The puzzle may be found at https://www.theguardian.com/crosswords/cryptic/30006.
An excellent puzzle from Paul, with a theme that even I could not miss, with artists appearing in most clues and answers – mostly painters, with a lone sculptor. Then there’s Tracey Emin – and Man Ray is known for his photography, although he considered himself primarily a painter. The crossword was definitely a puzzle of two halves for me; the upper half went in easily, the lower, not so.
| ACROSS | ||
| 7 | STEAM IRON |
Smoother artist after ammo initially loading type of gun (5,4)
|
| An envelope (‘loading’) of A (‘Ammo initially’) plus MIRO (‘artist’) in STEN (‘type of gun’). | ||
| 8 | WHEEL |
Turner on The Hay Wain? (5)
|
| Cryptic definition – or perhaps you mught stretch it to a double definition. Anyway, the surface refers to one of the best-known paintings. In the original clue just The Hay Wain is in italics. | ||
| 9 | RETRIEVAL |
Rescuing relative at sea, Romeo saved (9)
|
| An envelope (‘saved’) of R (‘Romeo’, NATO alphabet) in RETIEVAL an anagram (‘at sea’) of ‘relative’. | ||
| 10 | SLOOP |
Sailing boat in lottery capsized (5)
|
| A reversal (‘capsized’ – which would be more apposite in a down light) of POOLS (‘lottery’). | ||
| 12 | MANTRA |
Artist not entirely impressed by intro of traditional chant that’s sacred (6)
|
| An envelope (‘impressed by’) of T (‘intro of Traditional’) in MAN RA[y] (‘artist’) minus the last letter (‘not entirely’). | ||
| 13 | TOOL SHED |
Told hoes (or hose), or those old screws – here? (4,4)
|
| A triple anagram (‘screws’), no less: of ‘told hoes’ ‘told’ ‘hose’, and ‘those old’, with an extended definition. | ||
| 14 | KLEENEX |
Tissue cut then by artist (7)
|
| A charade of KLEE (Paul, ‘artist’) plus NEX[t] (‘then’) minus its last letter (‘cut’), | ||
| 17 | GORMLEY |
Wood nailed back by bloody artist (7)
|
| An envelope (‘nailed’) of MLE, a reversal (‘back’) of ELM (‘wood’) in GORY (‘bloody’). Anthony Gormley is a sculptor perhaps best known for the Angel of the North. | ||
| 20 | ANGELICO |
Artist in cage with lion torn to pieces (8)
|
| An anagram (‘torn to pieces’) of ‘cage’ plus ‘lion’, for Fra Angelico (Fra is a title, friar, not a name). | ||
| 22 | FERMAT |
Whistler recalled mother having little time for theorist (6)
|
| A charade of FER, a reversal (‘recalled’) of REF (referee, ‘whistler’) plus MA (‘mother’) plus T (‘little tiem’), with reference to the famous painting generally known as Whistler’s Mother, and to Fermat’s Last (but not only) Theorem. | ||
| 24 | ASIDE |
Whisper first song on record? (5)
|
| A-SIDE (‘first song on record’). | ||
| 25 | DIETITIAN |
Artist, it’s time to check out food expert! (9)
|
| DIE, TITIAN! (‘artist, it’s time to check out’). | ||
| 26 | DEGAS |
Artist burst bubble, in a manner of speaking? (5)
|
| DE-GAS. | ||
| 27 | CONSTABLE |
Artifice still for artist (9)
|
| A charade of CON (‘artifice’) plus STABLE (‘still’). | ||
| DOWN | ||
| 1 | ATHENA |
Goddess at one time packing case in America (6)
|
| An envelope (‘packing’ – a pistol-packin’ momma might have one on each hip) of THEN (‘at one time’) in AA (‘case in AmericA‘). | ||
| 2 | MAGRITTE |
Bottle consumed by familiar artist (8)
|
| A charade of GRIT (‘bottle’ as courage) in MATE (‘familiar’, noun). | ||
| 3 | RIVERA |
Artist, artist after split (6)
|
| A charade of RIVE (‘split’) plus RA (‘artist’, the second one). | ||
