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Making Nature MASTERS OF EUROPEAN LANDSCAPE ART
Making NatureMasters of european Landscape art
teachers’ notes
This education resource has been prepared by Education Services to support the Making Nature: Masters of European Landscape Art exhibition. It is intended as a reference tool to assist teachers in generating ideas and classroom activities for use before, during, and following a visit to the exhibition.
The resource can be adapted for different contexts and year levels. It has been designed to integrate with the South Australian Curriculum, Standards and Accountability Framework, with particular focus on Learning areas. It links most directly to:
• Arts – Visual Arts: ‘Arts in contexts’
• Society and Environment: ‘Societies and cultures’ and ‘Time, continuity and change’.
Learning tasks are intended to be open-ended, encouraging students to construct their own meanings, explore their own feelings, and make clear their own ideas in relation to the works of art viewed.
Pre-visit learning:
Suggestions below are intended to focus students and prepare them with some background information prior to their visit.
• Download the education resource and view this prior to visiting. http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/education/
• Ask questions: What do students already know? What do I want students to find out?
• Introduce students to the tradition of European landscape painting.
• Introduce details about some of the ‘masters’ of European landscape painting: Claude Lorrain, Constable, Turner, etc.
• Discuss the influence of the European tradition on Australian landscape art.
• Introduce students to the following art terms: reality, en plein air, vanishing point, focal point, ‘idyllic’ / ‘ideal’ landscape, narrative, tale / legend, foreground,
middleground and background, tonal, atmospheric, asymmetrical, lithograph, fresco, mural, tapestry, etching, installation, style, classical, arcadian, geometric, Abstraction, Expressionism, Impressionism, Cubism, and Photo-realism.
Making NatureMasters of european Landscape art
the works of art selected for this education resource represent artistic endeavour in a range of locations and periods – from ancient Pompeii to 21st century Australia – and a diversity of styles and media.
The European landscape tradition is represented in the collection of the Art Gallery of South Australia by acknowledged masters such as Rembrandt, Pissarro, Cézanne, Constable and J.M.W. Turner, through to contemporary artists such as Richard Long and Andy Goldsworthy. The works of a number of these artists are included in this resource.
The three themes of the exhibition: Present Realities, Arcadian Visions, and Theatre of the Soul, explore the different ways in which artists represent nature, sometimes according to different ideologies – the ideal, the romantic and the realistic – and sometimes according to personal or social / political interests.
Acknowledgement for material presented in this education resource is made to the exhibition catalogue – Making Nature: Masters of European Landscape Art by Jane Messenger (Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, 2009). The exhibition provides, as Jane Messenger has written ‘a journey through time, place, memory and imagination to discover the magnificence of nature.’ (Making Nature, p. 11) The diversity of landscape images highlights that there is no one way of ‘seeing’ or recording nature.
Each work of art introduced here is followed by questions and suggested activities for students. Extension questions listed in these introductory notes can be used as the basis for discussion or further research / activity, or adapted for more specific group or individual tasks.
At the exhibition:
• Ask students to consider: (1) the shared themes of the artists in the exhibition: (2) techniques and styles in common.
• What evidence do students see of the individual styles and techniques of artists?
• How have representations of nature and the environment changed over the centuries?
Post-visit learning:
EXTENSION QUESTIONS
ALL LEVELS:
The title of this exhibition is Making Nature: Masters of European Landscape Art. What, in your view, makes a masterpiece?
Select your favourite work of art and discuss how it fits with the exhibition theme (Present Realities; Theatre of the Soul; Arcadian Visions) with which it is connected.
Which artists / works of art in the exhibition are familiar to you? What do you already know about these artists / works of art – and how?
PRIMARY
• Discuss how the artists represented in this exhibition have perceived nature differently.
• Which of these landscapes inspires you to look at / think about nature more closely?
• What is your favourite kind of landscape – mountains, the bush, the outback, the sea?
• Describe the special features of your landscape.
• Should landscape art include figures? Explain your answer.
SECONDARY
• What is the value of an exhibition such as Making Nature: Masters of European Landscape Art?
• How are Renaissance landscapes different to landscapes done in Impressionist, Expressionist, or Cubist style?
• ‘Beauty lies in the eye of the beholder.’ What do you think of this statement? Is evaluating / assigning merit to a work of art a purely subjective activity?
• Discuss the words which John Glover wrote on the reverse of his painting A view of the artist’s house and garden, in Mills Plains, Van Diemen’s Land: ‘There is a trilling and graceful play in the landscape of this country which is more difficult to do justice to than the landscapes of England.’
