The Queen's Gallery, London

Oriental Room 

Gallery Interior

The Queen's Gallery, London: Designed by perhaps Britain's most famous architect John Nash, the gallery was originally one of Buckingham Palace's three identical conservatories and pavilions executed in the form of Ionic temples. The conservatory was converted into a private chapel for Queen Victoria in 1843, but after the Air Raids of 1940, the Queen & Duke of Edinburgh redeveloped the space into a gallery in 1962. In 1997, a 20 million dollar expansion was done to the gallery; the most significant addition that had been done to Buckingham Palace in 150 years.
The Royal Collection 

The Queen's Gallery

Gallery Exterior

I have been to the gallery, let alone London, more times than I care to admit (thanks to my mother, an English teacher who is an avid Anglophile, despite being of Irish ancestry).
While the gallery houses a pan-European collection filled with the works of Vermeer, Rembrandt, and Greco-Roman sculptors, my favourite part of the gallery is the section filled with colonial treasures. Ranging from snuff boxes to swords, this part of the gallery features gifts from the imperial colonies to British monarchs. The most impressive gifts in my opinion, are those from India-Britain's largest and likely most profitable imperial colony. The Indian treasures are fascinatingly ornate in their use of emeralds, rubies and diamonds, intricately woven in amongst botanical carvings and Hindi script.
Yes, the gallery can be critiqued from an anti-imperialist, anti-Edward Said like perspective for it's invocation of a "Rule Britannia" sensibility, but regardless of your standpoint-one cannot deny that this gallery is certainly gilded and grand.

State Opera House, Prague

Balcony & Private Boxes

Opera House Interior

Prague...Prague...Prague....A city of contradictions: an ex-Soviet Block capital, and also an ex-Hapsburg Empire capital. The city houses some of the ugliest architecture I've ever seen (Soviet style apartments and municipal buildings that are essentially pallid yellow and green boxes with tiny out-of-proportion windows) and some of the most ostentatious (Hapsburg Palace, Opera House, Cathedral, etc all designed at the height of the Baroque era). Prague is also a 'Bohemian' city both in origin and atmosphere. It was the historical capital of Bohemia proper during the Romanesque, Gothic and Renaissance eras, and then became a haven for some of Europe's greatest musicians and artists during (and after) the Hapsburg-Baroque era. It was Mozart's second home, and the original home of the Czech-Republic's greatest musician Antonin Dvorak. Alfons Mucha, Franz Kafka, and Albert Einstein also chose to spend much of their life in the city. 

Exterior Entry to Opera House

Opera House Exterior

To me the State Opera House (Opera Statini in Czech), encapsulates what Prague is today-an old European capital infused with a new beginning against the backdrop of a Stalinist canvas. That said, the State Opera House as a context versus a building, also demonstrates the less savoury side of Prague-on any given weekend, one can find a mix of Russian and Ukrainian gangsters with their wives and girlfriends dripping in fur and diamonds (despite it being August, the attitude seems to be "I have a 12 minks, so why not wear one every month of the year") blended with a collection of corrupt politicians, and those who scraped a month's earnings together to afford a single performance.
From a North American perspective, it isn't really that expensive-a dress circle seat will cost about $40. But for an average Czech worker, this is still very costly and something only purchased on very special occasions. To further emphasize the disparity between the 'new' and 'old' Prague, one merely needs to look at the old lady standing on the Opera House steps selling wilted roses in news paper begging for a few Crowns (local currency 1 Crown = .055 CAD) for a single rose.


Opera House Salon

I was last in Prague in 2007 and still remember the city, and Opera House vividly. I was alone, and to quell boredom in the evenings, I would attend a ballet or opera. The opera house, like many others in Europe is replete with red velvet seating and curtains, and gilded ceilings; however what sets the State Opera House in Prague apart is it's many salons which are used for intermission cocktails and aperitifs. The salons are just as sumptuous as the theatre, and provide an ideal place for people watching. If I had the chance again, I would not visit Prague without a visit to the State Opera House-it's like stepping into a James Bond movie: gangsters, beautiful women dripping in diamonds, Lamborghini's in the valet lot, all against the backdrop of Puccini's Tosca-now there's an ironic Opera to play in a theatre like this!

The Long Room, Trinity College, Dublin

The Long Room Interior

Long Room

The Long Room, also known as the Trinity College Library in Dublin, Ireland, is to me the most amazing library I have ever visited. It beats the British Library, Le Bibliotheque du Sorbonne in Paris, and easily all the North American libraries I have ever been to. It was built between 1712-1732 and contains 200,000 of Trinity College's oldest books. The Long Room also contains one of the last remaining copies of the 1916 Proclamation of the Irish Republic. Because it houses the Proclamation of the Irish Republic, the Long Room is a also a treasure of the Irish people, and for that reason is not 'just a library'.
Lined with marble busts of famous philosophers, academics and writers (both Irish and not), the atmosphere in the long room is one of weight-weight of centuries of knowledge, findings, and analysis of philosophy and theology. 

The Long Room: Detail of Statuary and Books

Detail of Long Room

I have visited the Long Room twice-once in 2007 and once in 2012, and I would go back again and again. I have been few places that inspire the mind to reach to such heights as the Long Room. The space is infused with politics, theology and prose and also a bit of humour-if you ever have a chance to go, seek out the bust of Jonathan Swift. When I saw it, it made me laugh-although it's very staunch and artistically traditional, it is also of Swift-the man who wrote Gulliver's Travels and A (not so) Modest Proposal. If you are familiar with his writings, you too will understand why there is a bit of humour injected into the Long Room through his bust (it is Irish after all, and the Irish are a cheeky lot). Although the Long Room is not gilded to the extent of other places I have featured in my blog, it is without question very grand, and will forever remain a mark of pride for the Irish people. 

Hertford House (The Wallace Collection Gallery), London

Hertford House, London

Hertford House Interior

On a cold and damp London day in 2008 (honestly, what London day isn't damp) I decided to seek out Hertford House. This small gallery in the heart of London happens to contain some very famous artists, but with their lesser known works of art. The one work I was particularly set on seeing was Fragonard's The Swing. The Swing had always been a painting that I came back to, it either served as a frontispiece for assignments or as wallpaper on my desktop. I liked this painting, in fact I liked it alot and still do-it's cheeky, playful, feminine and oh-so-rococo.

Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Swing, 1767

Although the above image of the gallery interior does not feature The Swing, it does give a sense of the grandeur of the gallery despite its small size (in comparison to the Queen's Gallery for example).
At the time, I tried desperately, as always, to take a photo of my preferred work of art, but as always a little old man in a navy blue jacket and grey slacks would walk up to me and in the language of his native country say "NO photos madame". For some reason, regardless of country, museum 'guards' always seem to sport the same attire-blue jacket, grey slacks.
Anyhow, museum 'guards' aside-you can see I have a bit of a bone to pick with them....Despite my art history education (yes, yes I know, a flash ruins the paint quality over time) I don't think a smartphone photo without a flash is that harmful, and do they really think that I'm going to be capable of replicating the painting and selling it at Sotheby's for 10 million?!!? But like I said, anyhow...
Hertford House was originally built for the Marquesses of Hertford and eventually was the home of Sir Richard Wallace. When Sir Wallace died, it was bequeathed to the British nation by his widow in 1897 and became a gallery . The collection and gallery, is both sumptuous and approachable. It is sumptuous because of it's rococo and neo-baroque décor, and approachable in its scale.
As a whole, it is both very gilded and grand.