Brooks' Private View...

Private view of the old masters exhibition, Royal Academy, 1888

By Henry Jamyn Brooks. 

There are a lot of people in the picture. It is people such as artists, critics and politicians. They are standing in a big room in the royal academy. The people standing in the picture looks old and it looks like they belong to the upper class. There are many men and only a few women. In the bag ground are there pictures. The painting is painted in 1888, which is the late Victorian age. It is an exhibition where they are looking at portraits. 

The thing that we noticed first is the people standing in the middle. It seems like they are more important than the others. There names are Harriet Sarah, Sir Fredric Leighton, Margaret Elizabeth, Sir Richard Wallace and Robert James Lindsay. 

The painted is in a normal view. It makes us feel like we are participating in the exhibition. The painting is painted with a lot of dark colours that are earth-like. There are one thing that stands out. It is the red scarf the woman in the middle is wearing. The red is the only bright colour and seems like she is more important than the others. The red symbolize royalty and power and it helps the painting to indicate the importance of these people through the bag ground. The colours are very natural, realistic and muted. 

The picture is very dynamic because of all of the movement and action. The atmosphere is very serious and formal. There are a lot of tensions in the air. It does not seem like the people are posing for the painter. It is a very realistic painting and it looks like a picture. 

We think that the painting was painted to capture the yearly exhibition. They would like to remember that day. There are many important people and they had the opportunity make the painting. 

The viewers today would notice that there are many more men than women. It was a normal thing back then because of the suppression of the women. It was the men that ruled and the women were not important. 

There are a lot of books and it symbolizes knowledge. There are some of the cleverest men in England and it is shows by the books. The ceiling is also very important in the picture. It is very high and it makes the room bigger. The room becomes more powerful and it takes some of the focus to the paintings in the back.

- Anders, Bayan, Rie og Klara