The day after the Ida O’Keefe exhibit in Dallas, I drove to Houston to visit the Museum of Fine Arts Houston. It was the last day for their Portraits of the Royals exhibit. I’m so glad I went! In addition to fabulous portraiture, beginning with King Henry VII, the exhibit was a visual history lesson! The signage that accompanied the portraits was very informative, giving relationships to other portraits along with personal details. Some were quite juicy!
I was intrigued to learn that Queen Victoria was a HUGE fan of publishing family photographs. She often had them made into postcards for distribution and sent them to family and friends with personal notes. And I was reminded that the current royal family, the Windsor’s are not, in fact, English, nor was their name Windsor. It was changed to that after World War I because they are actually German, which at the time was not, how shall I say, fashionable.
Apparently we were not allowed to take photographs in that exhibit because I have exactly none. Nor does the museum have any photos. I checked.
However, we could take photos in other parts of the museum, so I snapped a couple of pics of Maria Martinez’ pottery because it is just so outstanding. She is, hands down, one of my favorite artists.
