Adrian's Pics

What do you love most about the job?

I have visited hundreds of fascinating collections all over the world.  An early memory is of a photo shoot of the Lobkowicz collection at Nelahozeves Castle in Bohemia. There was no way of blocking out daylight from the castle’s enormous rooms so we worked through the night with arc lights.

Earlier this week I was privileged to have a guided tour of Skinners’ Hall in the City of London, the medieval home of the Worshipful Company of Skinners. I hope that we will be able to bring to a wider audience their fascinating collection.

What misconceptions do clients most commonly have about the archive?

Bridgeman is fortunate in having such a strong reputation as the premier source for fine art images internationally. This ‘brand’ has been built up over forty years. While consolidating that reputation by adding superb new art collections to our archive we have also added an enormous number of images that some people may not immediately associate with Bridgeman. Social history photography, architecture, religious practice, contemporary artists. Additionally, the Bridgeman Artists Copyright Service (BACS) administers and licenses copyright on behalf of over 1,000 artists and artists’ estates.

1. An Agile Gibbon, c.1805-18

From 1511 to 1946, Malacca on the Malay peninsula was under first Portuguese, then Dutch then British colonial rule. This remarkable depiction of a gibbon hanging from a mangosteen plant is part of an extensive portfolio of ‘Drawings of Animals, Insects and Reptiles from Malacca’, believed to have been painted by a Chinese Malaccan in the early 19th century.

2. Christian Bérard, 1948, by Lucian Freud

This tender and penetrating portrait of the French artist, illustrator and designer, Christian Bérard (1902-49), is a high point in the early career of Lucian Freud.

3. The Smiling Spider, 1881, by Odilon Redon

“I cannot say what my sources were. I love nature in all her forms; I love her in the smallest blade of grass, the humble flower, tree, grounds, rocks, up to the majestic peaks of mountains. All things for their own character rather than a whole. I also shiver deeply at the mystery of solitude.” - Odilon Redon, from his journal, A Soi-même (To Myself)

4. The Chocolate Girl, c.1744-5, by Jean-Etienne Liotard

I first saw this painting as a student visiting Dresden in the late 1980’s. I remember standing, staring, transfixed for about twenty minutes in a deserted Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister. Eventually a concerned attendant politely suggested that I move on.

5. Beneath the Wide Wide Heaven, 2001, by Tom Hammick

Tom Hammick forges extraordinary landscape images from cut wood and painted canvas – he is a master in both media, using rich colours to capture extraordinary and ordinary moments in time.

6. Inside Job, a film by David Dawson

This intimate documentary chronicles the great art historian, Sir John Richardson's visit to Lucian Freud's studio in 2009 and includes the artist at work and discussions between the two childhood friends.