"October" - Limbourg Brothers (Autumn Landscape #11)

This is another in the series of illuminated paintings in a book of prayers produced by the Limbourg Brothers (1385-1416) for John, Duc de Berry (1340-1416) the third son of King John II of France.  This particular one has familial connections for the Duc.

The book is called the Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry and it's one of the finest examples of French Gothic manuscript illumination surviving to the present day.  It's belonged to various people over the years and is now housed at the Musée Condé in Chantilly, France.).

The very fine miniature paintings of landscapes that it contains represent the direction of landscape painting taken by early Netherlandish painters such as the Limbourg Brothers - who were the first to paint landscapes with accuracy.


Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry Folio 10, verso: October - Sowing the Winter Grain
by the Limbourg brothers [Public domain],via Wikimedia Commons
Date: between 1412 and 1416 and circa 1440
Medium: painting on vellum
Dimensions: Height: 22.5 cm (8.9 in). Width: 13.6 cm (5.4 in).

This is a translation from the French of a description of the scene.

The scene in the foreground represents peasant sowing. At right, a man sows on the fly. Magpies and crows pecking seeds which have been sown, near a white bag and a satchel. Behind a scarecrow-like archer and son stretched on which are hung feathers are intended to deter birds. On the left, a peasant on horseback crosses the harrow on which rests a stone that allows the teeth to penetrate deeper into the earth. It thus covers the grains which have been sown. In the background, the painter has represented the Palais du Louvre. Castle in the center, there are, besides the central tower which housed the royal treasury while the eastern side right, supervised by the Taillerie tower and the tower of the chapel, and left the southern facade with two towers twin center. The whole is surrounded by a wall punctuated by three towers and two bretèches visible here. On the shore, characters converse or walk

It's odd that the description neglects to mention the River Seine!

Interestingly the building in the background is the Louvre Palace.  There are three reasons for the  significance of this miniature painting of the Louvre in an illuminated book of this sort:

• First the idea behind the paintings of different places in the series of different miniature paintings of landscape scenes for the different months was they represented places known to the Duc de Berry.  They were castles he owned or places - like the Louvre Palace - that he had visited.  In this way the book became personal to the man himself.
• Second, the Louvre is the palace built by King Charles V and where he housed his enormous library of 1,200 volumes where books of significance - translated into French - were kept as a symbol in part of this status as King.  
• Third, King Charles V is the Duc de Berry's elder brother and it would therefore appear that the two brothers had a shared love of books.

Thus this painting may represent a visit by the Duc to his brother one October to see that Library.  At the very least, the painting is a compliment to his brother the King in his endeavours to build a library of great books in the Louvre.  (Note: I've just worked all this out reading around the net - I've no idea whether it's true but it makes sense to me!)

That said, this painting still purports to be a painting of the landscape in the middle of Paris in the fifteenth century - with the foreground being the scene on the West Bank.  However. it's unclear whether the Limbourg Brothers ever saw the Louvre Palace

Links:

• The Limbourg Brothers - and "September"
• March: Peasants at Work on a Feudal Estate by Limbourg brothers
• The Louvre, March Mist - Pissaro (Spring Landscape #1)

'Dieppe from the East' by John Sell Cotman and JMW Turner

This post is about two paintings of Dieppe painted by JMW Turner and John Sell Cotman at more or less the same time - give or take a year!  It also covers the concept of staffage and how to access Turner's sketchbooks

You can see both paintings - hung next to one another in  Cotman in Normandy - the new exhibition of watercolour paintings, drawings and etchings by John Sell Cotman at Dulwich Picture Gallery.

The Cotman painting was definitely produced in his studio and the Turner was either painted on a loose leaf of watercolour paper while in Dieppe or was worked up as a colour study from his sketchbook.  They neatly contrast the different approaches and styles of the two artists when faced with the identical view.  (See my Review: Cotman in Normandy - at Dulwich Picture Gallery on Making A Mark for the explanation of why all Cotman landscapes were done in his studio.)

Dieppe from the heights to the East of the port (1823) by John Sell Cotman
Graphite and watercolour with pen and ink and scratching out of the paper
Victoria and Albert Museum

Dieppe from the East (?) (1826-7) by JMW Turner
Graphite and watercolour on paper
Turner Bequest

Turner's 1826 French tour began at Dieppe towards the end of August. His first sketchbook (no.5) includes only a general view of the town of the kind he had already noted two years earlier. But it seems that he also made some sketches on loose sheets of paper. On these he again recorded the quaysides, which had formed the subject of his large oil painting of 1825 (Frick Collection, New York)

Interestingly the description of the work in the exhibition indicates that this watercolour was probably developed from the 1821 sketchbook and produced as part of an unrealised sceheme to represent both sides of the Channel.

Richard Wilson - View of Syon House across the Thames

View of Syon House across the Thames near Kew Gardens (c. 1760) by Richard Wilson
Oil on canvas, 104 x 139 cm
Neue Pinakothek, Munich

Continuing the notion of a yellow sky and water (see View of the Thames by Childe Hassam), here's another view of the Thames - this time at Kew.

The painter of this scene is Richard Wilson - the man regarded as the father of British Landscape Painting and the finest painter Wales has ever produced.  He painted this scene shortly after his return from Italy where he developed his skills as a landscape painter.

The hazy warm yellow glow is very much redolent of the style of the artist who had profoundly influenced his landscape painting - Claude Lorrain.  It's almost as if the Roman campagna has arrived in southwest London!

That said the sun does set in the west behind Syon House and this indicates that this is an early evening painting in summer.

The important point about this painting is that has been painted the year after Kew Gardens became established as a botanical garden - in 1759.

In 1759, Princess Augusta and Lord Bute established the first botanic garden at Kew, employing William Aiton as the gardener. The Physic or Exotic Garden is the direct ancestor of today's establishment and this date is now accepted as the foundation of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.Kew, History and Heritage - Kew's first botanic garden

The place

The scene is one of my own personal "places to paint" (or rather sketch - see The Thames at Kew - in March sunshine).

