Across from the NPG at St. Martin's Place are two friendly spots: The Chandos Pub and a franchise eatery Pret A Manger (Check out the cute girl applying her lipstick in five photos.)....Other London art museums I visited included the two star ** Wallace Collection (WC) with paintings by Velázquez, Rembrandt, Halls, Fragonard, et al and The Wellington Museum (WM) or Apsley House, which has a notable painting collection, as for example, Velázquez's 'Water Seller of Seville' , 'The Lady with a Fan' (below), and (also below) 'Pope Innocent X '(The most celebrated Velazquez painting of Pope Innocent X is in the Galleria Doria Pamphili, Rome, where no photos are allowed, but here is my out-of-focus undercover photo and an offical photo from the GDP.) Maybe the late afternoon light and/or the poor lighting at WM gave the paintings for me an excessively dark appearance and in need of surface cleaning, and I thought this museum could use the services of the Conservation Department at The Courtauld Institue, which is listed second in a world listing of art conservation departments. Btw, today (9.21.15), I just learned that conservator Alice Tate-Harte of the English Heritage has very recently discovered a genuine Titian painting at the WM under the layers of varnish and dirt of a painting believed to have been by a Titian follower. Violá!......On my last day in London, I went to view stripe paintings by Gerhard Richter at the Mary Goodman Gallery (I will comment on Richter's stripe work next when I write about Paris.) and Eric Fischi's first London showing at the Victoria Mio Gallery. I find the current large-scale (about 7'x9') group portrait work by Fischl of interest for several reasons: First, my being a
portrait painter who also works with photos, I have for some time been curious of Fischl's work but I work in much smaller formats, involving, to date, no more than two individuals. By his words, Fischl's paints using photos that are Photoshopped to group images (next page below left).