Belated Birthday Experience

 So even those with short memories might remember me moaning on my birthday about how we had changed our plans several times only to have the final version  scuppered by Storm Floris. We had had tickets for the JamesVI/I Exhibition at the Portrait Gallery. I'd  wanted to see it since it was first announced and had worried that it would close before we got moved; in the event, since it goes on until 15th of this month we were covered on that front, although we had been so busy with other things it might have passed us by. 

Having had to cancel on 4th I was told they could reissue my tickets for whenever really and I'd put it off until after the grandsons visit. then we heard that a friend from Verona was in Edinburgh working at the National Library and she contacted me to say could we meet up before she went back to Italy so we arranged to meet her for coffee in the Portrait Gallery in the afternoon and we rebooked the exhibition tickets for just after lunch. 

It was a good day. We went up by train and the Portrait Gallery is only a 10 minute walk from the station. The exhibition was interesting and I'm glad I managed to see it although it was quite wordy. Also a lot of the labels had things saying 'Scan this QR code to find out more'. I'm old fashioned enough to think that the 'more' should be in the exhibition if it's important, not that I should be asked to faff about with my phone to access it. I didn't take many photographs although I couldn't resist these two of the front and back of a contemporary embroidered bodice.

It slightly moved my impression of James VI to something a bit more positive than previously, and there were some great pictures. There was also a reconstituted court scent which was interesting to sniff; it smelled overwhelmingly of lavender and rose so nothing startling. 

The main halls of the buildings are incredibly ornate in a very C19 way. I took some photos; here's one of part of the frieze . The frieze shows Great Scots, starting with  Thomas Carlyle  and then going backwards in  time. I don't know that I personally would count Thomas Carlyle as a Great Scot, but there again he was very involved with the establishing of the portrait gallery so I suppose for the artist he was a slam dunk. I have a postcard of the frieze and a quick glance shows only 4 women; a saint, a princess, a queen and Grisel Beaton. I know of Grisel Beaton from the novels of Dorothy Dunnett, but have absolutely no idea what qualifies her as a Great Scot. 

After we'd finished with the  exhibition we had time to look in the Modern Scot gallery which has some interesting portraits,  many of them of painters it has to be said.... we saw three that have resulted from Portrait Artist of the Year; Alan Cumming,Nicola Benedetti and the latest one which is  Lorraine Kelly. These were Interesting, Lovely and Trash respectively. 

Time then for coffee with our friend and a good chat to catch up on what we'd been doing since we last saw her and then home. A Good Day.