meeting a friend of Angie's and her daughter. Our destination, the Art Gallery of New South Wales in downtown Sydney and, in particular, to see the Rembrandt and the Dutch Golden Age exhibition, with masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum in the Netherlands.
What a fabulous event and such a contrast to our island cultural experiences of the past four years and, in fact, since leaving England in 1999, where the last art museum Elaine visited was in London a few years prior to that.
Our guided tour took us through the various halls for roughly one and half hours with a very pleasant and knowledgeable guide, which definitely served the purpose of pointing out elements of the paintings that an untrained eye would completely miss. Getting the history and background of the various artists, including Rembrandt, was, not only informative, but fascinating and brought everything to life. When looking at some of Rembrandt's paintings, you felt like you could reach out and touch the fabric or the gold chain or the jewel.
All the paintings were unique though, in as much as the Dutch artists of the Golden Age were not commissioned by the church or royalty, but rather painted for the free market, making the works substantially different from other artists of the time.
We also learnt that Rembrandt painted more self portraits, spanning his lifetime, than any other artist. He was also a master at ink drawings. This was in great part due to his considerable talent as an engraver. Despite being a talented painter, the Rembrandt drawings show he also gave great importance to mastering the art of drawing. His production of drawings was as prolific as it was brilliant. About 1,400 attributed to him survive, and probably at least an equal number have been lost.
Rembrandt was apparently interested in drawing from a young age, so much so that he continued even though his family paid to send him to Leyde University. In the 1620s, after having completed his schooling, he opened his first art studio / workshop along with Jan Lievers. Later on, due to his sucess and fame, he decided to move to Amsterdam in 1629. Financially secure, he bought a house in a rich neighbourhood of Amsterdam. Tragically though, despite his comfortable financial circumstance in his younger years, he sank into debt throughout the rest of his life, ending by having to sell his house and dying an impoverished man in 1669.
Once our tour concluded we made our way to the museum's café to enjoy a light lunch, followed by a coffee and cream scones. The perfect indulgence to end a perfect day!
Roy, on the otherhand, decided to spend his day on board enjoying some peace and quiet, although invited to be the rose amongst the thorns. He was rather productive in cleaning the exhaust elbow and adjusting the v-belt of the starboard engine, as well as assisting a fellow sailor unsnag his anchor from the rocks versus having to cut it loose. For his act of kindness, the sailor went all the way to the Sydney Fish Market, a round-trip of approximately 20NM and returned with some fresh tuna as a gift for Roy. Staggering!
