Yes. It was MJ and the baby.

Your clue.

I'm afraid you'll have to hang on an hour or so until I'm home from work!

Dr D

A famous painting hangs in the National Gallery in London (3,8,9,6,2,3,4,5,2,2,6,2) exhibited at the RA in 1839 and painted by England's finest painter of that century (6,7,7,6) (and arguably any other) who has an entire wing of one of London's other premier world-class galleries to his own.

It shows, symbolically, the passing of the age of sail and the birth of a new age of steam with a brilliant but poignant depiction of a final voyage.

In order to do this the artist deliberately depicted the journey in exactly the opposite direction from the actual (being Sheerness to Rotherhithe). Explain.

So - a 3-parter:
1/ The name of the painting (sorry it's so long!),
2/ The painter,
3/ (for bonus caché) a brief explanation of the famous "error".

Note: the first letter of the second six-letter word in the painting's title is 'B' from Berlin.
The first letter of the artist's second name is 'M' from Michael.

Dr D.

Well obviously the painter is Turner, or Joseph Mallord William Turner. Who else has such a long name?

Off to check the painting. :-)

I attach a link from the National Gallery web page:

http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cg...rkNumber=ng524

Clue: He (5, 6) brought this city's orhcestra to prominence (city: 10), but now holds one of the most coveted positions in classical music as the conductor of this orchestra (6, 12).

2nd letter of last name = "a"

Ah... Sir Simon Rattle,
Birmingham
Berlin Philharmonic

Are you on a Berlin kick at the moment by any chance? :)

Dr D.

Yes!

Well, I'm running out of good clues to give, frankly. My trip to Andalucia spurred a bunch of clues related to that part of the world. Maybe I need to take another trip to refresh. :-)

Your clue.

Hung drawn and quartered on 29th November 1330 this traitor (4,2,5) was caught by the king himself in the arms of the king's mother (5, 6). The king had ingress into their chamber through a secret passage, now named after that traitor (9,4) which is still open to the public beneath the castle (10)- a castle which features heavily in popular folklore and Hollywood both, but which has been twice replaced and was famously destroyed by rioting stocking and lace workers only to be reborn as the first public arts gallery outside London .

1/The Traitor (4,2,5) First letter of 3rd word 'M' from Birmingham
2/The King's mother (5,6) First letter of 2nd word 'I' from Berlin
3/The Secret Passage (9,4) Fourth letter 'T' from Rattle
4/The Castle (10) last letter 'M' from Simon

Dr D.

i don't get it - my traitor is called Roger Mortimer, the mother was Isabella, the passageway was Mortimer's Hole and the castle was Nottingham.

But only the last two match the required letter-count. And it wasn't the king himself but some courtiers on his orders who caught the pair in flagrante.

Harzer

Roger Mortimer has a title (4,2,5)
and Isabella is often known as Queen Isobel and it's often said that it was the young Edward III who himself was lead up through the passage way to arrest his father's murderer.

Spot on though!

harzer, next clue?

Of course, it's now easy to find out what the title is....

http://db.bbc.co.uk/radio4/history/s...ml?question=33

Mortimer is Earl of March.

topping for harzer

He was discovered as an infant abandoned on the streets of London yet subsequently became Lord Mayor.

He founded one of the most expensive private schools in England which bears his name though with a more modern spelling.

His name was 7,8 and the first name intersects at its fifth letter with the i of 'Mortimer'.

Harzer

William Thompson?

Half right yk!

Harzer

William SevenOaks?

90% right!

The spelling?

Harzer

Sevenoaks is the spelling I saw on most sites. He was named after the town of SevenOaks where he was found. Later his name may have been shortened to Snooks, but the school he founded is still called Sevenoaks. In a few places I saw the name of the man and the school as Sevenoak, apparently misspelled.

Hi cmt, welcome back! How was your trip?

One of my good friends actually attended Sevenoaks! Apparently I did not know the history of the school.