• J.M.W. Turner has been described as ‘an artist at one with nature’. Consider a range of works by Turner, and discuss this viewpoint.
• ‘Each age has its landscape, its atmosphere, its cities, its people . . .’ (British artist, Charles Ginner). Relate these words to works from different periods represented in the exhibition.
• Look at the accompanying wall labels in the exhibition. Some of these artists were / are contemporaries. Which? What, if anything, do their works have in common? Do these common features suggest that they were following particular movements, styles or ‘theories’ of art?
• Using notes taken during your visit to the exhibition, write a short essay (300 words) about the similarities and differences between the works of two key artists in the exhibition.
An Invitation
Students are invited, via teachers, to submit the results of their research and / or practical activities in response to an exhibition visit.
Images of works of art created may be selected for reproduction in the Education Services Newsletter.
Contact: Mark FischerEducation OfficerArt Gallery of South AustraliaT +61 8 8207 7036 F +61 8 8207 7070E [email protected]
Scheduled guided sessions
Guided sessions may be available provided by the Education Officer and /or volunteer Education Guides.
These introductory sessions are around 30–45 minutes duration. Guided session students will be taken through a ‘learning to look’ process using selected works from the education resource. Reference will be made to aspects of technical production of a variety of media, and to themes, styles and periods. Historical details or stories relating to particular works of art will also be introduced.
Where a guided session is not possible or not required, sections of this resource can be adapted to support a self-guided session. When making a booking please advise whether you require guided support for your visit.
Visiting the Gallery
• As storage space is limited it is advisable for students, if possible, to leave bags and personal items at school, or on the bus.
• Any items brought into the Gallery can be left in a small storage room. Access via the Information Desk.
• Food and drink cannot be consumed in the Gallery.
• Photography is not permitted in the Gallery.
Recommendations
Prior to the Gallery visit teachers/carers should brief students about:
• appropriate behaviour (e.g. walk carefully within the exhibition space and enjoy looking at works of art without touching)
• listening carefully to instructions and information presented
• remaining with their group, unless given instruction to move away for a specific activity
• talking is an important part of learning, but students should remember to use quiet voices in the exhibition space.
Accessibility
Wheelchairs are available from the Cloaking Desk in the Atrium.
Access to the Gallery’s main entrance is via ramps. People using wheelchairs can navigate the Gallery via lifts and ramps. If you seek further clarification about these procedures please phone Security on 8207 7023.
If special assistance is required during a visit, please ask the nearest Security Officer. There is a toilet for visitors with special needs next to the Cloaking Desk.
Bookings and exhibition information
• An entry fee (schools concession) applies to this exhibition: $20 per class size group. Supervising teachers/adults free admission.
• DECS Classified 1–4, AISS listed disadvantaged schools and all country schools free admission.
• All group bookings:
Online: http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/education/
tel: 8207 7033, fax 8207 7070
Email: [email protected]
This education resource has been made possible through the partnership between the Art Gallery of South Australia (Arts SA) and Outreach Education (Department of Education and Children’s Services). Outreach Education is a team of DECS educators seconded to public organisations.
In European countries in the 17th and 18th centuries, castles, and the homes of wealthy and important families, were often
decorated with large wall tapestries. These had a dual function: to delight the eye – but also to keep out the wind and cover the cold stone walls!
Tapestry workshops evolved during these centuries to supply a growing merchant and professional class who wanted to decorate their homes in style. The scenes of many of these tapestries were from classical history (the histories of Greece and Rome) and from biblical stories. A particular style of tapestry known as ‘Brussels Classicism’ developed, depicting stories from Metamorphoses by the Roman poet, Ovid. This tapestry tells one of those stories, and shows the dramatic moment in which three sisters open (although they have been warned not to) a chest given to them by the goddess Athena. In the chest they find the child Erichthonius. Needless to say, there are consequences of the sisters’ actions.
The young sisters are shown in elegant, classically-inspired gowns: one in a rich, dark, earthy red; another in deep blue, much like the shadows and leaves in some sections of the tapestry; the third in a pale golden shade, suggesting sunlight. They are placed in the centre of the tapestry, surrounded by lush woodlands. There is a stream to one side. The bridge and structure in the background (fountain and pavillion) suggest the spacious grounds of a palace. Everything hints at ‘richness’. The landscape is idyllic – but with the opening of the chest there is the suggestion of something unexpected, or of a likely problem spoiling the tranquility.
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Notice the elaborate border. What do you think its purpose is?
