Exploring Trafalgar Square

London's Trafalgar Square is home to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery. The first is an impressive collection of paintings, including many impressionist pieces. It was especially interesting to see the works of Monet and how they differed from the pictures I have always seen in textbooks. There is certainly something to be said for seeing impressionist works in person to get a true sense of how the color reflects the light. Monet's paintings almost seem as if there is a glass cover over the canvass which reflects the light, when, in reality, it is merely the illusion of the paint. The National Portrait Gallery contained portraits of some of the most influential British men and women from the Renaissance to the present. Items of interest included the Tudors, several prominent American colonists, Charles Darwin, John Keats, and several British composers including Handel and Johann Christian Bach. It is so interesting to notice the poses of the individuals in the portraits and their surroundings. In the day of instant and digital cameras, we take for granted how important it was to have that one single portrait painted of you. There's no doubt that many decisions had to be made so that the individuals pictured would be remembered in a certain way. Handel, for instance, was pictured standing, with his full figure visible. His large build, combined with his pompous stance emphasized his supreme standing as the king of British composers. Like his tomb in Westminster Abbey, Handel is seen with his most memorable work in hand, the Messiah.

Looking from the steps of the National Gallery to Trafalgar Square