This appears to be a discovery exercise, a chance to look at a variety of images to discover for oneself the techniques and presentations in landscape painting of the 18th and 19th centuries. The notes call for using an internet search engine to locate twelve examples, about which we are to discuss the commonalities, and where possible to note the origin of the painting and its intended function, namely public or private exhibition.
I looked at approaching the task through Google Image and a search parameter of [18th 19th century landscape painting], but the results are somewhat hit and miss in terms of size of image and background information. I turned instead to online galleries and found two perfectly suited:
National Gallery of Art
- Constable and Turner — British Landscapes of the Early 1800s
- The Beginnings of Impressionist Landscape
Metropolitan Museum of Art
- The Transformation of Landscape Painting in France 1800-1900
- The Hudson River School
Commonalities:
All twelve examples were made by men. All but one were created using brush and paint on a two-dimensional surface: canvas, wood, or paper. The exception is Ando’s woodcarving, which was used as a stencil to create a print. Only one painting has a portrait orientation, and while Hu’s fan has the only curved landscape, we could say that all images were formatted to their respective media. The largest piece is a somewhat unusual 302cm in length, another is nearly 200cm, but most images fall between 50 and 150cm. Ando’s print is the smallest, at only 34cm. Color palette runs from muted pastel (Boudin, Monet, Inness), to the rather vibrant high contrast of Durand. Ogata and Hu use the fewest colors, and Hu’s image includes text.
All images depict scenes in daylight, with the location of the sun variously depicted behind the painter, in front of the painter, or in the case of Ando, Hu, and Monet, the lack of shadow leaves the sun’s location unclear. Every image apart from Ogata’s Waves contains at least one human figure. The figures are in most cases a small part of the scene, a kind of flourish to establish scale, apart from Devis’ family and Boudin’s beach goers. Seven of the 12 images feature water, one snow. Most of the scenes read laterally or diagonally, with vision moving left to right, or right to left, across the image. The only image that shows little depth or perspective is Ogata’s. The waves appear on the same plane, there is no diminution of waves in the background, nor any reduction in color contrast. The other images show a clear foreground, and usually a middle and/or background.
Several of the images appear to depict nature as overwhelming: Ando’s blizzard, Ogata’s waves, Hu’s tiny figure against rocky mountains, Church’s minute humans at a gravesite, the dark forest behind Gainsborough’s figures. Others portray nature tamed and domesticated: Devis’ manicured lawn, Constable’s cow pasture, Monet’s poppy field, and Turner’s riverside park.
Where information is available, it appears most paintings were commissioned by wealthy land owners, business people, and/or politicians.
The Images:
The following images have been sorted chronologically.
Ogata Korin
(Japanese, 1658–1716)
Rough Waves, Edo period (1615–1868), ca. 1704–9
Two–panel screen; ink, color, and gold on gilded paper:
Two–panel screen; ink, color, and gold on gilded paper:
146.6 x 165.4 cm; folded: 152.4 x 81.3 x 5.7 cm
Devis, Arthur
British, 1712 - 1787
Members of the Maynard Family in the Park at Waltons, c. 1755/1762
oil on canvas: 138.5 x 195.6 cm
From the NGA webpage: Painted for Sir William Maynard, 4th bt. [1721-1772], Waltons, Ashdon, Essex. From wikipedia: ...the only son of Sir Henry Maynard, 3rd Baronet and his wife Catherine Gunter, daughter of George Gunter.[2] In 1738, he succeeded his father as baronet.[3] Maynard entered the British House of Commons as Member of Parliament (MP) for Essex in 1759, representing the constituency until 1772.
Gainsborough, Thomas
British, 1727 - 1788
Mountain Landscape with Bridge, c. 1783/1784
oil on canvas: 113 x 133.4 cm
From NGA webpage: Mrs. Thomas Gainsborough; (sale, Christie, Manson & Woods, London, 10-11 April 1797, 2nd day, no. 69).... [Appears to have been held by his wife, and sold a decade after the painter’s death.]