• Investigate the history of tapestries. Do you think this tapestry would have been made on a hand loom, or on a mechanical loom?
• Look closely at the three young women. What do their facial expressions, and their gestures, suggest?
• Draw a landscape with a ‘story’ element.
Secondary• Do you think that the ‘action’ is more important than the
landscape here – or do they complement each other? Discuss.
• Research the story from Ovid depicted here. What happens next?
• List the elements that make this landscape ‘idyllic’.
The Finding of Erichthonius by the Daughters of Cecrops
Flanders, ?Brussels, The finding of Erichthonius by the Daughters of Cecrops, c.1690–1710, ?Brusselswool, silk, 367.0 x 515.0 cm; South Australian Government Grant 1962
Two pictorial panels with fragment of border decoration
the artist of these frescoes is unknown, but is referred to as the Bowmore painter, in recognition of William Bowmore,
who donated these panels to the Gallery.
The frescoes, also known as mural paintings, are amongst the earliest ‘landscapes’, and were found in excavated houses in Pompeii, Italy. The rooms of these houses were small, and undoubtedly dark, and wall decorations such as these would have given the illusion of light and space. The intended impression would be of looking through a window to a view outside.
These scenes may be a combination of reality, and the artist’s imagination. The images are lightly and delicately sketched. The first panel shows a group of farm buildings, with a hill in the background. There are a few figures visible. The second panel shows a coastal scene, with a small boat in the foreground, and what may be a temple in the background.
As you go through the exhibition, notice and think about how
artists have repeated similar scenes throughout the centuries.
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Explain what a fresco is. What, in our time, has replaced frescoes?
• Research contemporary frescoes. How do they differ from these wall panels?
• What impression do you get from these frescoes about the way towns / communities were organised at this time?
• Research the life and times of the inhabitants of Pompeii. What happened to Pompeii?
Secondary
• Describe the techniques of fresco painting.
• How is ‘nature’ shown in these panels?
The Bowmore Painter, Roman Period (Pompeii)Pictorial panel with fragment of border decoration – hill landscapeAD 62–69, Pompeiiwall fresco (pigment, plaster), 43.5 x 52.0 cm (irreg.)Gift of William Bowmore AO OBE through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2007
The Bowmore Painter, Roman Period (Pompeii)Pictorial panel with fragment of border decoration – coastal landscapeAD 62–69, Pompeiiwall fresco (pigment, plaster), 43.0 x 51.5 cm (irreg.)Gift of William Bowmore AO OBE through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 2007
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Experiment with a variety of lead pencils (HB, 2B, 4B) to see which is best for ‘reproducing’ Rembrandt’s fine lines.
• Why are there so many windmills in Holland? Why are they so different to Australian windmills in terms of size, shape and use?
Secondary
• Compare The windmill with another work in the exhibition A windmill on a river bank by Jan van Goyen.
• Describe the technique of etching.
• Locate and compare other works in the exhibition which feature Dutch ‘rustic’ / realistic themes.
Rembrandt, The Netherlands, 1606–1669, The windmill, 1641, Amsterdam, The Netherlandsetching on paper, 14.6 x 20.9 cm (plate); South Australian Government Grant 1967
The windmill
In 17th century Holland (The Netherlands) artists were expected to represent only what was actually visible, striving
for truth and realism in their representations of nature. The windmill belongs to the Dutch rustic tradition in which artists focused on common rural scenes: farmhouses, animals grazing, and of course windmills! Rembrandt often ‘humanised’ his landscapes by including figures at different points – sometimes rural workers, or hunters. Can you see any figures here?
This etching may have been part of an earlier version of a section of the panorama View of Amsterdam, also in the exhibition, but in The windmill the structure now dominates the foreground. The short and lively lines, the fine detail in the etching, and the accurate depiction of the complex structure, suggest that Rembrandt probably did much of the drawing on site, sitting on the ground, looking up toward the windmill. The particular windmill Rembrandt has drawn was called the Klein Stinkmolen (the Little Stink Mill) because of the smell from the oil used by leather tanners working nearby.
The background is virtually blank. Rembrandt’s inclusion of large areas of blank sky in many of his landscapes was his way of suggesting light and space in the composition. The tonal atmospheric effect has been achieved by brushing sulphur paste directly onto the etching plate over the area around and above the windmill.
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• What do you notice about the plants in the foreground compared to those in the background?
Why do you think Glover planted these types of flowers / bushes? What is the artist saying about his new environment?
• Sit outside and draw a scene you know well. What details is it important for you to show?
Secondary
• What other artists represented in the exhibition came to Australia from other countries?