Wilson's perspective is from a mound - which nowadays has a very convenient seat - at the end of the walk known as Syon Vista and next to the path at the far end of Kew Gardens.  This gives an excellent view of the River Thames and Syon House.

The Artist

Richard Wilson RA was a pioneer of landscape painting in the UK.  Both Turner and Constable admired his paintings.

He was born on 1 August 1713 in Penegoes, Montgomeryshire in Wales.  He died on 11 May 1782 age 68 at Colomendy Hall, near Llanferres, Denbighshire and is buried in St Mary's Churchyard in Mold.  He never married.

His family was well connected and a relative sent him to London to train to become a painter and he initially trained as a portrait painter.  It appears he was successful gaining commissions and setting up his own studio.

He begins to demonstrate an interest in landscape painting from the mid 40s onwards.  However it's unclear why he subsequently became more interested in landscape painting. However it is known that he went to study in Italy between 1750 - visiting Venice first and then Rome - and there became very much influenced by the paintings of Claude Lorrain. 

Wilson is sometimes called 'The English Claude'.

His approach to landscape painting

While in Italy, he earned a living and had modest success by selling picturesque paintings of Italian scenes to English aristocrats who were doing the "Grand Tour".  He devoted himself to painting idealised landscapes in the manner of Claud Lorrain.  The main contrast being that Richard Wilson was typically painting a real scene rather than an idealised picture.

As a landscape painter, Wilson was obsessed with light and the quality of light reflected from the sky - and he loved a good sunset!  His tendency to bathe a scene in golden light was well known.

However Richard Wilson was also very sensitive to colour and demonstrated in his paintings his appreciation of the very many hues found in nature.  John Ruskin wrote that Wilson "paints in a manly way, and occasionally reaches exquisite tones of colour".

Kew Gardens: The Pagoda and Bridge (1762) by Richard Wilson (1713-1782)
Oil on canvas,
Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection

When painting figures in a landscape, they play a minor role and do not intrude upon the overall impact of the landscape.

The website of records the following as being the way he approached the painting of landscapes

His landscape paintings were produced by first applying an underdrawing of brown paint, followed by ‘dead-colouring', a task which was given to the studio apprentices. Thin washes of colour were applied at this stage; Prussian blue and grey-brown for the sky, and a mixture of red and blue pigments for the landscape. The colour was applied to a thickness depending on the depth of tone required, allowing the light tone of the ground to show through more towards the horizon. Once the dead-colouring was dry it was oiled out before the second painting.

For the foreground Joseph Farington records that Wilson 'went over it a second time, heightening every part with colour and deepening the shadows, but still, brown, loose and flat, and left in a state for finishing: the half-tints laid in, without highlights.' In the third and final painting of the foreground Wilson altered the tints, adding the necessary sharpness to the different objects, before glazing them with rich warm tints, and finally adding further solid tints over this.

The sky and distant landscape, on the other hand, were worked wet-in wet after the initial dead-colouring, rather than in two separate stages. This allowed Wilson to achieve easier blending of the clouds with the blue of the sky, apparently using ultramarine rather than Prussian blue for this stage of painting. Last of all the horizon was adjusted and the distance softened with grey-brown again as necessary.

This is a complete catalogue of Richard Wilson's paintings - which has obviously been a labour of love for its creator.

The Yale Centre of British Art in America has an excellent collection of paintings by Richard Wilson.

Richard Wilson - art communities and art societies

On his return to England, Wilson took on a grand studio and was initially successful and held many exhibitions, gained a reputation and sold his landscapes to a number of different clients.

He was active in founding first the Society of Artists and then in 1768, age 55, he became a founder member of the Royal Academy of Art.  He became the Director of what became ‎(in 1765)‎ the Royal Society of Artists of Great Britain.

The prices for his paintings went up and up - along with Wilson's arrogance - until on one famous occasion he offered to let the King have a painting on an instalment plan!  After that the commissions began to dry up and at the end of his life he lived in poverty and had to rely on his family.

Wilson subsequently became an alcoholic and stared the slide into poverty and ill-health. At the end he was taken back to the family home in Wales. He died there on 11 May 1782.

Links:

• Wikipedia - Richard Wilson (painter)
• Richard Wilson, R.A. North Wales artist 1713-1782
• Visual Arts Cork - A to z of Artists - Richard Wilson
• Encyclopædia Britannica - Richard Wilson

• New York Times:
• The Mystery of the British Landscape Master
• Richard Wilson and the British Arcadia
• ArtNet - The Dawn of the Romantic
• BBC - Richard Wilson - 

Spring Landscape #2 - by Berthe Morisot

I had no idea that French impressionist painter Berthe Morisot drew landscapes in coloured pencils - I think of her as somebody painted people.

However a search for spring landscapes turned up this coloured pencil drawing by Berthe Morisot of a Spring Landscape.  Not only that but it turns out that, like me, she also preferred to hatch with her coloured pencils!

Drawing of a Spring Landscape (c. 1890/1891) by Berthe Morisot
colored pencils and graphite, 23.7 x 18.4 cm (9 5/16 x 7 1/4 in.)
Ailsa Mellon Bruce Collection,
Courtesy of the National Gallery of Art, Washington

The Musee Marmottan has the first and major retrospective exhibition of works by Berthe Morisot between 8 March to 1 July 2012 - Marmottan Monet – Berthe Morisot

I discovered a little bit about Morisot and her landscape drawings and paintings.

She was born on January 14, 1841, in Bourges, France and was the granddaughter of the influential Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard.  She studied painting with her sister Edma.  Edma was Berthe’s painting companion until 1869, and her favourite model from 1869 to 1873.

