At the National Gallery 
Peter Campbell
The hot, humid weather these last weeks has made me more conscious of the ways people stand and move about. Exposed flesh increases in area as the temperature rises. Traditional hot-country solutions, something loose and flowing – pyjamas, jellabas, saris and so forth – are not much in evidence. In crowded streets, a tetchy weariness surfaces. Some people are more affected than others. For instance, casual observation suggests that we are in the middle of a baby boom, but it may just be that imagining what it is like to be near term or strapped in a buggy in sticky weather makes me pay more attention to pregnant women and babies.
Subscribers to the print edition can log in to view the entire article. For information about subscribing to the London Review of Books click here. This article is available for purchase online. Buy this article.
Peter Campbell is the London Review’s resident designer and art critic.
Other articles by this contributor:
At Dulwich Picture Gallery · Gerrit Dou
At the British Museum · Samuel Palmer’s dream landscapes
In Cambridge · The Cambridge Illuminations: Ten Centuries of Book Production in the Medieval West
At the British Library · Peter Campbell takes the lie of the land
At the Musée Galliera · Children’s clothes
At the British Museum · John White’s New World
At Tate Britain · Paula Rego
At Tate Britain · Michael Andrews