• What is meant by the idea that this landscape is a bit too ideal or perfect? Do you think the painting is ‘too finished’?
• How does this painting of an Australian scene fit with the European landscape tradition, and with the themes of the exhibition?
• Compare another of Glover’s paintings in the exhibition, Composition, Italy (Hobart, 1831), with Claude Lorrain’s Capriccio and the ruins of the Roman Forum (Rome, 1634).
• After viewing the exhibition, think about whether you prefer realistic or imaginative landscapes, and discuss your reasons.
A view of the artist’s house and garden, in Mills Plains, Van Diemen’s Land
John Glover was born in England, but moved to Tasmania with his family when he was already in his sixties, and an
established landscape artist in London. His style was similar to that of Claude Lorrain (look for Capriccio with ruins of the Roman Forum, 1634) whom he often imitated.
This is a view of Glover’s stone farmhouse in the north of Tasmania, and the garden he planted around it. It is one of a series of pastoral paintings of the property which was run by Glover’s sons. It has often been described by art critics as a man-made Eden (Ron Radford: Arcadia in the Antipodes). Some of Glover’s paintings have been described by critics as ordered, artificial, and ‘too finished’.
This is another ‘arcadian’ painting, suggesting the ideal English pastoral world, and the retreat from city life. Glover seems to be hinting at the creation of an ‘ideal’ garden in an Australian landscape.
Notice the contrast in the painting, between the beautiful, colourful, ordered garden in the foreground, and the natural green and brown native plants and trees surrounding it, and on Sugar Loaf Hill in the background. Nature here is abundant; the sky is sunny, blue, with occasional drifting white clouds, but the more realistic and natural landscape is pushed to the edge, to the background, as if unwanted.
John Glover, Britain/Australia, 1767–1849, A view of the artist’s house and garden, in Mills Plains, Van Diemen’s Land, 1835, Deddington, Tasmaniaoil on canvas, 76.4 x 114.4 cm; Morgan Thomas Bequest Fund 1951
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Look carefully and list the colours you can see in the stone.
• Where do you see circles in nature?
• Collect natural objects such as leaves, rocks, twigs and branches and make a circular sculpture in the classroom.
Secondary
• Compare and contrast Stone circle with the works of Andy Goldsworthy, Nikolaus Lang or Martin Boyle which are also in the exhibition. Which work of art do you prefer? Explain why.
• Long has said that a circle is a simple open shape that is practical and easy to make. A circle is beautiful, powerful, but also neutral and abstract. Discuss this idea.
richard Long is a contemporary British artist who works solely with natural materials in the landscape. He has
often been described as a conceptual artist. Many of his works are concerned with time, movement, and the environment. His work is often the result of walks he has taken in remote parts of the world. He then produces circle and line sculptures in the actual landscape. Stone circle is typical of Long’s indoor gallery work. His sculpture is not an illusion of nature – the art itself is nature.
Long selected these 134 slate stones from a quarry in Cornwall. They are arranged in a 510 cm diameter circle. The stones vary in size, shape and colour, but no single stone is given importance over another.
Apart from choosing the slate, Long has no further involvement with the re-configuration of the sculpture within a gallery space. He specifies no placement or order of the stones within the circle. He deliberately removes the creative hand of the artist so that his voice and identity are not imposed upon the work. The work of art exists only when the stones are arranged into a unified whole within a gallery setting, and when they are considered by the viewer.
The stones continue to exist in real time and place, and the circle is not intended to refer to anything other than itself. By altering the natural context of the stones, Long invites the viewer to consider how nature is constantly changing. The sculpture explores the beauty and fragility of nature. The durability of the rock strata from which the stones have been taken can be contrasted with the ease with which the stones are moved from place to place.
Long encourages viewers to think about their relationship with the natural environment, as landscape artists have been doing for centuries.
Stone circle
Richard Long, Britain, 1945, Stone circle, 1979, Cornwall, 134 stones of Cornish slateSouth Australian Government Grant 1979 © Richard Long
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Imagine walking along the path in the painting. Describe the landscape around you.
• Using coloured pencils make a detailed drawing of a group of plants, trees or shrubs in your local environment.
Secondary
• Research Photo-realism. How is Spencer’s style in Garden view, Cookham Dean, similar to the style of Photo-realism?
• Using fine brushes, paint a realistic picture of a garden. Pay close attention to shape, form and colour.
Garden view, Cookham Dean
stanley Spencer was one of Britain’s most unusual and individual modern painters. He spent most of his life in the
Thames-side village of Cookham in Berkshire, a place he referred to as a village in heaven, and earthly paradise.
