If only Mancunian men were this good...

Looking closely at 'Italian Women in Church', one is reminded of how wonderful a painter Susan Isabel Dacre was. One of the Manchurian suffragettes she, along with Annie Swynnerton, founded The Manchester Society of Women Artists in 1876. Ford Madox Brown is perhaps the only man to come close.

Poor Clym

After returning from that 'rookery of pomp and vanity' that is Paris, poor Clym falls for and weds Eustacia, looses his sight, and ends up cutting furze-faggot to earn but a few shillings. Its a Hardy life when natives return to Wessex.

Macduff 1 Branagh 0

*** 

Even after 24 hrs. Branagh's Macbeth has failed to improve in the mind. Perhaps it might have been different if it were a 'real play which I see before me' (rather than NT live), but I suspect I have become too much the modernist; these traditional productions full of sound and fury, signifying nothing (little) for me today. Lady Macbeth and the witches also disappoint, although Macduff was wonderful.

BLOG RESUMPTION...but not much to tell

During a Sunday morning visit to the Manchester Art Gallery I am, 'quite literally', confronted by  MIF sponsored contemporary trash. My favourite was the interactive exhibit which included a pile of brooms and the opportunity for gallery visitors to clean the floor...who says austerity is leading to cuts in gallery funding.