London Journal 2: Horst at the Victoria and Albert Museum

First, let me thank all of you that replied to my first London blog. It was lovely to know that I was not sending these missives into the void. Please do pass this on and remind those who want to follow the London journal that you should click to add your email to A+ Art Blog

 

We had the most wonderful BBQ in the garden of the flat on Saturday with trout, chicken and sausages on the grill and I made a watermelon and tomato salad with chives and basil and a vinegar dressing. The prompted us to go to the Marylebone Market on Saturday for fresh goodies and then out to lunch for what I hope is the first of many Indian meals. The Paradise in the south park of Hampstead was delicious. We saw many wonderful details in our walk home.  I am a huge Dr. Who fan and this relaxing day ended with a new episode...bliss. 

Bath Blue and we also bought a mature goat's cheese to add to the stilton in the fridge. We also got olive, rosemary and olive oil bread. Who says the English don't appreciate good food.....the selection is spectacular.

lovely mess of carrots

Our host and hostess buying black truffles

Trees are just starting to turn but the green is still intense

Paradise tandori chicken, do piaza lamb which is a dry curry with onions, bhindee bhajee (lady fingers or okra) with perwami (coconut and ground almonds) and garlic nan servied with pilau rice and some cucumber yougart called raita. I didn't even miss my mango chutney.

London stoop

Mosaic column outside a pub near our flat call the Warrington Hotel. Looks spectacular.

 

A quick note about cooking in the UK:  the gas is different and makes it much hotter here on the hob (cook top) and so I know that thing brown better and stir fries comes out more like professional ones in restaurants. There is something about being here that makes me drink more tea and having an electric kettle is much faster than even the microwave. But in this deluxe flat that we find ourselves in, we have an induction cook top and that means I can boil up a kettle, pour it into a pan and it stays boiling immediately. Plus the surface does not get hot, so I can clean off the splatters and nothing gets burned on. If this is the future, sign me up.

And if you want to know what I cooked...it is classic smoked mackerel with rice, sauteed onions and a hard boiled egg = kedgeree. Excellent for breakfast after too much wine. 

 

Asakusa is the Japanese restaurant not to far from where we are staying in Maida Vale was only double what we pay in San Diego and with a very good non-filtered sake.

 

Horst at the Victoria and Albert Museum. "Horst P. Horst (1906-99) created images that transcend fashion and time. He was a master of light, composition and atmospheric illusion, who conjured a world of sensual sophistication. In an extraordinary sixty-year career, his photographs graced the pages of Vogue and House and Garden under the one-word photographic byline ‘Horst’. He ranks alongside Irving Penn and Richard Avedon as one of the pre-eminent fashion and portrait photographers of the 20th century. The creation of a Horst photograph was a collaborative process, involving the talents of the photographer and model, the art director, fashion editor, studio assistants and set technicians. The modelling profession was still in its infancy in the 1930s and many of those who posed under the hot studio lights were stylish friends of the magazine’s staff, often actresses or aristocrats." This show also included Horst's early (1946) montages of patterns, a forerunner to what we do so easily with photoshop. He took much of his influence from the surrealist and his black and white work is splendid. But the surprise for me, was all of his color work...actually a relief to look at after all those tiny b&w images. They were displayed large and were so happy. Hard to believe this career stretched for such a long time and he was able to keep his enthusiasm for his career over 60 years of change.

 

 

Round the Clock, New York, 1987. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

 

Mainbocher Corset (pink satin corset by Detolle), Paris, 1939. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

Salvador Dalí’s costumes for Leonid Massine's ballet Bacchanale, 1939. © Condé Nast/Horst Estate

Summer Fashions, American Vogue cover, 15 May 1941 © Conde Nast, Horst Estate

Dress by Hattie Carnegie, 1939 © Conde Nast, Horst Estate

Dinner suit and headdress by Schiaparelli, 1947 © Conde Nast, Horst Estate.

Muriel Maxwell, American Vogue, 1939 Condé NastHorst Estat

Exhibition view with Vague covers

Exhibition view with stylish viewer

V&A restaurant, tile room

V&A restaurant

V&A restaurant chandeliers

My lunch, bacon and cheese tart with fresh green bean salad