Much of Spencer’s work centres on religion, and on scenes from the Bible. These scenes were set not in the Holy Land, but in an idealised Cookham with villagers representing biblical characters. Spencer saw his religious paintings as his main contribution to art, but because of financial pressure in the 1930s he became reliant on the sale of still-life and landscape paintings. During his lifetime these were in great demand, but Spencer claimed to receive no joy in painting them: ‘I do my landscapes with a great deal of application and care, but they are dead, dead’. Spencer wrote that in all his landscapes he had ‘more or less only been a camera’, consumed by the detail of nature but unable to express the meaning he discovered within it.
His landscapes were characterised by careful attention to detail and a naturalistic palette. Each plant and species in Garden view, Cookham Dean has been painstakingly observed. His paintings are often suggestive of a photograph.
The garden is viewed from an elevated position and executed with fine sable brushes and thin dilutions of oil paint. The composition is broken by the low hedge and the background hills.
Stanley Spencer, Britain, 1891–1959, Garden view, Cookham Dean, 1938, Cookham, Berkshire, oil on canvas, 91.0 x 60.0 cm; Morgan Thomas Bequest Fund 1939 © Stanley Spencer licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2009
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• What is your eye most drawn to in this painting (a focal point)?
• What words would you use to describe the light in this painting?
• Imagine you are a traveller in this landscape, and describe the natural elements you see.
• Using a thick brush, and wide, sweeping strokes, create your own ‘rocky’ landscape.
Secondary
• Other paintings in the exhibition are by English artists (John Glover, Vanessa Bell for example) who painted the landscape of a foreign country. Describe any similarities you see in the works.
• Describe how Bomberg’s painting combines realist and expressionist techniques.
• What do you think this painting suggests about the artist’s feelings in relation to the landscape?
• Working en plein air create your own expressionist-style painting.
Evening, Jucar Valley, Cuenca, Spain
david Bomberg favoured painting his landscapes en plein air (outdoors). This allowed him to give attention
to, and to accurately record, the particular light and conditions existing at the time of painting. He was most comfortable using an expressionist technique. He became known for the emotional energy and passion which he imparted to his work.
Because the countryside of England failed to inspire him, Bomberg looked abroad for subjects for his paintings. He visited Spain in 1929 and again in 1934–35. These trips dramatically changed his approach to landscape painting: in particular, his brush strokes became more forceful and expressive. In Spain he noticed particularly the drama and contrast evident in the landscape.
The surface of this painting displays the fluid texture of the artist’s sweeping strokes, suggesting an emotional energy as the vision / observation is painted onto the canvas. Bomberg’s landscape here is shown as dramatic and spectacular, with its deep ravines and rocky escarpments, and the village clinging to the edge of a ridge in the distance. Notice how the central line draws the viewer into the landscape, back to the vanishing point. A particular feature in the painting is the way the artist has captured the sky as light fades at the end of the day.
David Bomberg, Britain, 1890–1957, Evening, Jucar Valley, Cuenca, Spain, 1934, Cuenca, Spainoil on canvas, 51.9 x 67.0 cm; South Australian Government Grant 1965 © David Bomberg Estate
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Look closely to see what each of the main figures is doing. Can you identify Croesus? How?
• Describe the ‘mood’ of the painting. How has the artist created this mood? Look closely at the colours the artist has used, and at the gestures and attitudes of the figures. Find out more about the element of colour at http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/learning/unpackingagsa/
• Are you interested in old tales, or legends? Paint a favourite tale.
Secondary
• Would you label this a landscape or a figure painting? Why?
• Look at both of Rosa’s Scenes from Greek history. Which do you prefer? Explain why.
• Why would the stories painted here have been of interest to the artist – and to his viewers?
Scene from Greek history: The deaf-mute son of King Croesus prevents the Persians from killing his father
salvatore Rosa specialised in paintings of battle scenes, and in allegorical paintings. His works tended to be on a
large scale. His landscapes were often full of soldiers, battles, bandits . . . and sometimes figures from the tales of the nobility, from biblical stories, and from the underworld, featuring satyrs and nymphs. He was interested in prophecies, and the works of ancient philosophers. In this work Rosa has integrated the genres of narrative, history, and landscape painting.
The subject of this painting – and of its companion Thales causing the river to flow on both sides of the Lydian army – depicts a scene in the life of King Croesus of Lydia (western Turkey). The story is from Herodotus: Croesus is about to be killed by the invading Persians when his deaf-mute son speaks for the first time to save his father’s life.