| 4 | HOGARTH |
Bacon paintings hard for artist (7)
|
| A charade of HOG (‘bacon’) plus ART (‘paintings’) plus H (‘hard’). For the surface ‘Bacon’ would be Francis Bacon. | ||
| 5 | WHALES |
Wife and artist keeping pea, essentially, in pod (6)
|
| A charade of W (‘wife’) plus HALES, an envelope (‘keeping’) of E (‘pEa essentially’) in HALS (Franz the Elder, or others of his family, ‘artist’). | ||
| 6 | VERONESE |
Artist in clover, one senses (8)
|
| A hidden answer in ‘cloVERO ONE SEnses’ | ||
| 11 | POLO |
Sport in which artist has lost tie (4)
|
| A subtraction: |
||
| 15 | LANDSEER |
Artist excited ship’s lookout? (8)
|
| LAND SEER. | ||
| 16 | EMIN |
Artist, sign unframed? (4)
|
| [g]EMIN[i] (‘sign’ of the zodiac) minus its outer letters (‘unframed’), for Tracey Emin of the unmade bed. | ||
| 18 | MORE THAN |
Manet or Hockney originally turned over (4,4)
|
| An anagram (‘turned’) of ‘Manet or’ plus H (‘Hockney originally’). | ||
| 19 | MORISOT |
Questionable claims come up briefly for artist (7)
|
| An envelope (‘claims’) of RIS[e] (‘come up’) minus its last letter (‘briefly’) in MOOT (‘questionable’) Berthe Morisot was a French impressionist. | ||
| 21 | ENDEAR |
Brow wiped of female, say, stealing a charm (6)
|
| An envelope (‘stealing’) of ‘a’ in [g]ENDER (‘female, say’) minus its first letter (‘brow wiped’). | ||
| 22 | FETISH |
Foxtrot is the dancing obsession (6)
|
| A charade of F (‘foxtrot’ NATO alphabet) plus ETISH, an anagram (‘dancing’) of ‘is the’. | ||
| 23 | ANALLY |
In a particular way, what a lone ranger might need? (6)
|
| AN ALLY. |
Ticks for KLEENEX, TOOL SHED & FERMAT which almost bisected an anagram of THEOREM.
Hopefully we won’t have too many “I’m surprised how many people haven’t heard of [insert name of personal pet painter here]” comments 🙂
Cheers P&P
MANTRA, TOOL SHED, LANDSEER and ANALLY were my faves.
Thanks Paul and PeterO.
Normally I can stare down a Paul. This was way too obscure. Artists aren’t my favourite GK suite. On par with his university effort from a while ago.
Enjoyable top half, difficult bottom left – a red hot reveal button, there. I should have got EMIN, but I was too lazy to work my way through the signs at this stage.
Thanks Paul and PeterO [I think it should be tiePOLO in 11ac]
Not my favourite subject but I do like my routine so thought I would give it a crack anyway. Made liberal use of the check button. A few of the answers seemed rather obscure unless it’s my lack of knowledge and they are household names everywhere else.
For me some great clues on the wrong (for me) subject.
Liked FERMAT and TOOL SHED
Thanks PeterO and Paul
An enjoyable, tough challenge this morning. DIETITIAN raised more than a chortle! Thanks PeterO and Paul
Paul again on top form. Loved DIETITIAN.
Thanks PeterO and Paul
MORISOT was the only artist that didn’t eventually come to mind, though completing the others took much longer than I’d like. Ashamed to say that KLEENEX was my LOI, spending too long trying to find an artist’s name that included some synonym for tissue to fit the clue. Found this tough. Thanks to Paul and PeterO.
The theme was helpful in that I knew all the artists except for Landseer.
I could not parse 19d but my answer fitted the definition of artist 🙂
New for me: mathematician FERMAT, Pierre de; spelling of DIETITIAN; painter Landseer, Sir Edwin Henry (1802–73).
