'Essence of Nature: Pre-Raphaelites to British Impressionists' opens at Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery

The First Art Newspaper on the Net    Established in 1996 Thursday, March 28, 2024


'Essence of Nature: Pre-Raphaelites to British Impressionists' opens at Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery
Thomas Austen Brown (1857-1924), Ploughing, 1887. Laing Art Gallery.



NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE.- The new exhibition at Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery, recently opened, traces the radically different approaches to British landscape painting, from the mid-Victorian era through to the 1920s. Essence of Nature presents a rare opportunity to see around 100 oil and watercolours by leading artists from the Pre-Raphaelite, Rural Naturalist and British Impressionist schools together.

The exhibition, which will continue through October 14th, begins with the Pre-Raphaelites’ ideal of ‘truth to nature’ - represented by such artists as William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), John Ruskin (1819-1900) and William Dyce (1806 – 1864.)

The influential critic John Ruskin famously proposed that artists should aim to record nature, ‘rejecting nothing, selecting nothing, and scorning nothing’. The exhibition includes Ruskin’s study of Spray of Dead Oak Leaves (1879, Collection of the Guild of St John, Sheffield Museums Trust) and his on-the-spot mountain view at Mer de Glace, Chamonix, France of 1860 (The Whitworth, University of Manchester).

Ruskin venerated mountain landscape for what he saw as its purity and spiritual character. He helped William Inchbold to travel to Switzerland to paint, resulting in 1857 in The Lake of Lucerne: Mont Pilatus in the Distance (Victoria and Albert Museum). This little painting is probably the picture which William Holman Hunt described as 'really a very beautiful one', though Ruskin himself was sniffy about Inchbold’s inclusion of houses and gardens around the edge of the lake, sullying the mountain purity.

Other key Pre-Raphaelite works include William Homan Hunt’s watercolours View of Nazareth and The Plain of Rephaim from Zion, Jerusalem (both 1855, The Whitworth, The University of Manchester), and Cornfield at Ewell (Tate), as well as Dyce’s Henry VI at Towton and George Herbert (both Guildhall Art Gallery, City of London).

Leading Rural Naturalist painters, including George Clausen (1852 - 1944) and Henry La Thangue (1859 ‑ 1929) also painted in on the spot, but turned away from the hyper-real detail of Pre-Raphaelite art, aiming to capture the character and atmosphere of rural working landscapes.

In 1882, George Clausen spent a brief period in the artists’ colony of Quimperlé in Brittany, where he painted Peasant Girl Carrying a Jar, Quimperlé (Victoria and Albert Museum), surrounded by globe-shaped onion flower heads. Integrated into the field surroundings by Clausen's blunt-edged brushwork, the girl wears coarse clothing that indicates her life of poverty and hard work.

The harmony of country life is captured in La Thangue’s woodland scene Gathering Bracken (1899, Laing Art Gallery), whilst Edward Stott’s Changing Pastures (1893, Tate) depicts the herd girl and animals merged into the landscape, and all dissolving into the surrounding atmosphere.

British Impressionist pictures of nature were characterised by momentary effects of light and colour, as demonstrated by pictures by Wynford Dewhurst (1864-1941) (known as the Manchester Impressionist), Henry Scott Tuke (1858-1929), Ethel Walker (1861-1951) and Philip Steer (1860-1942). Painting in front of their subjects, they produced beautiful pictures of sunny hillsides, orchards and gardens, balancing scenes of relaxation with working farmland. The pictures include John Singer Sargent’s Mountains of Moab (1905, Tate), Steer’s An Upland Landscape (1902, Tate), together with Walker’s The Garden, Tuke’s A Corfu Garden (The Lemon Tree) and Dewhurst's An Ancient Stronghold in France (all Bradford Museums and Galleries).

Artists at Newlyn and St Ives in Cornwall took their easels to beaches, cliffs and riversides, and the exhibition includes scenes by Laura Knight (1877-1970), Harold Knight (1874-1961), SJL Birch (1869-1955), and Elizabeth Forbes (1859-1912). Works include Knight’s joyous picture of The Beach (1909) and The Dark Pool (1917), both from the Laing collection. Conservation examination of The Beach has discovered sand in the paint, showing that, despite its size, Laura Knight painted her picture in the open. Painters at other coastal colonies in Yorkshire (Runswick Bay) and the North East (Cullercoats) also responded to the impetus of Impressionist light and colour with open-air paintings.