At the time women were not allowed to study at official art schools and this did not change until the latter years of the nineteenth century.  Instead the sisters copied masterpieces from the Louvre Museum in the late 1850s under Joseph Guichard.

They then studied with the well-known landscape painter Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, who was associated with the Barbizon school of painters, and began painting outdoor scenes and working plein air.  Corot subsequently became a friend of Morisot's and she worked with him between 1862 to 1868.  Through she was Corot introduced her to other artists.

In terms of exhibiting her art, Morisot was able to exhibit at the Salon de Paris for a decade with her first work being exhibited in Salon in 1864.  She was just 23 years old when two landscape paintings were accepted for the exhibition

In 1874, she subsequently joined the "rejected" Impressionists in the first of their own exhibitions held at the studio of the photographer Nadar. Fellow exhibitors included Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Alfred Sisley.

Morisot was also a close friend of Manet and in 1874 she married Eugene Manet, Edouard's younger brother.  Morisot was the link which led to Manet joining the painters who formed the group known as the Impressionists.

Below is a landscape that demonstrates that Morisot also brought a touch of the domestic and woman's world to her landscape paintings. Here's a painting from her years of married life.

Percher de Blanchisseuses (English: Hanging the Laundry out to Dry) (1875) by Berthe Morisot
33 × 40.6 cm (13 × 16 in)
National Gallery of Art, Washington

Places to Paint: David Hockney and East Yorkshire

The Hockney Trail is a new website which provides an insight into all the places where David Hockney has been painting in East Yorkshire - and in particular those which can be seen in the David Hockney RA - The Bigger Picture exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts

This is a major contribution to the "places to paint" theme which I return to periodically on this blog.  If I can locate the place where John Singer Sargent painted a painting, then surely it's possible to do the same for a contemporary painter like Hockney?  This website would suggest that's the case.

The Hockney Trail website

It was also bound to happen - and, as it happens, this website has done the job rather well - BUT with a major caveat (see end).

The Hockney Trail provides:

• a Google Map of various locations where the paintings were painted.  
• details of which Ordnance Survey Maps cover the area
• details of where Hockney country is - and facilities in the area eg places to visit, eat and sleep
• details of various locations of Hockney paintings of East Yorkshire
• Kilham Road and the location of "Tracks into Wheatfields"
• the A166 - at the location for the painting "Garrowby Hill"
• the location for the painting of "Bugthorpe Valley"
• the location of the paintings of "Three Trees near Thixendale" - the paintings which you encounter - in all four seasons - as you enter the exhibition
• the location of "The Road to York Through Sledmere" (which is my version of the location of this Sledmere painting- done while sat with page 92 of the catalogue open in front of me!)

I made a few discoveries of my own.  First here are the locations I've found since reviewing the website

• this is the location of "The Tunnel" which is the subject of a number of the paintings in the exhibition - and also one of the films.  It's on the right of the Kilham Road to the west of Kilham, going towards Langtoft.  It's a long straight farmer's track between his fields

Hockney's Tunnel

David Hockney
A Closer Winter Tunnel, February - March, 2006
Oil on 6 canvases, 182 x 365 cm
Collection Art Gallery of New South Wales.
Purchased with funds provided by Geoff and Vicki Ainsworth, the Florence and William Crosby Bequest
and the Art Gallery of New South Wales Foundation 2007
Copyright David Hockney / Collection of Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
Photo credit: Richard Schmidt

This is Woldgate and the location of Winter to Spring in Woldgate the major installation in the main Gallery at the RA (see yesterday's post Hockney: 51 iPad drawings on paper - Winter to Spring in Woldgate).  I estimate it's about 10 minutes from Hockney's house in Bridlington and is a brilliant spot to be able to get to quickly when the light looks good.

• Woldgate is an old Roman Road which runs between Bessingby Hill on the outskirts of Bridlington and the village of Kilham.  
• This is the Hockney Trail page for Woldgate.  

Woldgate

and this is one of the digital paintings Hockney did on his iPad in this location.

David Hockney
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) - 2 January
iPad drawing printed on paper
144.1 x 108 cm; one of a 52-part work
Courtesy of the artist
Copyright David Hockney

I have to confess this location hunting is addictive.  I think that's it for today - but I'll be back.......

The second thing I discovered yesterday is that East Yorkshire has the Wold Wide Web - with links to pages about all the villages in the Wolds.  How about that for an example of Yorkshire humour?

But how long will it be around?

My only query about the The Hockney Trail website is whether or not it's authorised.

It doesn't seem to have any sort of formal association with either the artist or any of the sponsors of the current exhibition at the Royal Academy.  I don't think it falls within the normal copyright exemptions for the use of Hockney images given the adverts which are visible in my other browser which doesn't block adverts (you're seeing the advert-free version - and I'd written most of this before I realised it had them!).

My current thoughts are that maybe the originator is well intentioned but maybe not aware of just how jealously the Hockney empire protects the copyright.  I think he might find somebody giving him the virtual tap on the shoulder sometime soon.  It would also appear that maybe the images of some paintings have already been taken down......

PS  I am by the way posting a scheduled post.  I'm actually currently sat in the RA having lunch with my sister after having just seen the exhibition for the third time!  Join the Friends of the RA and go as many times as you want - and take an adult family guest for free!


Links to related posts about Hockney and the exhibition:

• David Hockney RA talks about landscape painting
• Hockney: sketchbooks, iPad sketching and the Yosemite Valley
• Hockney: 51 iPad drawings on paper - Winter to Spring in Woldgate
• MAKING A MARK: Review: David Hockney RA - A Bigger Picture 17 Jan 2012
• MAKING A MARK: Review: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture 02 Jul 2009

Hockney: sketchbooks, iPad sketching and the Yosemite Valley

This post is about Hockney's sketching and painting using sketchbooks and iPads. and is part of a series of posts about specific aspects of the David Hockney RA - The Bigger Picture exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts.  This exhibition is largely about his recent work drawing and painting the landscapes of the Yorkshire Wolds - but images of the Yosemite Valley in October creep in at the end!

