The National Gallery in a Mask

The National Gallery was the last place I visited before lockdown in March 2020 and it was the first place I visited as lockdown starts to ease. Back in March everything was uncertain and no-one knew what to expect, Trafalgar Square was empty and so was the Gallery. It was oddly quiet and I remember walking into normally crowded rooms and finding them empty. There was a nervousness in the air. Yesterday was different in subtle ways. Trafalgar Square was still empty but the nervousness had gone and the Gallery was open, people were happy and smiling, from those welcoming visitors back inside the front doors to the smiling guards in the rooms wearing visors and chatting away. What a difference a pandemic makes.

Outside the National Gallery the big red 'welcome back' banners were fluttering in the breeze as I joined the queue up the side of the Gallery waiting to be let in and put on a mask. The Gallery ask visitors to arrive 15 minutes before entry time and it didn't take long to get inside. The foyer is strangely empty and the bookshop is closed but we were welcome by a very cheerful member of staff directing us to the stairs to get up to the art. Three routes have been introduced, a sort of curated way to see the Gallery safely, and first off for me was Route A to see the early Italian paintings in the Sainsbury Wing.

It was lovely to be back, to say hello to the little Giotto panel, the small Duccio altarpiece, the Sassettas, the Botticellis and Bellinis, the Crivellis and the Raphaels. What to look at first? The floor is marked out with arrows to keep people on the route and make sure people stay safe. I asked one of the guards how I could see the rooms behind the route I was following and he explained I'd need to go round twice before almost conspiratorially telling me that 'that's a Michelangelo over there' as he pointed to a painting. The normally serious guards actually interacting and smiling and welcoming you into their rooms. I loved it.

So I walked round once to get back to the start of the route, then walk round again go into another set of rooms to see the Van Eyck and Campin paintings. I didn't mind. Small rooms were roped off so you can't get close to the Leonardo panels but they're still easy enough to see from the entrance.That means that I visited the Fra Angelico predella twice on the way out of the Sainsbury Wing and it's always a joy to see works by Beato Angelico.

Then I headed off on Route B to see room after room of great paintings. There seems to have been some re-hanging of paintings while the Gallery has been closed and the huge portrait of Charles I has been re-framed into a far more effective frame that really shows off the painting. It was lovely to see some old friends but I couldn't help wondering where Mr Silenus was getting his booze to still be so tipsy even after lockdown. Some people never seem to grow up and none of his mates were wearing a mask either.

It was quite touching walking into the Rembrandt room and seeing the self-portrait of him as an old man, not much older than me. I saw a number of people stopping to gaze at him, perhaps with feelings of their own mortality? There's no exuberance here, this is man who's lived a full life and knows it won't go on forever. Quite sobering really.

It was also lovely to see the self-portrait of Artemisia Gentileschi hanging on the wall next to a Caravaggio, momentarily sad because she should have been the star of her own exhibition at the National Gallery at the moment and then remembering that the exhibition has been rescheduled for the autumn. I'm looking forward to seeing that exhibition.

Walking on and then I found myself in a room of French paintings and there she was, Elisabeth Vigee-Le Brun who had an exciting life and died after attending a party in her 80s - that' how to go. Here she is as a young artist showing off her skill as a portraitist and it served her well. I have fond memories of seeing a big exhibition of her portraits at Le Grand Palais in Paris years ago. She deserves an exhibition in London.

Route B (and Route C for that matter) ends withe the Impressionist and post-Impressionist rooms. They are always busy rooms, really busy, but yesterday? Not so busy. I can't remember ever standing in front of the five paintings by Van Gogh and be able to see them all without a crowd of people in front of them.

It was a delight to be able to visit the National Gallery again, a treasure in the soul. Most people followed the advice from the Gallery and wore a mask but some people didn't, or wandered round with a mask pulled under their chins (which is rather pointless). I had to keep re-jigging my mask to avoid my glasses steaming up but it worked out OK. The toilets were suitably socially distanced and there was even a limit to the number of people who were allowed in the shop at the end of the visit. I had to wait a few minutes but I wanted a souvenir of my visit and bought a sim book of paintings by Rubens.

I didn't see the Titians since they're all grouped around the current exhibition about his poesy paintings but I've already booked another ticket to visit and that includes the exhibition (again - I saw it on my last visit in March).

Thank you National Gallery and thank you to all the staff for looking after the paintings during lockdown and now for giving them back to us. I really enjoyed my socially distant visit. I'll be back!