Thanks for the parsing of 21d which I wrongly assumed was brow=fender and I was too lazy to check if that was correct or not. Not that I would ever talk about the brow of a car 😉
DIETITIAN and KLEENEX were my favourites. I tried to convince myself that the lone ranger suffered from over enthusiasm so was in need of a path y, but sense prevailed.
Several stunning clues here and many smiles. Thanks Paul, and PeterO for explaining a few mysteries.
Marvellous challenge with only MORISOT and FERMAT unknown. Like Peter, the top half went in much quicker than the bottom, especially the SW. I liked the hidden VERONESE, the amusing LANDSEER, KLEENEX and DIETITIAN plus the groan worthy DEGAS.
Ta Paul & PeterO.
I used to love Paul’s puzzles and I was always aware that he could come up with the odd one that was too tough for me. I won’t be wasting my time with any more.
At first, with only the hidden VERONESE in place after my first look through the puzzle, my palette was looking rather bare. But brushstroke by brushstroke the picture became clearer. As is often the way with Paul. HOGARTH was next to appear and very gradually the grid began to fill. Last one in was the WHEEL, though had looked at ANALLY for quite a while before that one went in. My favourite one today was KLEENEX, and this attempt didn’t end it tears, so many thanks for the entertainment, Paul and Peter0…
MR Stanshall once stressed the importance of F in Art.
This was Paul as Dr Jekyll unlike some of his recent stuff
I ended up revealing two, GORMLEY I should have got with a lot more staring but MORISOT was a nho.
Usually I look forward to Paul, and this puzzle was mostly a pleasure. However the unhelpful crossers slowed things down considerably, using my arbitrary Scrabble metric only four crossers score more than one – the rest being the commonest letters in the alphabet. I much prefer a few more meaty consonants!
Thanks to Paul and PeterO
Difficult. I needed a lot of hep from checking letters and google. For 4 down I had Howarth, and could not parse the How part….Not all artists familiar to me, but once solved, I see there were excellent clues. Thanks, Paul, and PeterO for helping me parse a few unparsed ones
Solved with the help of the list in my old “The Chambers Crossword Dictionary” (3rd edition) which contained all artists except our Tracey, who I had added in biro on a previous occasion.
Quite a few cries of “really?” and “oh, come on!” from my co-solver, especially when KLEENEX dropped.
Looks like we have a double dose of JH today with his alter ego in the FT. Hope that’s easier!
I very much enjoyed this (eventually – there was a bit of cursing early on). However, I would question whether the pools are a lottery: they involve a certain of element of skill.
I made more of this than I expected to, helped by a fair knowledge of artists’ names, but it was hard going with much guessing, a bit of a slog after the last three days of more approachable cryptics. I revealed KLEENEX and FERMAT and couldn’t make sense of the parsing here and there. Envelopes are often my downfall and Paul uses a lot of them! Give me a cryptic or double definition any day.
That was hard. Typical Paul trickiness and a few obscure things. Glad though that I’m getting more of a hang of his wordplay even if sometimes it’s after having guessed something. Saw the theme emerging and found it a help in places. Thanks PeterO, and to Paul.
Halfway through I was nearly gave up. Paul is always an unenjoyable slog. Struggled to the end wondering why I bother. A streak is a burden.
I’m no doubt being dim of wit, but I still don’t understand the solution to POLO. Can anyone come to my aid?
I found the south harder too. My last entry was ANALLY (he started it!).
This was tough, I hadn’t heard of TIEPOLO, ANGELICO or RIVERA but they couldn’t be anything else. There was googling involved. I could not have completed this in controlled conditions but I managed it with some semblance of self respect and I’m happy about that.
KLEENEX was a good one (I bought my sister a KLEE print, but hadn’t seen this coming). I also liked DIETITIAN, WHALES and MANTRA. Fermat’s Last Theorem by Simon Singh is an excellent whistle stop history of mathematics, suitable for non mathematicians, leading up to Andrew Wiles’ 1993 announcement of a proof.
