Sir Peter Blake, R.A.

Waddington Galleries, London, where acquired by the present owner in 2006

London, The National Gallery, Now We Are 64, Peter Blake at the National Gallery, 25th September 1996 - 5th January 1997, un-numbered catalogue, illustrated p.21 (in progress), with tour to The Whitworth Art Gallery, Manchester;
Liverpool, Tate, Peter Blake: A Retrospective, 29th June - 23rd September 2007.

Natalie Rudd, Peter Blake, Tate Publishing, London, 2003, cat. no.80, illustrated p.95.

Original canvas. The canvas is sound. There is some very slight undulation to the canvas in the upper right and upper left quadrants. There is some speckled surface matter in the upper right quadrant, which may have happened in the studio. There are some further light speckles of possible mould to the sky in the upper centre. Subject to the above the work is in very good overall condition. Inspection under ultraviolet light reveals no obvious signs of restoration or retouching. The work is framed within an ornate gilt wood frame. Please telephone the department on +44 207 5464 if you have any questions.
"In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective, qualified opinion. Prospective buyers should also refer to any Important Notices regarding this sale, which are printed in the Sale Catalogue.
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‘One of the dreams I have had over the years as a painter, has been to return to that innocent state of being a student, of going in to the art school and spending long days just painting, with none of the worries which appear later. Being at the National Gallery has been like that…’
(Peter Blake, Introduction to Now We Are 64, Peter Blake at the National Gallery, exh. cat., 1996, p.9)

In 1993, Blake was invited to become the third Associate artist at the National Gallery in London. The aim was straightforward: to produce new work in response to the collection and secondly, to have an exhibition of work after his two-year residency. As David Hockney put it in his Foreword to the exhibition catalogue, Blake was the perfect contemporary artist to do a residency at the National Gallery, holding both Elvis Presley and Hans Holbein in equal esteem. The first thing Blake did was to walk through the sixty-six rooms of the gallery journeying past each and every painting. After this three hour wander, many ideas emerged including bringing together the gallery's Venuses on the beach at Weymouth Bay, the setting for John Constable's canvas from 1816-17 looking west over the beach with Jordon Hill and Furzy Cliff in the background. Blake's initial reaction was that he might prepare a small exhibition of perhaps 10 paintings but when he moved into his studio at the gallery in August 1994, the effect was electric, and surrounded by the nation's treasure trove of art history, a plethora of ideas sprang onto canvas and he started close to 50 paintings, experiencing a period of creativity unmatched since his student days at the Royal College of Art.

The present work is central to the National Gallery project. Taking John Constable's Weymouth Bay: Bowleaze Cove and Jordon Hill (1816-17, fig.1) as the backdrop, Blake has assembled some of the most famous Venuses in art history by the likes of Botticelli, Velazquez, Giorgione, Titian, Correggio and Lucas Cranach the Elder, parading them revelling along the beach front. In the background, a handful of cupids are playing cricket with Folly from Bronzino’s Allegory with Venus and Cupid ditching his handful of roses in favour of a cricket bat. Colin Wiggins, Special Projects Curator at the National Gallery, remembered that when the public came to visit Blake's studio, this was the one picture they found genuinely funny. Indeed, Blake deemed the Old Masters quite resilient enough to have some fun poked at them. But the picture has an important message; the setting is not just a whimsical fantasy, Weymouth Bay was near where Constable spent his honeymoon after a difficult relationship with his future father-in-law. Here, the tour bus in the background has brought together art history’s most well-known goddesses of love for a triumphal day trip to the seaside.