Constable, John
British, 1776 - 1837
Wivenhoe Park, Essex, 1816
oil on canvas
overall: 56.1 x 101.2 cm
From the NGA webpage: The commission for this painting came from Major General Francis Slater–Rebow, owner of Wivenhoe Park, who had been a close friend of Constable's father and was the artist's first important patron. This was not the first work Constable had done for the Rebows; in 1812 he had painted a full–length portrait of the couple's daughter, then aged seven. She can be seen in this painting riding in a donkey cart at the left.
Turner, Joseph Mallord William
British, 1775 - 1851
Mortlake Terrace, 1827
oil on canvas
overall: 92.1 x 122.2 cm
From the NGA webpage: Painted for William Moffatt [c. 1754/1755-1831]. From wikipedia: William Moffat (7 March 1737 – 12 January 1822) was an English banker, merchant and politician. He was involved in several banking partnerships in London, and was also a merchant. By 1790 he lived in Bloomsbury, and in 1799 he bought the Painshill estate in Surrey, but sold it a few years later and lived in Wimbledon. He was elected at the 1802 general election as a Member of Parliament (MP) for the rotten borough of Winchelsea in Sussex, but was not re-elected in 1806.
Ando Hiroshige
(Japanese, 1797–1858)
Evening Snow at Kanbara, 1834
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper; 22.5 x 34.9 cm
Woodblock print; ink and color on paper; 22.5 x 34.9 cm
From the MMoA webpage: Evening Snow at Kanbara is from the well-known series Fifty-three Stations of the Tokaido (the title of which is inscribed at the top of the print, while the artist's signature appears at the left) that Hiroshige designed depicting the picturesque resting stations situated on the well-traveled coastal road between Kyoto and Edo (modern Tokyo). This series of fifty-five prints were first printed in 1834. Kanbara is situated on Suruga Bay, in line of sight of Mount Fuji. While an actual place, Hiroshige's rendering of Kanbara is largely fanciful and does not closely resemble the location itself.
Asher Brown Durand
(American, Jefferson, New Jersey 1796–1886 Maplewood, New Jersey)
The Beeches, 1845
Oil on canvas, 153.4 x 122.2 cm
From the MMoA webpage: This work, featuring meticulously rendered beech and basswood trees, was painted for the New York collector Abraham M. Cozzens, then a member of the executive committee of the American Art-Union....Durand was influenced by the work of the English landscape painter John Constable, whose vertical formats and truth to nature he absorbed while visiting England in 1840.
Frederic Edwin Church
(American, 1826–1900)
The Heart of the Andes, 1859
Oil on canvas: 168 x 302.9 cm
From the MMoA webpage: This picture was inspired by Church's second trip to South America in the spring of 1857. Church sketched prolifically throughout his nine weeks travel in Ecuador, and many extant watercolors and drawings contain elements found in this work. The picture was publicly unveiled in New York at Lyrique Hall, 756 Broadway, on April 27, 1859. Subsequently moved to the gallery of the Tenth Street Studio Building, it was lit by gas jets concealed behind silver reflectors in a darkened chamber. The work caused a sensation, and twelve to thirteen thousand people paid twenty-five cents apiece to file by it each month. The picture was also shown in London, where it was greatly admired as well.
Eugène Boudin
(French, 1824–1898)
On the Beach, Sunset, 1865
Oil on wood: 38.1 x 58.4 cm
Oil on wood: 38.1 x 58.4 cm
Claude Monet
(French, 1840–1926)
Poppy Field, Argenteuil, 1875
Oil on canvas: 54 x 73.7 cm
From MMoA webpage: Provenance: Maître Couteau (given to him by the artist); by descent to his grandson, M. Berard (by 1967; sold to Wildenstein)....
Hu Yuan
(Chinese, 1823–1886)
Landscape, 1885
Folding fan mounted as an album leaf; ink and color on alum paper
17.6 x 51.4 cm
The rains cease and the maple forest
turns bright in the sunset. On the
deserted mountain a lonely man is
refreshed by the spring run.
George Inness
(American, Newburgh, New York 1825–1894)
Spring Blossoms, Montclair, New Jersey, ca. 1891
Oil and crayon or charcoal on canvas: 73.7 x 114.9 cm
From the MMoA webpage: The artist's estate, 1895; sale, Ortgies and Company, New York, February 13, 1895....
#
No comments:
Post a Comment