Thanks Peter and Paul.
Lard @23 – the artist is Tiepolo and the sport is polo with the tie removed
I’ll second the reading recommendation of Martin@24 and add to that Quantum by Majit Kumar for an accessible walk through the history of quantum mechanics.
Top half filled in quite quickly.
Screeched to a halt pretty soon after.
Couldn’t be bothered to work out the rest
De-gas? Unless I’m missing something subtle I’d have thought “burst balloon” more appropriate.
I struggled with this, as I usually do with Paul when he’s in this mood.
@Shirley Thank you!
A tough one for a weekday. I wish this had been a Saturday puzzle: I could have set aside a little more time for it. (But I think Mr H and other setters have said that they generally don’t get to choose when their puzzles run, unless they’re themed around special events, anniversaries etc.)
Failed on Morisot – I’ve heard of her but she didn’t come to mind – and on the parsing of [Tie]POLO.
JuanDango @19 – yes, the football pools always involved “skill and judgement,” not pure chance.
I have a slight quibble about 24a ASIDE. Asides are not usually whispered, on stage or off.
Great challenging but gettable puzzle. Thanks Paul, and Peter O for the parse of Morisot and ENDEAR. Glad I had a two hour train ride to solve this and the relevant general knowledge. The use of the theme in definition, part solution and abbreviation adds to the difficulty, mitigated by the use of relatively well-known artists (for me). I can imagine this would be really hard without the requisite knowledge of both post-renaissance European and modern British artists. I have to say, I often have a real struggle with Paul when themes are outside my wheelhouse.
Had to reveal several here, as much because of the brutal grid as the GK (D_G__ I know, _E_A_ less so). Many great clues though, ticks for DIETITIAN, SLOOP, and KLEENEX which I got through an entirely wrong process–figured it might end with X for “by,” then saw the true pattern. For ENDEAR I had thought “fender is brow, sure.”
Thanks Paul and PeterO!
That was fun – thanks to Paul and Peter.
I parsed 15 as LANDSEER being a (semi?) homophone of “Land’s here!” (Which would excite a ship’s lookout).
Too hard for me.
Quite difficult with a somewhat unfriendly grid. I got a bit bogged down in the SE corner for a while. I liked the Hay Wain’s WHEEL, bloody GORMLEY, the WHALES pea in a pod, and MORE THAN Manet and Hockney. I failed to parse ENDEAR; another one with a perplexing fender.
Thanks Paul and PeterO.
I usually breeze through Paul, but this was a struggle for me, artists aren’t my speciality. Hadn’t heard of Morisot, and had to presume a couple of other names were artists.
Very clever, but too many nhos for me. I ground to a halt about two thirds of the way through after the only strategy I had left was guess and check. Thanks, nevertheless, Paul and PeterO.
Thanks for the blog , tricky in parts , especially bottom right . I thought it would outlast my journey but a late flurry got me home before my train got me home .
DIETITIAN is brilliant and I am grateful that Paul KLEE was not clued using a soundalike , could have been a riot .
A very sparse grid but good to have no jumping around .
Absolutely loved this. Great double use of the theme as both full and part answers.
TripleJumper@18…many thanks for the heads up re Paul setting as Mudd in the FT today. The first time I’ve ever tried his Cryptic there, and found it a delightful solve. But certainly less taxing than our own Guardian Cryptic 30006, I thought….
Don’t know many artists, so no good for me.
Thanks both.
We just finished watching the series This Is Not a Murder Mystery, which helped with a few! There were several I’d never heard of but luckily my partner in crossword solving had. Only Morisot stumped us both. It was fun!
Thanks Paul and PeterO!
Polo
Pollock without lock
Thanks Paul and PeterO. Things seemed to be going fine for me but then the SE became a debacle. Just couldn’t crack the brilliant MORE THAN, even with an anagram generator! A slight quibble at 23, since the Lone Ranger did in fact have a very close ally in Houston town.
