The Queen's Gallery at Buckingham Palace was my destination today to see the exhibition Portrait of the Artist. Included were over 150 paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, and decorative arts from the Royal Collection, dating from the 15th to the 21st centuries. All were images of artists, either self-portraits or painted by their friends or students. The wall text and audio guide provided a history of the self-portrait, beginning during the Renaissance as a tool for self-promotion. Here are some of my favorites (they uploaded in reverse order for some reason).

Detail of L'Hémi-Cycle des Arts

L'Hémi-Cycle des Arts, 1866, Anna Vinet after Paul Delaroche and others
Oil on canvas

Self-Portrait as the Allegory of Painting (La Pittura), c. 1638-9, Artemisia Gentileschi
Oil on canvas

The dog is easy to see, but can you spot the cat? And no, the dog didn't paint it. I'm not sure why it's in the exhibition.

Pen, Brush and Chisel: The Studio of Sir Francis Chantrey, 1836, Sir Edwin Landseer
Oil on canvas

A Self-Portrait, 1623, Sir Peter Paul Rubens
Oil on panel

A Rembrandt self-portrait. Quelle surprise! The audio guide says that he painted eighty of them.

Self-Portrait in a Flat Cap, 1642, Rembrandt van Rijn
Oil on panel

This was embroidered, and the detail was amazing.

A Self-Portrait, 1779, Mary Knowles
Wool embroidery

Self Portrait: Reflection, 1996, Lucian Freud
Etching with plate tone

This is, incredibly, drawn on Hockney's iPad. Remember the three iPad tree drawings of his that I saw at the Hepworth Wakefield Museum back on August 20? I didn't think so.

Self-Portrait, 6 April 2012, David Hockney
Ink-jet printed iPad drawing

There was a chill to the air, but it was a beautiful day nonetheless.

Instead of heading back the way I had arrived (Victoria Station), I decided to walk through Green Park and leave from its underground station instead. I found this Canada Memorial designed by a Canadian sculptor, Pierre Granche, that pays tribute to the nearly one million Canadian men and women who served during WWI and WWII. It is made of red granite from the Canadian Shield and is inset with bronze maple leaves.

Gord took the last of his students to dinner and I ate the leftover Indian food.

Read: Doris Lessing's "In Defense of the Underground" (1992), Irma Kurtz's "Islington" (1997), and Hanif Kureishi's "The Umbrella" (1999) from London Stories, and I finally finished the book.