In the Frame: Jeremy Vine on the art he loves
The broadcaster reveals which museum is his 'happy place' and how he'll be using his National Art Pass to discover more great days out.
We sat down with TV and radio presenter Jeremy Vine at Chiswick House and Gardens to chat all things art.
In this episode of In the Frame, Jeremy shares the story behind one of his favourite paintings and why he's visited it again and again. He's also got a great tip for finding something you love in an art gallery.
Plus, scroll down to the next film to join Jeremy on a wander around this West London home. Walk the gardens, see the splendour of the house, and hear why he loved coming here as a young dad.
Let Jeremy inspire your next visit with your National Art Pass – and if you’re looking for even more ideas, search for museums, galleries and exhibitions near you and use the filters to find exactly what you’re looking for.
Jeremy Vine on the art he loves
Explore Chiswick House and Gardens with Jeremy Vine
Ready to plan your trip to Chiswick House and Gardens? Entry is free with a National Art Pass.
Q&A: In the Frame with Jeremy Vine
Art Fund: Do you remember the first time you visited a museum or gallery?
Jeremy Vine: I reckon most people my kind of age, when you ask them, what's the first amazing thing they saw in a museum, will go to one of the classic Art Fund places, which is the Natural History Museum – and that blooming dinosaur, which, when you go in, particularly if you're just a little lad like me, it's just unbelievable!
The thing was size and scale. And we don't, as adults, we don't think about that so much because we're used to being bigger than the thing we're looking at.
When you're a child, you just go, wow.
Is there a piece of art that inspires you?
The piece of art that has truly inspired me is a painting that hangs in the Kelvingrove Gallery in Glasgow.
I filmed Eggheads there, sometimes 55 episodes in a fortnight. I'd have one day off. I'd be in a kind of stupor. I walked to the Kelvingrove and I discovered this painting. And then every time I did Eggheads I used to go and visit this painting and they must have thought I was crazy. I just stood in the room staring and I found out so much about it.
So, painted in the 50s by Salvador Dalí, called the Christ of St John of the Cross, and it was a break away from all his crazy, surreal images. Modelled by a guy called Russell Saunders, a Hollywood stuntman, who he hanged from the studio ceiling at his studio in Spain, in Figueres.
The sinews, the sense of incredible reality in this painting, the sense that you're looking down on Christ from space, from God's viewpoint, which was not allowed in the 1400s.
That's why it was so controversial when it was first done by this monk called St John of the Cross.
And I love it so much. I love it so much. And if I could, if I have one happy place to go, it's the Kelvingrove in Glasgow and it's that room and I'm just standing there.
Do you prefer to go to galleries alone or with someone?
I'll tell you who my gallery companion is. My daughter Martha, who's 20 now.
When she was a little girl, I said, look, I've got this series of magazines I've never looked at, and it's called Discovering the Great Painters. Let's do one every three or four days.
To be honest, she was too young to say no. So we did them all, 80 of them.
And from that, she's got this amazing love of going and saying, that's a Tintoretto, that's a Degas, that's Gauguin. And I take such pride in that.
That's Mantegna, she identified the other day.
So if I've got a gallery buddy, it's Martha, and she leads the way now, not me.
Is there an exhibition you’re excited to visit soon?
I was looking at the Art Fund's list, and it's so extensive. It's exciting! You discover stuff.
I mean, a lot of people round here wouldn't even know this place [Chiswick House and Gardens] was here.
I want to go and see the Barbara Hepworth sculptures, which are in Cornwall, because I saw them about 20 years ago. And it's a very small, beautiful thing in the garden of what was her home.
It's a beautiful, beautiful place to be.
How will you make the most of your National Art Pass?
I think the great thing about the National Art Pass is that it sits on your shelf calling to you.
You can't just have one and leave it. You don't take it to places, it takes you. Because it's going to tell you, ‘Look, hang on, mate, I haven't been used for two weeks, you've got to get me out somewhere.’ Like taking a dog for a walk.
And I think the joy of it is to go somewhere new. And I always say this to my daughter because I never wanted her to feel you're going to a gallery to see 200 paintings. I would say, we're just going to see one – going to see one painting that we remember, and then we're going home. As soon as we find the one we like, we're going home.
And I just think it takes you off the screen, there's no one shouting at you. It's hopefully a bit quiet. It's got a nice echo, like this room.
And sometimes you can go to a place to be transported back 100 years.
The more you see, the more we do.
The National Art Pass lets you enjoy free entry to hundreds of museums, galleries and historic places across the UK, while raising money to support them.