I gave this all day, but just couldn’t crack the last three: 27a CONSTABLE (“Artifice” = CON?), 19d MORISOT (not the Indigenous Canadian painter Norval Morrisseau), 23d ANALLY
Because several of the clues depended on thinking of an artist as a first step, I allowed myself to do searches as I went along, which helped me solve everything else. I guess I’m the only one who hasn’t heard of 15d LANDSEER? (Thanks michelle@9. BTW I also parsed the wordplay of 21d as FENDER – F)
Favourites 20a ANGELICO (I like a good surface), 22a FERMAT (clever wordplay and surface), 25a DIETITIAN (amusing wordplay), 18d MORE THAN (well-hidden definition), 22d FETISH (surface)
11a Shout out to Roz’s favourite sport, water POLO!
Paul the Plumber @44, Not quite!
Martin@24 the proof by Wiles is very cumbersome , I have a much neater version but this box I type in is just too small to contain it .
TripleJumper @26 , I do not normally read popular science books but I was told it was a good history to recommend for new students so I did try it . Pretty good but total cop-out in the last chapter .
Mig@46 I am just off to play sea-polo , we ride on seahorses .
The theme was not my field, so I did plenty of cheating, but was pleased that I chose well where to do it (the clues almost invariably turning out to reveal – alas numerous – artists which I’d not heard of). I managed pretty much all of the heard-ofs though.
My Pauline podium was DIETITIAN, LANDSEER and ANALLY, all being great examples of this setter’s style. Hornbeam@34 indeed I think we’re supposed to take it that a lookout is excited upon seeing land, though I don’t think a soundalike is needed/used there.
I also thought FERMAT was excellent irrespective of theme and setter’s style.
Doofs@16 I use the same metric, and indeed the checkers were horrible. This plays a large part in my overall rating of a puzzle’s difficulty.
Jonchafro@13, your conclusion doesn’t follow from your premise. If you’ve done plenty of more accesible Pauls and know that he produces the occasional stinker, surely you should be undeterred (albeit approaching each one with a certain trepidation – as is my case too with this setter).
Thanks both.
[I was mystified by several references in the comments to JH or Mr H… I don’t know what Paul’s real name is, but John Henderson sets as Enigmatist in this house.]
Me@48 re LANDSEER: oh it looks like the artist’s name and the dog breed are pronounced differently, the former having the obvious English roots and the latter probably coming from a European placename and apparently being pronounced with a stressed initial syllable. I can’t say ever heard the dog breed said out loud though, so inevitably I’ve been mentally pronouncing it wrong!
AP@49: his name is John Halpern.
13ac reminded me of the Two Ronnies sketch. “Do you have any ‘ose?” “No, not hoes”, “No, not hose”, not even pantyhose, but eventually “Os for “mon Repos on my garden gate”. A classic!
Hector@51, thank you!
I loved this one even though I only managed half (lack of time)
Didn’t finish the bedtime solve by lights out.
My knowledge of artists is very patchy, mainly confined to C20th, (haven’t seen much of merit in the 21st) so MAGRITTE etc. went in quickly, less so the others.
The “excited” in LANDSEER threw me, but with helpful online devices I finally filled the grid.
A specialist GK puzzle’s OK once in a while, perhaps.
Roz@47 🙂
This took me a long time so what follows may go unread.
15d always reminds me of D B Wyndham Lewis’s parody of Wordsworth –
She was a phantom of delight
When first she gleamed upon my sight.
Now for her portrait I can’t fancy a
Better all-round man than Landseer.
We found this very hard but got there in the end – being art lovers helped. Absolutely brilliant. Loved DEGAS and DIETITIAN. Thanks Paul and PeterO
Enjoyably tough, witty, sneaky, but ultimately doable with some brain-stretching – the reasons I enjoy a Paul challenge. Liberal use of checks, but no reveals – a good day.
Like Lard @23, I couldn’t make sense of PeterO’s parsing of 11d/POLO. Not very explanatory. But thanks to Shirley @25 and a confirmatory google, got it in the end!