Unfortunately the images made available by the Royal Academy are very limited and hence I'll be linking where I can to images elsewhere.  I don't have any image at all to show you what the Yosemite images look like - more's the pity.

The Sketchbooks

"Everything begins with the sketchbooks"
David Hockney

Gallery 12 is a room full of sketchbooks.  iPads are hung on the wall about the sketchbook proper and loop through images from the sketchbook show below.  There's a fairly good correlation between the image on screen and that in the sketchbook.

The main reason for studying the sketchbooks is to see how he chooses and isolates elements in the landscape and tries it out in different ways before making the commitment to a more involved sketch on the ipad or a "proper" painting using watercolours or oils.

There's one sketchbook with a concertina fold which he has used to record all the plants in a hedgerow.  It reminded me of how many of the landscape paintings include portrayals of the plants which are the minor players in the grander scheme of things.

There's a sense of the sketchbooks being the first step in a process which progresses from a quick drawing done from observation to an enormous painting.  The sketch for the painting used to advertise the exhibition is in the display - drawn using coloured crayons in April/May 2008.  It was first drawn in a charcoal and crayon as a landscape format double page spread in a sketchbook - and measures 21 x 60cm.  It's remarkably similar to the final painting (below) which was painted on 15 canvases and is approximately 10 times bigger.

David Hockney 
Winter Timber, 2009 
Oil on 15 canvases, 274 x 609.6 cm 
Private Collection 
Copyright David Hockney 
Photo credit: Jonathan Wilkinson

The colours used in the sketches seems to be a bit of a test for "what works".  While sympathetic to the natural colour palette of the countryside, the colours he uses are often rather more vivid.

This is a fast slideshow of Hockney creating another painting in the series related to the trees which were cut down.  From this you can see how he works from smaller sketches both to get the painting started and also to refine the final colour palette.  The sketches are essential to both the composition and design, the tonal values and the colour palette.

It seems as if the whole process for the larger paintings works as follows:

• sketchbook study - identifies what interests him
• charcoal drawing which is more refine - defines shapes and tonal values
• small colour oil sketches - initial plans for paintings
• large single canvas oil paintings
• multi-canvas-larger paintings - which are developed from all the supporting material back in the studio

The sketchbooks he uses are of every size and they vary in the weight of paper - although it looks like they're all capable of taking watercolour sketching.  He mostly sketches in watercolours, although he sometimes uses a graphic pen - especially if drawing people.  He also uses felt markers, coloured pencils and crayons.  I think it's very likely that he's mostly using Neocolor II wax crayons judging by the marks made and the fact that he then sometimes uses water to create a wash after he's completed the sketch.

He's an inveterate panoramic double page spread man - done in landscape format sketchbooks!  (I felt better about my sketching and own sketchbooks as a result.  I keep increasing the size of my sketchbooks and every time I do I seem to still want to use the double page spread.  I've only finally stopped and stuck to one sheet after I got to the A3 sketchbook!)

You can read my Book review: A Yorkshire Sketchbook by David Hockney on Making A Mark reviews.  You can also view the Yorkshire Sketchbook (Yorkshire 04) on the official Hockney website (please note Hockney is a stickler for copyright - so no stealing images from the website!)

RECOMMENDED (for fans only) - This is the nearest you'll ever get to handling a Hockney sketchbook.

The iPad Sketches

David Hockney 
The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011 (twenty eleven) - 2 January 
iPad drawing printed on paper 
144.1 x 108 cm; one of a 52-part work 
Courtesy of the artist 
Copyright David Hockney

Gallery 12 also houses 6 iPads which are set up to run through all the iPads sketches in sequence.

I was disappointed to see that there is no iPad set up to show how he makes his sketches while using the Brushes app for his iPad (which won the Apple Design Award in 2010).  The Brushes app has a very neat aspect to its functionality which shows you how you constructed your drawing - in stages, one stroke at a time!

One of the films makes it clear that Steve Jobs would not have been happy - as he clearly uses a stylus to draw.  It looks very like the one I bought and promptly lost!

The iPad sketches are interesting - mainly because it was not apparent to me until I visited this exhibition just how big iPad sketches can be printed.  Of course the great thing about the iPad is you can move in and out of an area of the artwork.  If you know you're going to print big you can adjust the level you work at.

I'm not actually quite sure when they stop being sketches and start being paintings in their own right - although I guess it might be something to do with how long they take to do and refine.  We also need to remember for all the iPad work we see in the show there's bound to be a lore more which just didn't work - just as there always is in any sketchbook.

The 51 iPad sketches which form part of The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire 2011 (twenty eleven) are all printed on paper which is 144cm x 108cm (that's c. 57" x 42").

I had no idea one could contemplate digital sketches on an iPad translating through to work of that size.  I guarantee there will be quite a few wiPad owners looking at their iPads with renewed interest after seeing this exhibition.  Me for one!  The main reason being that at the end of the day these are still unique hand drawn paintings.  You can see all the marks.  It doesn't look like a hyper-realistic photograph.  You know a person created it!

This in part is, I guess, Hockney's response to all the people who are photoshopping photographs and then calling it art.  His preoccupation is with the eye, the hand and the heart and having all three working together to produce the image.

[Note:  I'm trying to find out what software is used to produce the very large prints - and will report back!]

The Yosemite Valley Sketches

I'm really surprised not to have an image of these iPad sketches.  They are simply ginormous!  They're also displayed in a small gallery so that one gets the sense of the enormity of the place itself.

I'm guessing that they must have given the publishers of the catalogue and the gallery guide a bit of a rollercoaster ride too - as Hockney produced these specifically for the exhibition but only produced them between October 5th and October 16th 2011!!!

