Research Point 4

Claude Lorrain and JMW Turner - how these artists divide their landscapes into foreground, middleground and background.

Claude was a master of aerial perspective and was very curious about the effects of light at different times of the day - of which he made many studies. His lighting effects were soft and subtle and he had a great ability to depict vast areas of sky and great distance.

Usual characteristics of his paintings are enclosures of dark trees and/or rocks in the foreground bringing into focus brighter paler tones in the middleground, containing figures, animals and/or a building or some other structure - mostly classical looking. The sky is calm and magnificent, sometimes luminous (as in View of Tivoli at Sunset) above distant blue hills or mountains. The harmonious nature of his paintings is enhanced not only by the classical/biblical themes he employed, but also by his use of a very wide tonal range throughout. His paintings of sunrise and sunset reveal these effects very effectively. Many of his works are believed to have darkened over time, so some spatial clarity has disappeared.

The famous Claude Glass is small slightly convex mirror tinted a dark colour. It subdues and simplifies the colours in a scene, so giving them a mellow tone. They were once popular with travellers and poets.

View of Tivoli at Sunset



Ascanius Shooting the Stag of Sylvia 1682.



Joseph Mallord WilliamTurner (1775-1851)

Turner emulated Claude and other masters such as Poussin. At the time, this kind of landscape art - the Grand Style was held in high esteem. All three artists made wonderful observations of aerial perspective in their paintings.

Claude’s landscapes had a look of calmness while Turner’s were much bolder.

Unlike them, he portrayed more dramatic scenes – ships in a storm or shipwrecks and aspects of nature, such as storms and lightning, more ‘real’ scenes. A huge glowing sun was often a feature in Claude’s paintings, which Turner too used repeatedly. He was fascinated by the sea and air and the motion of the elements. Light was a major factor and it certainly seems so in two such studies – ‘Sunlight' and 'Sea: Stormy Sky'. His finished watercolours and later his oil paintings, although still full of atmosphere, are more detailed and describe a more defined foreground, middleground and background. Much of his later work was criticized as abstracts of aerial perspective causing his reputation to suffer - they were studies of the elements rather than representations of objects of nature. Interestingly, Turner’s work has enjoyed a revival in popularity in more recent times, following an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1966, coinciding with the rise of Abstract Expressionism.



Sea: Stormy Sky - watercolour



Sunlight - watercolour

    


















Norham Castle, Northumberland: Sunrise – is a painting in which the paint (oils) appears to have been applied thinly, giving a delicate appearance.  Bathed in a warm golden glow and an atmospheric haze, there is an impression of vast space and  minimal detail. In the foreground there are soft warm yet clear contrasts. The tones are warm yellows and reds and there is a grazing animal in warm red. Red and warm yellow tones and relatively distinct brushmarks bring the area forward. Moving back, the middleground contains some

 cooler blues. The horizon is very blurred and colours merge even more. Golden reflection on the water from the sun is quite noticeable and contrasts with the blue of the castle, while it is also very subtle. The background is bluer still and so indistinct as to give only a slight suggestion of distant hills, giving the illusion of great distance.

Norham Castle, Northumberland: Sunrise 1835-40, 78 x122cm, oil canvas

Landscape Drawing Research Point 1

LS Lowry b. Stretford (1887-1976)

Most of the paintings of LS Lowry – in the Salford/Manchester area, personify the northern English industrial townscape. In fact Manchester is known as "the town of tall chimneys". It certainly was in Lowry’s day anyhow!
As a rent collector in the 1920s and 30s he would travel all over the city. The subjects for his paintings were on his doorstep and that is when he started to become fascinated by the industrial scenes all around him. As these townscapes were affected later by the blitz, slum clearance and new housing they changed very noticeably during his lifetime.
As far as I can make out from reading about some of his techniques on the Lowry Gallery website, it seems that he would use sketches rather than a camera to help record the scenes. With a pencil he used smudging and erasing to work the surface of his drawings and rubbing the lines to build the atmosphere. With paper he had in his pockets he would do quick on the spot sketches. His paintings were composed in a room at his home often on a white surface using firmly drawn backgrounds and buildings. Some of these paintings were semi-imaginary.