The landscape of the painting is remote, wild, rugged, threatening; the sky, with its rolling clouds and streaks of light, is brooding, explosive; dark rocks overhang the drama in the foreground. The gestures and attitudes of the figures are dramatic, theatrical. There is extraordinary energy suggested. Twisted tree roots and branches give the impression of clinging precariously to the overhanging cliff. The artist directs us to the figures set against this mass of darkness with his use of primary colours – the reds and blues of the tunics and cloaks, and the luminous silver / white of armour and helmets and weapons.
Salvator Rosa, Italy, 1615–1673, Scene from Greek history: The deaf-mute son of King Croesus prevents the Persians from killing his father, c.1663–64, Rome, oil on canvas, 73.5 x 97.0 cm; Gift of the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 1989
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Discuss how a watercolour landscape looks different to a landscape done in oil paint.
• Using watercolour, create an ‘atmosphere’ painting of a contemporary beach scene.
Secondary
• Discuss Turner’s use of colour in this painting. Compare this work particularly with Vernet’s use of colour in The four times of day.
• Look for another watercolour in the exhibition and compare it with Turner’s style. Which do you prefer? Why?
Scarborough town and castle: morning: boys catching crabs
J.M.W. Turner is perhaps Britain’s greatest landscape painter. He was known particularly for the paintings in which he
documented the changing nature of the country (and countryside) during the Industrial Revolution, and for his special and dramatic way of capturing light. Turner’s energy and inspiration – and his extensive travelling around the country – resulted in the creation of hundreds of oil paintings and thousands of watercolours. He was a great follower of Claude Lorrain, and was also inspired by Gaspard Dughet, whose works are also in the exhibition.
This is a scene of the seaside at Scarborough, Yorkshire. Turner suggests a nature which is abundant and providing: boys gather, dig, and fish with hoop-shaped crab nets; old fishermen cast out their lines. But far from the ‘ideal’ landscapes of the Arcadian painters, Turner depicts reality and the world of work: notice the women to the left of the painting draping their washing over the rocks, and the large boat to the right being unloaded.
A unique atmosphere is created with diversely coloured bands of beach and sky; a diffused golden light seems to rise from the sand, and from the rocks. The landscape is full of detail: the shapes of ripples and waves; patterns in the sand; the caps and bags of the fishermen; the bathing machine in the centre of the painting.
In the soft light of morning, Scarborough emerges from the mist. The ruins of the medieval castle feature in the background. Though in this painting Turner depicts beauty in an ordinary environment, with a focus on everyday activity in a peaceful, ordered world, he was also famous for painting nature, and the sea in particular, in all its turmoil and violence.
J.M.W. Turner, Britain, 1775–1851, Scarborough town and castle: morning: boys catching crabs, c.1810, London watercolour on paper, 68.5 x 101.5 cm (sheet); Gift from the collection of the late Mrs S.M. Crabtree by her children Rosalind, Robert, Richard and John assisted by the Roy and Marjory Edwards Bequest Fund and the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation to commemorate the Gallery’s 125th anniversary 2006
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Select your favourite painting from the series by Vernet. What did you notice first when you looked at this landscape?
• Pair up with a classmate and give your partner a weather report about your favourite scene. How might the weather affect the day’s activities?
• Which figure would you like to be? Write a short story as your favourite figure in the painting, commenting on the activity you are engaged in.
Secondary
• Discuss with a classmate the different affects of light and the specific weather conditions in each of the paintings in The four times of day.
• Back at school, write a brief description of each work, focusing on the different moods created by the artist.
The four times of day: Morning, Midday, Evening, Night
claude Joseph Vernet selected various weather conditions and times of day to explore the moods of nature. The
experience of viewing Vernet’s The four times of day: Morning, Midday, Evening and Night is exciting. As viewers, we react to the different images of nature’s forces, and to the beautiful rendering of each image on silvered copper.
In his passion for landscape painting, Vernet was influenced by the seventeenth-century masters, Claude Lorrain and Salvator Rosa, and by his own contemporaries. Vernet incorporated these influences into his own distinct style, which was later widely imitated by other artists.
In The four times of day various figures bring to life environments at a particular time of day and in specific weather conditions. In Morning the tranquil water, the cool yellow light of the rising sun, the co-existence of the rustic mill and the classical church, and the labour of the fishermen, come together to establish a scene of tranquility.
In contrast, fear and apprehension are suggested in Midday. The water is a torrent; the sky is a menacing mass of purple-grey clouds and sleeting rain; the trees are blown fiercely by winds; and the struggling family in the foreground are buffeted by the elements.