The catalogue indicates he's using a special piece of software which prevents the iPad drawings from pixelating as they are increased in size.  (see How to produce a large 300dpi TiFF print of an iPad sketch for my best guess at the moment of what they are doing)

However the super ginormous Yosemite sketches are in effect like his multi canvas paintings.

The overall dimension of most is 365.8 x 274.3cm (That's 144inches x 108" or 12 feet by 9 feet).  However they are actually printed on six sheets of paper mounted on six sheets of dibond.

So now you know!

You too can have an iPad sketch enlarged to a 12 foot by 9 foot image!

David Hockney's Yorkshire

Royal Academy of Art: David Hockney - A Bigger Picture (21 January - 9 April 2012)

This post is about three major new initiatives relating to David Hockney and his paintings of the landscape of the Yorkshire Wolds

First - a new exhibition by David Hockney opens on Wednesday 14th September at the Salt Mills Gallery in Saltaire.  Called 25 Trees and Other Pictures it includes three 27-foot-long pictures of Bessingby Road, Bridlington and other Yorkshire landscapes. The show, which is on the third floor, is open Wednesday - Sunday, 10:30am - 4pm, admission free.  The Gallery also displays many paintings by David Hockney all year round.

This Guardian article The north gets a peep at David Hockney's new portfolio first and the Salt Mills website (extract below) explain how Jonathan Silver started the Salt Mills Centre and amassed the largest collection of Hockney's work.

These days, David spends much of his time in this part of the world and his paintings of the East Yorkshire landscape are admired world-wide.
Home, then, has always mattered, so it wasn’t surprising that when Jonathan Silver approached David about displaying his work in the Mill, David agreed. The two had first met in the 60’s and had kept in touch, sporadically since then. The Galleries at Salts Mill are very proud of the large collection of David's wonderful work on show and deeply grateful to him for his continued support and interest.Salt Mills website - David Hockney Profile

Silver's daughter explained a little bit more of the background to Hockney's paintings of the Yorkshire Wolds which I never knew before.

Dad said to David: 'Paint Yorkshire. It's where you're from. You know it and above all you know how to celebrate it. You've done California and the Grand Canyon and those swimming pools. Now bring all that colour back home.

Second, a major Hockney retrospective exhibition - David Hockney - A Bigger Picture - will be held at the Royal Academy of Art early next year.  It covers work from the last seven years - mainly paintings but also his sketchbooks and his work on iphones and ipads and film - 150 works in total.

This is the first major exhibition of Hockney's larger landscape paintings of Yorkshire.  The galleries at the RA are large enough to hold them!

'David Hockney: A Bigger Picture' will span a 50 year period to demonstrate Hockney’s long exploration and fascination with the depiction of landscape.  The exhibition will include a display of his iPad drawings and a series of new films produced using 18 cameras, which will be displayed on multiple screens and which will provide a spellbinding visual journey through the eyes of David Hockney.

This Guardian article explains how David Hockney moves into film with Royal Academy exhibition

I'll be writing more about this exhibition as we get closer to the opening date!

Third - David Hockney has a new book out called My Yorkshire.

David Hockney - My Yorkshire
Enitharmon Editions (Published in UK: 1 Sep 2011)

The publisher describes it as follows

David Hockney is considered one of the most influential British artists of the twentieth century. In 2003, in a series of dazzlingly fresh watercolours of the rolling landscape known as the Wolds, Hockney embarked on one of the most ambitious and extraordinary projects of his career. He set about memorializing this little-known, intimate and gently beautiful part of the world. His vibrant landscapes twist and turn with ever expanding scale, reminiscent of the American West. Despite this they are remain instantly recognizable to anyone familiar with Yorkshire. The many paintings he has made in the vicinity of Bridlington since 2005 are among the most captivating and impressive of his long and distinguished career.

It's now available in the UK but is only available through importers in the USA as yet.

So lots and lots for true Hockney fans to revel in - I'm very much looking forward to getting the book and seeing his paintings.

Below I've included links to two DVDs by Bruno Wolheim about David Hockney - The Bigger Picture  which is about Hockney painting in the Wolds.  I highly recommend this DVD (see my Review:  David Hockney A Bigger Picture on making A Mark in 2009)

(on the left is the UK version and on the right is the USA Region 1 version)


Plus for more information about David Hockney in general see:  David Hockney - Resources for Art Lovers

Flooding #2: Detecting Pissarro and Eragny-sur-Epte

Flood, Twilight Effect, Eragny (1893) by Camille Pissarro

Camille Pissarro (1830-1903) painted two versions of the floods of the River near Eragny, northwest of Paris.

This one is known as Flood, Twilight Effect, Eragny and was painted in 1893.  This is Flood, White Effect, Eragny.  That dates this to after his neo-Impressionist period of the 1880s.

Pissarro apparently used to prefer to finish his paintings in one sitting and worked plein air and painted what he saw.  Pissarro explained his technique of painting outdoors as follows

"Work at the same time upon sky, water, branches, ground, keeping everything going on and equal basis and unceasingly rework until you have got it. Paint generously and unhesitatingly, for it is best not to lose the first impression."

It's interesting to try and work out where his paintings were painted from.

This painting is confusing because it isn't possible to tell which area is flooded and whether the river is in the foreground or the background.

Using the satellite view of the current landscape around Eragny as a guide, I began to develop my landscape detective skills

• The painting suggests Pissarro was in a position of some height - maybe the upper storeys of a house - or the side of a hill?  It was certainly his practice in later life to paint scenes while sat by an open hotel window due to a medical condition which meant he could not work outdoors except in warm weather.
• Given the swathe of trees in the middle of the floods it seems possible that the painting was of a perspective very near to where the A15 now crosses the river.  
• Alternatively perhaps the painting was made on the west bank looking across the fields on the western flood plain of the Seine towards Eragny - and the trees are those  normally seen on the eastern bank
• Normally, locating the church is a good guide as the spire acts as a location marker.  In this instance it's more difficult - until you realise that the church has been completely rebuilt and no longer has a conventional spire!