Pendlebury 1936 -It certainly looks as though Lowry made use of smudging and erasing in this drawing, but in a very neat way.


Industrial river scene



Peel Park

Peel Park

Peel Park

Peel Park

I almost prefer these 4 spontaneous looking sketches (above) of scenes in Peel Park, Salford, to the paintings.

 

 

View from window looking towards Broughton



Dewer's Lane



Albrecht Durer (1471 – 1528) was born in Nuremberg,Germany. Aswell as being a painter, printmaker he was also a mathematician, engraver, and theorist. He was very successful in spreading his work across EuropeItalyVeniceAlps he made watercolour sketches. These are regarded as the first pure landscapes ever produced in Western Art. , on his way there, in 1494. As he traveled over the and The Netherlands and he made his first trip to through printmaking. The variety and innovative nature of his work made him a true leading light in the art world of his day. Living in Nuremburg, he was well situated to make excursions to Italy and The Netherlands and he made his first trip to Venice in 1494. As he traveled over the Alps, on his way there, he made watercolour sketches. These are regarded as the first pure landscapes ever produced in Western Art. 

In the spring of 1495 he returned to Nuremberg but continued to paint landscapes – although he is far better known for other subjects. Landscape as a category of painting, only began to emerge during the Renaissance and was usually populated by figures.



Watercolour 1494-95



Alpine landscape 1495

Below is an extract from the British Museum website and contains an interesting description of the drawing - Landscape with a Woodland Pool (below) Near Nuremberg, Germany, around 1496:

Wooded landscape with distant buildings 1640-50

On the left we see the broken trunks of pine trees rising on a grassy bank. To the right are more pine trees, their deep green tops filling the paper. In between is deep blue water which disappears into the darkening distant horizon. As the sun sets, the clouds turn a deep blue which is mirrored in the blue of the lake. Similarly, the green branches of the pine trees are balanced by the green banks around the water. Dürer's fluid brush and deep colours make it a very beautiful and harmonious depiction of restful nature.

The scene may be outside Nuremberg and was probably painted after Dürer had returned from his first visit to Italy, around 1496-97.

The drawing is unfinished at lower right where the white of the paper is clearly visible. Dürer's monogram in the upper centre was added later in another hand.

The following is a link to the website   http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/pd/a/albrecht_d%25C3%25BCrer,_landscape_wi-1.aspx

It is generally agreed that this landscape drawing is one of the most sensitive of Dürer's portrayals of nature. It is painted with a brush in water and bodycolour. Dürer was the first artist to recognize the potential of watercolour. Indeed, his work as a landscape artist in watercolour raised the status of this medium.

Claude Lorrain (1600-1682) – better known by the French province of Lorraine where he was born. Claude Gellée was his real name. He was a painter of the Baroque style and era.

So as to follow the classical order of the times and because of commercial pressures, he included figures and gave narrative (usually mythological), as landscape in its own right was not considered important around this time. He was more interested in uninhabited natural scenes, as his many drawings and sketchbooks show. Much of his popularity was also based on his use of subtle gradations of tones. Many artists used a 

Claude glass to view scenes. This was meant to help them produce works of art similar to Claude’s.

John Constable – a Romantic artist held Claude’s landscapes in high regard and  described Claude as "the most perfect landscape painter the world ever saw". He declared that in Claude’s landscape "all is lovely – all amiable – all is amenity and repose; the calm sunshine of the heart".

Claude glass



Wooded landscape with distant buildings 1640-50



View of the campagna

Landscape with latium with farm labourers - pen, brown indian ink wash and black chalk (1660-63)



Study of oak tree c.1638 black chalk, pen &ink; brown ink with gray-brown wash on white paper