Essence of Nature will also feature Birch’s The Morning Mist (1938) and Forbes’s Children in a Garden (1889), both from Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens.

Julie Milne, Chief Curator of Art Galleries, says: “The depiction of nature has long been an important subject for artists, and the beauty and drama of the natural world is celebrated in this exhibition. Exhibition curator Sarah Richardson has brought together a selection of impressive and attractive paintings. The themes vary from the intense attention to detail and ‘truth to nature’ of Pre-Raphaelite art to the vibrancy of British Impressionist artists’ responses to light and colour in landscape. The subtle effects of atmosphere feature in Rural Naturalist images of working landscapes, while Newlyn Group painters and other coastal artists portray bold and exuberant open-air scenes.

The exhibition features many important pictures lent from national and regional collections. The inspiration for the show came from the Laing Art Gallery's own outstanding collection, and the exhibition allows these significant pictures to be seen in a national context. Additional loans from other Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums’ collections are also included.”










Today's News

May 28, 2023

At 99, painter Richard Mayhew is still upending expectations

An iconic wine store and the mystery of the missing bottles

Want to be an artist? You're in luck. This one is selling his practice.

Exhibition at David Zwirner presents new paintings by Belgian artist Luc Tuymans

Berlin police investigate Roger Waters after he wore Nazi-style costumes at concerts

Decades old? No problem: Publisher makes a bet on aging books

Group exhibition 'Borrowed Landscapes' is now on view at Blum & Poe

Phillips announces highlights included in June Design Auction

Fernanda Fragateiro & Haleh Redjaian on view at valerie traan_gallery

'Essence of Nature: Pre-Raphaelites to British Impressionists' opens at Newcastle’s Laing Art Gallery

Fondazione MAST opens an exhibitiion of works by Andreas Gursky

Leila Heller Gallery presents artistic work by Katya A. Traboulsi

Oolite Arts' visionary leader Dennis Scholl to retire

'Sutr Santati: Then. Now. Next' opens at Melbourne Museum

Gianni Colombo: A Space Odyssey retrospective by the Milanese artist to celebrate 30th anniversary of his death

Public Matters: Contemporary art in the Belevedere Garden on view until October 2023

BRICK CITY exhibition featuring global iconic architecture recreated From LEGO® bricks

Rijksmuseum receives largest donation in its history to support annual sculpture exhibitions

Castello di Rivoli Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin announces retirement of Director Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev

Review: Problematic attachments in 'Aspects of Love'

Brian Calvin's exhibition 'Still' now on view in Venice

Two premieres reflect the ups and downs of a major flute project

A Kurdish Turkish writer on the tensions between politics and art

'Work Hard Have Fun Make History' review: Labor, meet greed

James Acaster finds his way back to music

Importance of Hiring a Professional Web Design Company: A Comprehensive Guide

Five Points of Calvinism

How to Get the Best Quality Photo Prints?

Protecting Your Assets During Divorce: How Tulsa Attorneys Can Help

Unveiling the Splendor: The Continuum Condo - A Luxurious Haven of Timeless Elegance

The Role of Reflective Practise in Teachers' Professional Development




Museums, Exhibits, Artists, Milestones, Digital Art, Architecture, Photography,
Photographers, Special Photos, Special Reports, Featured Stories, Auctions, Art Fairs,
Anecdotes, Art Quiz, Education, Mythology, 3D Images, Last Week, .

 



Founder:
Ignacio Villarreal
(1941 - 2019)
Editor & Publisher: Jose Villarreal
Art Director: Juan José Sepúlveda Ramírez

sa gaming free credit
Attorneys
Truck Accident Attorneys
Accident Attorneys

Royalville Communications, Inc
produces:

ignaciovillarreal.org juncodelavega.com facundocabral-elfinal.org
Founder's Site. Hommage
to a Mexican poet.
Hommage
       

The First Art Newspaper on the Net. The Best Versions Of Ave Maria Song Junco de la Vega Site Ignacio Villarreal Site Parroquia Natividad del Señor
Tell a Friend
Dear User, please complete the form below in order to recommend the Artdaily newsletter to someone you know.
Please complete all fields marked *.
Sending Mail
Sending Successful