National Portrait Gallery

The National Portrait gallery that I decided to go to on a whim and with no expectations ended up being the most enjoyable thing I saw in Edinburgh.

Upon walking into this building, this Christmas tree and beautiful old scenes greeted me.

There was a small modern art section which,  usually, I enjoyed, it was mainly made up of clothing for the different Queens through history, handmade entirely out of french lace. This one was my favourite. Also took a shameless selfie to show the prettiness of the architecture behind me.

Upstairs led to the art, and a view of the foyer below.

These two pictures I especially enjoyed, on the left, Queen Victoria as a very young woman, and on the right, a Rembrandt -I even recognized it!

Amazingly detailed statue.

One of Paul Gauguin's works, and while not a fan of his style, I know it is a well known painting.

Cezanne I enjoyed much more, this view shows the mountain Sainte-Victoire from the 1890s.

Degas of course, and his dancers.

Monet (Whom I always confuse with Manet) I really liked this painting, even though it was painted with such dark colors giving it a depressing air, it looks mysterious. Where is the boat going in the moonlight?

More of Degas.

My personal favourite from the whole collection, Olive Trees (1889) by Vincent van Gogh. He painted this while in an asylum, and applied much of the paint to the canvas directly from the tube. I don't know why but I've always loved van Gogh and his unique style.

On the left is another of van Gogh's painting, though this is of course in his early, dark style. I like it because her face is interesting, but I much prefer his later wild and bright paintings. On the right is a painting by Fabre that I recognized (which was the main reason I took a photo of it!) I also didn't realize that Fabre was from Montpellier, one of my favourite cities in the world - and here his paintings are all the way in Scotland! Cool stuff.