Even the rainiest of London days can have their charms.

Yesterday we visited my old school’s (Dulwich College) picture gallery hosting paintings in the world’s first purpose-built public art gallery (Sir John Soane 1811) to see an exhibition of woodcuts by Abstract Expressionist and Colour Field artist Helen Frankenthaler (1928-2011) including her masterpiece inspired by Puccini’s ‘Madama Butterfly’ (first picture in sequence below).

It was also satisfying to see the Monet Water Lily from the US and, of course, the rest of the gallery’s collection particularly strong in works by Poussin, Rembrandt and Gainsborough.

I first visited the Dulwich Gallery with my parents when I was a small boy. Since that time the gallery has always been for me ‘a place of the heart’. It gave me my first insight into the rich world of art without which my life would have been immeasurably poorer.

My English teacher, Mr Worthington, took our class to visit it during one of our lessons as he was shocked that so many pupils had never been there. Since those days there has been a considerable administrative change in the gallery’s running. It has become an independent entity from the college and it has also had to depend considerably on self-financing. This means that there is an entrance fee and also that there are special exhibitions which also require payment. Because of the exhibitions some rooms of the gallery have had their (mainly 17th century Dutch) paintings stored and, indeed, the whole collection has been re-hung, most recently this year. One might regret, or even deplore, these changes but it has guaranteed the gallery’s survival and, most importantly, defined it as a living centre ensuring that art doesn’t just stop after the ‘great masters’ but continues contemporaneously. I miss the old atmosphere but accept that challenging times require challenging solutions.