Expensive prescription – a £3.6m painting
National Gallery lends out its self-portrait of 17th-century female painter to GPS’ surgery
GAZE at the walls of most GP surgeries and you will find leaflets about the flu vaccine or posters encouraging you to eat your five a day.
At Pocklington Group Practice in East Yorkshire, however, you will see a £3.6million treasure from the National Gallery. It is a self-portrait by Artemisia Gentileschi, the most famous female painter of the 17th century, and one of the gallery’s most recent acquisitions.
The surgery is one of several “unusual and unexpected venues” that will host the painting over the next few months, as part of a scheme reminding people that the National Gallery’s collection belongs to the nation.
The gallery worked with the charity Paintings in Hospitals to select the surgery, where patients will now be able to see the world-renowned work while waiting for their appointments.
Amisha Karia, the charity’s head of loans, said: “Giving everyone access to art is something we believe in. Studies have shown that seeing an artwork in a care environment can reduce anxiety and aid recovery. In some settings it provides distraction and calms you by giving you something to focus on.
“In this case, Artemisia dealt with challenges, painting at a time when that wasn’t accepted for women. I hope that the painting provides inspiration by showing that people can face challenges and come out the other side.”
Non-patients will be able to view the painting at set “visiting times” but it will be safeguarded around the clock by a security team. It will be in situ until May 11, when it will move to a girls’ school. It was previously on display in Glasgow Women’s Library.
The practice manager said: “We are still a working GP surgery and therefore we need to be able to continue our day-to-day operations as smoothly as possible, so we ask people to please remember and respect that if they are planning to come and visit Artemisia.”
Berni Judge, managing partner of the practice, said the response was positive. “People are just really amazed to see such a painting in a setting like this and have asked why it’s here.”
The National Gallery paid £3.6million for the painting last year to fulfil a “long-held dream” of showing more female artists. It is only the 21st painting by women out of a total of 2,300.
However, the organisation faced accusations of overspending after it emerged that the work had sold for just over £2million a few months earlier.
The oil painting dates from 1615-17 and depicts the artist as Saint Catherine of Alexandria. Gentileschi was a follower of Caravaggio and the first female member of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence.
She trained under her father, Orazio Gentileschi, who preceded her into the National Gallery collection. As a teenager, she was raped by Agostino Tassi, a painter who worked with her father, and endured a trial in which she was humiliated and tortured with thumbscrews to verify her testimony.