I’m not sure I was supposed to be there, but I found myself looking for Henry Cobbe and his party at the Royal Academy.
As I wondered from room to room – I was amazed not just by the conviviality of the paintings
but by the pity
by the violence
by the lust
by the eroticism
by the debauchery
by the dignity
and by how Reubens had influenced so many of my favourite painters
from Renoir
to Freud
to Bacon