So my initial conclusion was that Picasso was located somewhere near the Chemin de Chasse Maree on the west bank and was looking across the river towards Eragny.  I was still puzzled as to how he'd got the height above the fields.

That was until I found out that he died at Eragny-sur-Epte, a small village northwest of Paris!

Pissarro died in Eragny-sur-Epte on either November 12 or November 13, 1903 and was buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris
Camille Pissarro - biography

Having located this second Eragny - Eragny-sur-Epte - on Google Maps, it then becomes very apparent that this is the "Eragny" of the paintings. The reason for this conclusion is that a very similar painting a year earlier is titled View of Bazincourt, Flood, Morning Effect - and Bazincourt, according to the map is due west of Eragny-sur-Epte.  The fact that the main street going through Eragny-sur-Epte is also called Rue Camille Pissarro rather tends to confirm this as the location where these paintings were painted.

View of Bazincourt, Flood, Morning Effect (1892)

It then becomes clear when you look at the map with a geographer's eye (did I ever tell you what my degree is in?) that the flood plain of the River Epte lies in between Eragny and Bazincourt and is marked on today's map by a line of trees.

It therefore seems very likely that these paintings were all painted from a window in Pissarro's house in Eragny-Sur-Epte and are a view of the flood plain between his house and Bazincourt on the other side of the River Epte.

Have you ever tried to work out where paintings were painted?

Places to paint: Paul Nash and the Wittenham Clumps

I'd like to draw your attention to a brilliant website.  It's one of a kind.  However I think its scope and design might work very well for other websites about landscape painters and the places they paint.

Paul Nash and the Wittenham Clumps

Paul Nash and the Wittenham Clumps is totally devoted to one painter and one place.

• The artist is Paul Nash (1889-1946)- one of the UK'sleading landscape painters.
• The place is the Wittenham Clumps.  These are two chalk hills which are crowned by the oldest planted hilltop beeches in England.  They rise above the the flat landscape of South Oxfordshire and are apparently visible for miles around.

100 years ago this year UK landscape painter, Paul Nash , discovering the Wittenham Clumps and what he saw as a magical landscape.

From 1911 he proceeded to paint them on a periodic basis throughout his career as an artist

Take a look at the website and the amazing level of effort which has gone into recording a unique relationship between painter and landscape. It's extremely well done and provides a unique perspective on the development of an artist's work in relation to one landscape motif.

You can see:

• the paintings of the Clumps
• a list of where all the paintings are
• photographs of the Clumps over time and as they are today
• A selection of some of the paintings, sketches and collages done at three art workshops for adults and families which were held at the Earth Trust Centre, Little Wittenham on Friday 11th March and Saturday 12th March 2011 - to mark the centenery.

The website is a project by Anna Dillon and Christopher Baines.   I've been corresponding with Anna and found out that they met due to a shared passion for the work of Paul Nash, plus they both live near the Wittenham Clumps in Oxfordshire.

To celebrate the centenary of Paul Nash's connection with this landscape, they made this new website in order to explore the many paintings he made in the area and also to encourage people to visit the area. The project has been supported by North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

I've certainly been encouraged to visit next time I'm in the area!

John Constable documentary - view online

For those who like John Constable's work there is an excellent documentary by Andrew Graham Dixon about the painter currently available to download from BBC Two iPlayer Secret Lives of the Artists - 1. Constable in Love

John Constable's painting The Haywain embodies pretty and cosy England, adorning many a tea towel and postcard. But behind the image of rural calm lies a passionate artist whose pictures hide an erotic undercurrent - a story of forbidden love to rival even Shakespeare's ill-fated lovers. Andrew Graham-Dixon reveals the true story of Constable and an untold love story sublimated on canvas.

I've watched it through once and can highly recommend it.  I'll be watching it again before it expires in six days time.

"Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop's Garden," by John Constable.
oil on canvas, 13.63" X 17.32"

Ostensibly about the love story between Constable and his wife Maria Bricknell, it also tells us a lot about how Andrew Graham Dixon and other art historians see the role and impact of emotion and personal relationships on his landscape paintings and career.  It also tells us about his relationships with others in his Circle such as John Fisher, the Bishop of Salisbury, who commissioned the painting below and who is included with his wife behind the fence and under the shade of the trees.

You can also view clips via Andrew Graham Dixon's website where Andrew Graham-Dixon explores the life of Constable, his painting and love life.

• Constable in Love 1-7  (view clip)
• Constable in Love 2-7  (view clip)
• Constable in Love 3-7 (view clip)
• Constable in Love 4-7 (view clip)
• Constable in Love 5-7 (view clip)
• Constable in Love 6-7 (view clip)
• Constable in Love 7-7 (view clip)

Two landscape exhibitions in London and Christen Købke

Frederiksborg Slot ved Aftenbelysning

("Frederiksborg Palace in the Evening Light") 1835 by Christen Købke

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Two exhibitions of paintings by renowned landscape painters are coming to an end of their run in London - and both exhibitions finish on the 13th June 2010. These are:

• Paul Sandby RA (1731 – 1809): Picturing Britain, A Bicentenary Exhibition in the Sackler Wing Galleries at the Royal Academy of Arts is due to finish on the 13th June 2010. (Read my review of the exhibition Review: Paul Sandby - Picturing Britain Exhibition at the RA); and
• Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light in the Sunley Room of the National Gallery.

The latter moves next to the National Galleries of Scotland where it will be on display from 4 July - 3 October 2010.

I've not written about Købke (1810–1848) before but have been to see the exhibition

Købke is a painter of realism - adjusted to suit closely associated with what's called the Golden Age of Danish Painting. He's not well known and this is the first exhibition wholly devoted to his work outside Denmark.