In Evening the ruined Temple of the Sibyl is shown perched on the edge of a cliff beside a waterfall. Below, classically posed and draped women bathe in shallow waters. The artist suggests a classical paradise, where the landscape is warmed by the golden glow of the setting sun.
Claude-Joseph Vernet, France, 1714–1789, The four times of day: Morning, Midday, Evening, Night, 1757, Parisoil on silvered copper, 29.5 x 43.5 cm; Gift of James Fairfax AO through the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation 1998
However, an eerie darkness is suggested in Night, with the fleeting moonlight piercing the clouds and glistening on the water’s surface, and on the lighthouse and fortress.
Though the figures in the painting continue their activities – cooking, fishing, loading / unloading a boat – the darkness and stillness may hide a threat.
Monte Oliveto
Vanessa Bell was part the ‘Bloomsbury Set’ – a group of influential artists and writers which included Duncan Grant,
Roger Fry, and Bell’s sister Virginia Woolf. With members of her family and various friends, Bell spent a number of summers in Italy. This beautiful view of a road through a village near the Tuscan hill-town of San Gimignano is the result of one of her visits.
The artist views the landscape from a slightly elevated position. Tall cypress trees form a boundary for the curving road – and for the view. Bell uses a reduced geometry in the painting, and there is a clear sense of form. The dominant lines here are vertical, but are relieved by the gentle curve of the road, and the well. The dominant green of the trees is repeated in the strong vertical lines of the fence on the right, and the trees behind it. Paler green olive trees catch the eye on the left of the painting. The figures in the foreground are almost, in their browns and greens, part of the landscape, merging with their surroundings. In this unity the peace and stillness, and the harmony to be found in nature, are suggested.
Bell uses a limited colour palette. Notice how colour is repeated in the painting: the ‘stone’ colour of the well wall is the same as the colour of the cypress trunks, and of the long scarf worn by the figure in the foreground.
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• What mood do you think the artist was in when she painted Monte Oliveto? Explain your answer with reference to the painting.
• Compare the trees in Bell’s painting with the cypress trees in Cyprus Trees at Villa d’Este by Charles Eastlake. What differences do you notice between the styles of these paintings?
Secondary
• Notice how detail has been eliminated (no branches, leaves etc). The arrangement is formal, and ‘clean’. Which elements suggest Bell’s interest in geometric abstraction? Identify other landscapes in the exhibition which use this style.
• Look for the work by Duncan Grant in the exhibition. Are there similarities in style or technique to this painting of Bell’s?
Vanessa Bell, Britain, 1879–1961, Monte Oliveto, 1912, Monte Oliveto, near San Gimignano, Italy, oil on cardboard, 48.5 x 36.2 cm; South Australian Government Grant 1963 © Estate of Vanessa Bell, courtesy Henrietta Garnett
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• What shapes can you see in this painting? Notice how these shapes are often repeated. What objects do these shapes become?
• Make a list of the warm colours in this painting. List the cool colours.
• Check the elements of shape, colour and form in
‘Unpacking Agsa’ http://www.artgallery.sa.gov.au/learning/unpackingagsa/
Secondary
• Research the golden mean, and explain how it has been used in Lhote’s painting.
• Find out more about the style of Cubism and paint a local landscape in the Cubist style.
• Compare and contrast Lhote’s painting with the paintings of his students, Grace Crowley and Dorrit Black, which are hanging nearby.
Church at Normandy (Église de Normandie)
andré Lhote was a French painter, sculptor, teacher and writer on art. He was interested in mathematics and the use
of the golden mean (section d’or) which he used this to construct his compositions.
Lhote has painted a landscape composed of many different views. The landscape is broken up, analysed and re-assembled in an abstract form, the image becoming increasingly fragmented and distorted. The landscape is not represented as a single viewpoint but as a composite of multiple viewpoints.
In 1922 Lhote established the Académie André Lhote, and his theory of art, based on a personal understanding of Cubism and appreciation of Cezanne’s work, inspired the Australian modernist painters Grace Crowley, Anne Dangar, and Dorrit Black, who studied at the Academie in the late 1920s.
Lhote used the underlying geometric structure of the landscape as a means to depict the poetic and soulful expression of nature. Blocks of colour represent the trees and buildings. Short, parallel hatched strokes of paint are applied to the canvas to ease, disguise, and soften the edge between solid and void. Lhote has used simplicity of form, angularity, and abstraction in his work.
