Drivers ‘should pay in advance for fuel’
IT COULD well be one of the best decisions for a change in career ever.
And a new exhibition will go on show next year to detail the “crucial” years which Vincent Van Gogh spent in London that led to him becoming among the world’s most celebrated artists.
The painter decided to give up his career as a trainee art dealer and pursue life as an artist during his years living in Brixton.
He “roamed the streets of London” and was inspired by British writers Shakespeare, Christina Rossetti and Charles Dickens.
Almost all of his drawings from his time in London have been “lost”, but the influence that the city had on the Dutch painter will be the subject of the new exhibition at Tate Britain next year.
Van Gogh’s much-loved
(1888) will be shown alongside the British flower paintings, by Frank Brangwyn, Matthew Smith, Jacob Epstein and David Bomberg, which it inspired.
Tate Britain director Alex Farquharson said that Van Gogh’s period as a Dutch man living in Britain has “more resonance” today, but added: “He is perennially important, as is the story of migration on British art ... (the exhibition) is both timeless and timely.”
During his time living in London, van Gogh “enjoyed a bit of gardening”, had a Dickensstyle Christmas, and liked to sketch the River Thames at dusk - but also came face-to-face with poverty.
Van Gogh stayed in London between 1873 and 1876 and wrote to his brother Theo: “I love London.”
Despite having little money, the artist, who spent time in an asylum and famously cut off his own ear, collected thousands of engravings from English magazines. In the final months before he died penniless in 1890 after shooting himself, he returned to these prints to paint the work Prisoners Exercising (1890), his only surviving image of London.
The Tate Britain exhibition will include some “absolute icons” such as (1890),
(1888) and (1886) as well as The last Van Gogh show at the Tate, in 1947, attracted record crowds and was visited by the Queen. A letter from a Tate administrator to the Arts Council even requested reimbursement for three years’ worth of damage to its floors done in five weeks, such was the popularity of the show.
runs from March 27 to August 11 next year.
Motorists should be made to pay for fuel in advance at the pump to end drive-off thefts, a police chief has said.
Chief Constable Simon Cole, the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC) lead for local policing, claimed fuel retailers have the ability to ensure all drivers are asked to prepay before filling up to avoid “bilking” – where people drive off without paying. He said they do not do this because they want customers to visit the shop and potentially spend more money.