Emphasising his exquisite originality and experimental outlook, the exhibition focuses on the most innovative  aspects of his work – including outdoor sketching, his fascination with painterly immediacy, and treatment of light and atmosphere.

This is a guide to the pictorial art associated with the Golden Age - which is worthy of a post in its own right at some point.< I'm going to limit comments here to the exhibition, because his work probably deserves more attention but within the context of the development of landscape painting in Denmark by artists influenced by C.W. Eckersberg. While Købke is obviously a very talented painter (particularly in relation to portraits and figures which demonstrated his very fine skills as a draughtsman) I found a number of the landscapes on the wall to be disappointing in terms of the billing given to him by the National Gallery. The theme of the exhibition is about him being a Master of Light. However a number of the paintings, when viewed in the exhibition, appeared to me to be rather less impressive than those seen in the video film which accompanies the exhibition.

The latter gives a very good impression of the paintings as they must have been when first painted but that's partly due to the backlighting which enhances the sense of light. In reality, to me, a number of the paintings were considerably more subdued when viewed with some being really rather dull - in a literal sense. There was no question in my mind that this was probably because of their age, because virtually all are on loan from other collections and because some probably haven't been properly cleaned of late.

It's difficult when somebody paints in the muted tones necessary to produce an effective sense of light. The lights in a painting then need to be kept clean and unsullied by time or the effect and impact can be much reduced. These are incredibly subtle paintings but for me some of that subtlety had been lost - and this was apparent when one saw some of the paintings in the exhibition where the overall effect appeared to be much closer to what the painter had intended.

As a result I suspect that these might be paintings which may well look rather better in a book or film than they do when hanging on a wall.

The painting which persuaded me that he was actually a fantastic painter of light was oddly enough his Portrait of the Landscape Painter Frederik Sødring (1832) from the Hirschsprung Collection where the luminous freshness of its colour scheme came across much more effectively. It's also a story of the influences on landscape painting in Denmark at the time - and serves to remind us how young Købke was when he painted most of his paintings (he died age 38). 

Another influential painting was his rather romantic painting of Frederiksborg Palace in the Evening Light (see top).  This is in good condition and is very impressive in terms of the portrayal of that very curious light one gets just before the sun sets. 

A third was the painting of boys on a bridge - an extract from which has been chosen for the catalogue of the exhibition - Christen Kobke: Danish Master of Light (see image on right).  This painting, again in good condition, is a fascinating depiction of the colour of warm stone - as well as a great composition and figurative painting.

Where the paintings are in good condition - and it's certainly the case that some are - it was very interesting to see and study

• how very little white/light paint needs to be applied to get a highlight effect if the rest of the painting is using suitably muted (clean) colours
• how extreme subtleties are possible in the colour of warm stone, evening shadows and reflected light

His landscape paintings are usually based on plein air studies.  He often drew and painted subjects close to the different places he lived in Copenhagen.  What I found fascinating was his impeccable portrayal of figures in a landscape - one of the best artists I've ever seen in this respect and some truly innovative and radical compositions for the age.

James Gurney did a post about him recently - see Christen Købke

In conclusion, I like the artist, I really appreciate his draughtsmanship and talent and I wish that those who looked after paintings would have some regard for how dirty and dull they can get over time.  

Here are some other reviews of the exhibition

• Laura Cumming's review of Christen Købke: Danish Master of Light
• Nordic exposure painted empty skies, intimate portraits and melancholy landscapes. Jonathan Jones gets lost in a world of infinite mystery
• Christen Købke: Great Dane He may not have been a rebellious artist, but the Danish master did have an astonishing eye for colour and detail, says Tom Lubbock

Interestingly this last review uses the same image - "Frederiksborg Palace in the Evening Light" - which looks nothing like it does in the article in reality!

Links:

• Exhibition Catalogue - Christen Kobke: Danish Master of Light
• Christen Købke - Wikipedia article
• The History of Landscape Painting

Small but Sublime Landscapes at the Frick Art Museum

I'm not going to be able to get to see this but I think it's definitely worth highlighting the Frick Art Museum's exhibition Small but Sublime - Intimate Nineteenth Century Landscapes in Pittsburgh.


This is the Museum's summary of the exhibition.

Nearly 20 American artists spanning the Hudson River School to American Impressionism are represented in these small-scale paintings from the superb collection of the Newark Museum.

Beginning with the Hudson River School in the 1820s, landscape served as a vehicle for expressing national identity and pride in the wonders of the land. Artists such as Albert Bierstadt (1830-1902), Asher B. Durand (1796-1886), and Jasper Cropsey (1823-1900) were intent on creating distinctly American scenes.

Later, during the Civil War and in the years following, this ardent nationalism waned as French landscape painting and the Barbizon school influenced a younger generation of painters including George Inness (1825-1894), John Pope (1820-1881), and Mary Moran (1842-1899).

By the 1890s, Impressionism, with its broken brushstrokes and brilliant hues, became the avant-garde style in America.

Together, these small but sublime canvases provide an overview of the approaches to landscape in the second half of the 19th century and illustrate shifts in broader social attitudes towards nature and American identity.

I've reproduced the press release below as it provides an insight into the development of small scale landscape painting in nineteenth century America.  I've highlighted the names of all the American artists in bold.

On May 14, 2010, Small but Sublime: Intimate 19th-Century American Landscapes opens at the Frick Art & Historical Center. The exhibition features 22 small-scale paintings and drawings by 18 American artists, which range from the realistic style of Hudson River School to the brilliantly colored canvases of the American Impressionists.

The works, selected from the superb collection of the Newark Museum, provide an overview of the varied approaches to landscape in the 19th century and illustrate shifts in broader social attitudes towards nature and American identity. Small but Sublime: Intimate 19th-Century American Landscapes will remain on view at The Frick Art Museum through September 5, 2010. Admission is free.

