Cambridge

Van Gogh frequently used the structure of a figure
walking down an ally of trees in his
paintings, modeled originally on work by English
landscape painter John Millais

Van Gogh Drawing

Before leaving London, I was able to attend an exhibition at the Tate Britain on Van Gogh and Britain.  I didn't know (or hadn't remembered) that he lived in London for some years in his early twenties.  It was here he studied line drawing and print making and began his own work as an artist.  He later wrote:  "I often felt low in England ... but the Black and White [prints] and Dickens, are things that made up for it all."  I particularly liked this Van Gogh print made at that time.

Portrait of Roger Fry by Vanessa Bell

The exhibit also focused on British artists whose work was influenced by Van Gogh in the early twentieth century. Roger Fry, an art dealer who was the lover for a time of Vanessa Bell, Virginia Wolfe's sister, played a major role in introducing the 'new' painting to the British.  It was Fry who coined the term "Post-Impressionism".  Two of Vanessa's works -- including this portrait of Roger Fry -- were on display, a rarity as most were burned in a fire.   Van Gogh, who had sold virtually nothing during his life, was featured, along with others, in exhibitions that Fry mounted in London to expose British collectors to the new painting styles.  The current exhibit at the Tate includes many of Van Gogh's works brought to Britain in the early 20th century and several pieces by British artists influenced by him and other painters like Manet.  Indeed, it appears that Van Gogh's sunflowers inspired a whole new interest in British flower painting.  In 1910, when he mounted the first of the exhibitions, Fry said:  "European art has always mistreated flowers, dealing with them at best as aids to sentimentality until Van Gogh saw ... the arrogant spirit that inhabits the sunflower".

St. John's College

I always enjoy returning to Cambridge and this year was no exception.  I'm taking two history classes:  "Britain and Its Empire: 1763-1919", taught by Sean Lang, from whom I've taken two other courses, and "Russia from Lenin to Stalin, 1917-53" taught by Jonathan Davis.  Both men are good lecturers, well prepared and right on time.  This year, the plenary lectures are loosely organized around the theme of intelligence.  They have covered subjects such as animal intelligence, collections of historical scientific instruments, better ways to treat mental illness, and artificial intelligence.  This morning, we heard a lecture titled "Seedy, Clever and Bleak: Spies in British 20th Century Literature".  The connection to the theme of the plenary lectures seemed tenuous at best until Leo Mellor, who gave the talk, told us that in the 17th century, spies were called "intelligencers."  It was a wonderful lecture and I now have a long list of new books to read in one of my favorite genres.

St John's College, Bridge of Sighs

Last Wednesday the International Summer School hosted a tea on the lawn at St. John's College, which is a stunning place.  It owns the most beautiful bridge across the Cam, known as the Bridge of Sighs, theoretically because of the dejection of students who do poorly in their examinations -- a less lethal reason presumably than those who crossed the Bridge of Sighs in Venice on their way to their deaths.

American Cemetery, Cambridge

The next afternoon we visited the American Cemetery of Cambridge, which is located just a few miles from our college. I am always so moved by this beautiful monument to the fallen of World War II.  Over 3,500 men and women are buried there and over 5,700 more whose remains were never recovered are listed on the wall of remembrance, among them Joseph Kennedy Jr. and Glenn Miller.

On Saturday, we took a bus to Leicester to see the new Richard III museum.  It is utterly amazing and well worth a visit to this out-of-the-way and otherwise unattractive industrial town.

Richard III

Richard is the villain of the Wars of the Roses because he killed the two Lancastrian princes in the Tower of London.  Henry Tudor then brought an army to England and defeated Richard at Bosworth Field, crowning himself Henry VII.   Richard was dumped unceremoniously in a shallow grave, no one was sure exactly where, and so lost to history.

Tombstone of Richard III, Leicester Cathedral
I love the power and simplicity of this grave marker.

Several years ago,     a determined archeologist began digging in a municipal parking lot in the center of Leicester that was thought to have been the site of a Greyfriar's Monastery at the time of the Battle of Bosworth.  The first thing her team discovered, not two feet underground, was a skeleton with a distinct curvature of the spine characteristic of descriptions of Richard as having one shoulder higher than the other or being a hunchback.  They ground up a tooth and part of a leg bone to get the DNA.  Fortunately two women, an Englishwoman and an Australian, had traced their ancestry back to Richard's sister.  Using mitochondrial DNA testing (which I think involves the fluid that surrounds the nucleus inside the cell), they determined that the skeleton was related to the sister and therefore must be Richard.  His body is now buried in the Choir of Leicester Cathedral and the parking lot has become an absolutely wonderful museum, very interactive and full of information about the origins of the war, which lasted for more than 30 years, how it was fought and its climactic battle.

Harlaxton Manor and Greenhouse

Harlaxton Manor Garden

Harlaxton Manor interior
(notice the ceiling decoration reflected
in the mirror)

From Leicester, we went on to a lovely little village in Yorkshire that is the site of Harlaxton Manor, a venerable Victorian pile, that is now the headquarters of the Evansville (Indiana) University overseas study program.  Suzy Lantz, who organizes these trips for us and used to manage that program, arranged a tour.  The house, which is so enormous that I never got far enough away from it to take a picture of the whole thing, has hundreds of rooms, a carriage house that looks like a grand estate all by itself, and loads of follies and gardens.  Built in the middle of the 19th century, it features a variety of architectural styles from Gothic to Jacobean to Rococo to French Second Empire.  But somehow it all works.  It has been beautifully maintained with outrageously high ceilings and decorations everywhere.  I don't know how they keep it dusted, let alone heated!  But we loved it and had a very nice tea before driving back to Cambridge.

My days here in Cambridge are drawing to a close.  I suppose they might seem boring to many of you, but I find them both stimulating and relaxing.  From Monday to Friday, after breakfast, I attend two classes and a plenary lecture from 9:00 to 1:00 and then my afternoon is all mine.  Sometimes I go into town for lunch or tea and wander into museums or shop or visit with friends.  Other times, I meet someone from one of my classes or someone from the Club for lunch on campus, which gives me time in the afternoon to write my blog, read a book, have a nap and/or take care of laundry.  On other days, our group goes off to punt on the river, have tea at the Orchard in Grantchester or visit the American Cemetery.  We gather in the bar at the College for a drink around 5:45, have dinner at 6:30 or so and then I have time to sit in the garden with my book until the final lecture or concert of the evening.  I find the relaxed atmosphere, the simple routine and absence of responsibility quite refreshing -- and you meet so many interesting people and learn such amazing things!

We'll finish classes on July 19th and then it will be home to Seattle for me.  I look forward to seeing you all again soon.