A Bloody Marvel

In London last week, the BBC somewhat nervously invited Sir Gerald Kelly to take charge of a TV tour of an exhibit of Dutch pictures at the Royal Academy. Sir Gerald, a peppery, blunt-talking, 74-year-old Irishman, is famed both as president of the academy and as painter of over 40 portraits of his wife ("I paint her because I don't think anyone has a prettier wife," he once explained).

The program got under way with a staid, ten-minute monologue by the staid BBC's Edward Halliday. Then Sir Gerald broke into Halliday's lukewarm praise of a Rembrandt self-portrait. "My dear fellow," he boomed, "that's a bloody work of genius." Pointing out a drop of water on a tulip, Sir Gerald cried: "Look at that confounded drop of water. Looks as if it might fall off any moment. That's sheer damned skill." Of Rembrandt's A Man in Armour: "I just go all goo-goo when I stand in front of it. It is one of the finest pictures in the world. In fact, it's a bloody marvel!" The program had now run 20 minutes over schedule, but Sir Gerald added: "You know, I get excited and carried away every time I come here. You must come and see the pictures. I get tight just looking at them. Come and see them. We've got more in the kitchen."

Shocked by all this uncensored enthusiasm, especially Sir Gerald's uninhibited use of "bloody" and "damn," BBC sat back to wait for protests. It is still waiting. Most of the letters from listeners urged: "Let's have more of Gerald Kelly." Attendance at the exhibit increased sharply. But the London Daily Express primly editorialized that Sir Gerald "brings honor neither to his position nor to himself by descending to the use of vulgar expletives." Commented unrepentant Sir Gerald: "Did I say that the Man in Armour was a bloody marvel? Well, it is a bloody marvel."

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