Beginning with the Hudson River School in the 1820s, landscape painting served as a vehicle for expressing national identity and pride in the wonders of the New World. Artists such as Albert Bierstadt (1830–1902), Asher B. Durand (1796–1886) and Jasper Cropsey (1823–1900) were intent on creating distinctly American scenes. The term “sublime”—when used to describe art and literature—has been freighted with many associations since the 18th century.

Its earliest associations (as found in works of Romantic painters like Caspar David Friedrich and Joseph Mallord William Turner) were often linked to works that emphasized the insignificance of man, mortality and the terrifying grandeur of nature. For 19th-century American landscape artists the sublime had somewhat different associations, the awe-inspiring grandeur of the natural world was seen as evidence of the presence of God, and landscapes that attempted to capture this grandeur conveyed sacred and religious sentiments. In relation to the natural world, this resulted in large-scale, operatic views of untamed nature—often of the American West or South America. Hudson River School artists, such as Albert Bierstadt, also painted smaller, more salable works that reflected a 19th-century philosophy of the sublime that was distinctly American. Many of the works in this exhibition portray quiet and tranquil views that were wild—yet familiar—to American viewers. Bierstadt’s Lake at Franconia Notch, White Mountains, c.1860s, depicts a popular tourist spot. Bierstadt’s painting is a closely observed rendering on paper, indicating that he probably painted a considerable portion of the work on the spot.

In their desire to create memorable and marketable works, painters frequently traveled to destinations renowned for their beauty and sublimity. The Catskills, Adirondacks, Niagara Falls, and Natural Bridge in Virginia all were popular sites. They camped in the wilderness and used portable materials such as small wood panels, paper sheets or sketchbooks to record their observations. Two small albums of sketches in the exhibition by Asher B. Durand and Frederic F. Durand (1837–1905) document excursions from 1854 to 1877.

Asher B. Durand was a leading artist of the Hudson River School whose essays titled “Letters on Landscape Painting” were published in 1855 in Crayon, a leading art journal of the time. Frederick, Durand’s second son, took his father’s advice to heart. Frederick’s sketches reveal his working process as recommended by his father, “to take pencil and paper, not palette and brushes, and draw with scrupulous fidelity the outline or contour of such objects as you shall select, and . . . choose the most beautiful or characteristic of its kind.”



In Jasper Cropsey’s Greenwood Lake, 1871, the artist’s fluid and free treatment of the foreground trees and foliage is similar in style to a spontaneous outdoor sketch, but the detailed handling of the distant shore, as well as the artist’s fully realized composition, reinforces a contradictory reading that it is, in fact, a finished, studio piece. Greenwood Lake was Cropsey’s favorite subject. In this fresh and brilliantly colored view, he combines two signature motifs: the topography of the lake’s shoreline and autumnal foliage of dazzling reds, oranges and yellows. Cropsey’s infatuation with fall colors made him the premier painter of this season, which is the time of year when intense colors brand the scenery as distinctly American.

In the years following the Civil War, this ardent nationalism waned as French landscape painting and the Barbizon school influenced a younger generation of painters, including George Inness (1825–1894), John Pope (1820–1881) and Mary Moran (1842–1899). George Inness resoundingly rejected what he viewed as the scientific realism of the Hudson River School in his search to create pictures that create a poetic mood. In his Delaware Valley before the Storm, ca. 1865, Inness uses compositional elements, such as contrast between light and dark, muted colors, and an active paint surface, to suggest a mood of mystery in the civilized New Jersey landscape. Inness was the most well known of a group of artists, also including Ralph Blakelock (1847–1919) and Alexander Wyant (1836–1892), whose work evoked the spirituality of nature.

As American artists became increasingly cosmopolitan after the Civil War and traveled to Europe, sometimes spending years abroad, French art continued to provide inspiration. The Barbizon style was replaced by a strong involvement with Impressionism. Artists such as Theodore Robinson (1852–1896) were among the earliest American practitioners of this new approach to the painting of light and color. His Moonrise of 1892 was produced in Giverny, the home of Claude Monet, a leading French Impressionist painter, who was Robinson’s friend and mentor. This small, intimate scene conveys the artist’s personal reaction to and interpretation of nature.

These small but sublime works were meant to be lived with, seen at close quarters, and enjoyed on a daily basis. For example, at Clayton, Henry Clay Frick’s taste encompassed and progressed from pictures by regional western Pennsylvania artists, to works of the Barbizon school; later he purchased paintings by American Impressionists. The painting collection on view at Clayton reflects a wonderful contrast, as well as synergy, between trends in American and European painting. Between 1882 when Frick purchased Pennsylvania artist George Hetzel’s Woodland Stream and 1908 when he purchased June Idyll by Chylde Hassam, Frick’s taste parallels larger trends in collecting.

The Frick Art Museum provides a warm and personal venue for these works, which were meant to be displayed in domestic spaces. This intimacy reflects the belief of Helen Clay Frick, the museum’s founder, that works of art are best displayed in surroundings that evoke a comfortable and well-appointed home. The viewer will be able to take their own journey through the development of American landscape painting from the Hudson River School artists to the American Impressionists and forerunners of modernism, such as George Inness. While the paintings and drawings in this exhibition are small, their detail and skill reward close inspection.

The exhibition opened yesterday and continues until 5th September 2010.   There are a number of talks and events in connection with the exhibition.  The website has details for visitors.

Small but Sublime: Intimate 19th-Century American Landscapes was organized by the Newark Museum and is drawn from its permanent collection. The American Art collection at the Newark Museum surveys four centuries and includes over 12,000 paintings, sculptures, works on paper and multimedia art. The exhibition has received funding for conservation support from the Henry Luce Foundation and from the Newark Museum Volunteer Organization and from Barbara and Bill Weldon.