Paintings of water in March by Willard Metcalf

I've not come across Willard Metcalf (1858-1925) before.  He's an American artist who became renowned as a landscape painter.  Here are two landscapes by Metcalf for the Spring Landscape series.  They both include water and neatly demonstrate the contrasts in landscape scenes which occur in March in the USA.

The Frozen Pool, March (1909) by Willard Metcalf
66.04 x 73.66 cm

Brook in March (1923) by Willard Metcalf

Facts about Willard Metcalf

• Willard Metcalf studied art at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Académie Julian, Paris.
• Metcalf was the first American painter to visit and paint at Giverny
• He's regarded as a painter within the American Impressionism movement
• He was one of the Ten American Painters who in 1897 seceded from the Society of American Artists - known as "The Ten"
• In 1893 he became a member of the American Watercolor Society, New York.
• He taught at the Art Students League, New York.
• He was involved with the artists' colony at Old Lyme, Connecticut.

The Spring Landscape series will continue next week with paintings of April.  Do send your recommendations to me by leaving a comment on this blog.

'March' by Isaac Levitan (Spring Landscape #4)

March (1895) by Isaac Levitan
oil, 60 x 75cm
The Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia

We tend to think of Spring as being new shoots, fresh green buds - maybe a bit of blustery weather.  But for a lot of people Spring is "the thaw" and underfoot can get a bit messy.....

Isn't the painting of the light absolutely remarkable in this painting?  Every time I see a painting by Levitan I find myself staring at the colour and the light and the atmosphere.

Isaac Levitan - founder of the 'mood landscape'

This is a painting by Isaac Ilyich Levitan (1860-1900) who is always described as a famous Russian landscape painter painting in the nineteenth century - round about the same time as the French Impressionists.  he's regarded as the founder of the “mood landscape” genre.

The reality is that he was was born on August 30, 1860 in the shtetl (Jewish town) of Wirballen in the Province of Kowno in Lithuania - which at the time was occupied by Russia. It's now known as Kybartai and is situated extremely close to the border with Russia.  Which means strictly speaking he's a very famous Lithuanian landscape painter!

This is a biographical essay about Levitan.  He was part of the Peredvizhniki (Society for Traveling Art Exhibitions).

This is an article about the exhibition Russian Landscape in the Age of Tolstoy at the The National Gallery, London (23 June-12 September 2004).  It sets the context for landscape painting

As the National Gallery's curator of 19th-century paintings, Christopher Riopelle has pointed out, 'Landscape plays a central role in the Russian imagination. The emptiness of the country's vast reaches, the rigours of its climate, the difficulties of transportation, and the intense isolation that long winter months impose, all contribute to a specifically Russian sense of nature, different from - perhaps more fatalistic than - that of elsewhere. In the age of Tolstoy the landscape simply dominated the lives of most Russians.'

March: Peasants at Work on a Feudal Estate by Limbourg brothers

March: Peasants at Work on a Feudal Estate by the Limbourg Brothers
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
? on vellum, 22 x 13.5 cm
Musee Conde, Chantilly, France

I've got just a few days left to find landscapes of the countryside in March.  This is the third Spring Landscape in the current series.

Spring is a time of new beginnings and the perennial occupation of ploughing fields and sowing seed. However I'm not sure current farm machinery has quite the appeal of the ox-drawn plough in this painting of peasants at work in March by the Dutch Limbourg Brothers.

It's part of the Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry.  This book is widely regarded to be a sumpreme example of manuscript illumination. It's also said to be the archetype of the International Gothic style.

Its most original and beautiful feature is the series of twelve full-page illustrations of the months - the first time a calendar was so lavishly treated - full of exquisite ornamentation and beautifully observed naturalistic detail.Web Gallery of Art - Limbourg brothers

It's thought to be one of the most valuable books in the world. 

It is kept as Ms.65 in The Musée Condé - in English, the Condé Museum - which is located inside the Château de Chantilly in Chantilly, Oise, 40 km north of Paris.

The Limbourg brothers are said to play an important part on the development of the landscape painting in northern Europe.  It's thought at least one of the brothers visited Italy and brought back notions of how space is best rendered.

I'll say more about the book and the brothers as the year unfolds.