André Lhote, France, 1885–1962, Church at Normandy (Église de Normandie), 1911, Paris, oil on canvas, 38.0 x 44.0 cm; Gift of the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation assisted by Frank and Mary Choate 2008 © André Lhote licensed by VISCOPY, Australia, 2009
following the example of French artist Claude Monet, Charles Conder began making visits to Normandy, France,
from 1891. Here Conder discovered a landscape that interested him, as had the Yarra Valley, outside Melbourne, several years earlier. He used the beauty of the countryside to suggest a sense of poetry in his en plein-air paintings, seeking an aesthetic response to the landscape rather than ‘truth to nature’. Seeing Monet’s Haystacks exhibition in February 1891 made a dramatic impression on Conder, and transformed the way he looked at the landscape.
Under Monet’s influence, Conder developed a heightened palette and loose, spontaneous brushwork of contrasting colours. He also used colour to define form and light, rather than tone, as in Hayfield, France, where the transition out of full shadow into full sun is represented by starkly contrasting blues with greens. Conder saw the landscape as a lyrical song of colour, rhythm and pattern, and constructed Hayfield, France accordingly.
Conder uses fresh, pastel colours to create the hazy glow of the late morning during spring in Normandy. The asymmetrical cropping and foreground position of the tree branches reflect the influence of Japanese prints as Conder would have understood them through the works of James McNeill Whistler, whom he admired greatly, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, with whom he was closely associated during the early 1890s.
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Imagine you could step into the painting. Describe what you see, feel and hear.
• Research other works of art created by Conder. How is Hayfield, France typical of the artist’s preferred style?
Secondary
• Why work en plein air? When did painting en plein air become popular for artists in Australia? Who were its most famous supporters?
• Paint your own en plein-air landscape in an Impressionist style.
Hayfield, France
Charles Conder, Australia/Britain, 1868–1909, Hayfield, France, 1894, Franceoil on canvas, 60.3 x 73.5 cm; M.J.M. Carter AO Collection
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Why is a work so full of people in a landscape exhibition?
• What sort of weather, or season, do the soft, merging colours of The Bathers suggest?
• Sketch a landscape familiar to you, and place some people in it in the style of Cézanne.
Secondary
• Think about Cézanne’s use of colour in this lithograph. Which colours stand out? Which recede?
• Identify another work of art in the exhibition in which the ‘geometric’ arrangement of figures or landscape features is important.
• Look at other ‘figures in landscape’ works in the exhibition, for example Salvator Rosa’s Scenes from Greek history, and the Brussels tapestry. Consider the use of figures as a predominant feature or theme in landscape art.
• Research Impressionism. Can you imagine The Bathers as an Impressionist work? What would be different?
the French artist Paul Cézanne was for a time influenced by, and associated with, the Impressionists, but as his
career progressed he came to reject the ‘momentary’ interests of Impressionism, and moved toward a more detailed style as practised by the Old Masters.
The arrangement of figures in this landscape, The Bathers, highlights this, with its carefully calculated, rather than random or spontaneous style.
While the figures of the bathers may seem to dominate this work of art, Cézanne’s interest in the geometry underlying nature, as well as in the human figure, is a feature. Look at the shapes in the landscape, and the way the figures are positioned, hinting at the basic principles of Cubism.
This lithograph was first printed in black ink, and then Cézanne coloured one impression with watercolour. Though he patiently studied nature, and painted and drew tirelessly in the countryside, Cézanne admitted that there were limitations to capturing the richness of colour or forms evident in nature.
The bathers (large plate)
Paul Cézanne, France, 1839–1906, The bathers (large plate), 1896–08 printed by Auguste Clot, published by Ambroise Vollard, Paris, colour lithograph on paper, 40.5 x 51.0 cm (image); V.B.F. Young Bequest Fund 1983
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• Look carefully of the composition of this painting, particularly at the way it is clearly ‘divided’ into foreground, middleground and background. Describe the features of each ‘section’.
• Describe the colours the artist has used to depict nature.
• Look at the two figures here. The shepherdess is gesturing toward the reclining shepherd. Do you think they are having a conversation? What might it be about?
Secondary
• Compare Arcadian landscape with Claude Lorrain’s Capriccio with ruins of the Roman Forum, particularly focusing on the atmospheric quality in each painting.
• What do you think about artists who imitate other artists? Research appropriation in art.
the style used by Gaspard Dughet in his idyllic landscapes in the 1650s was much imitated by later Flemish, Italian and
British artists working in Rome. It is assumed that this painting is by one of those artists. The figures in the painting also resemble those of another artist, the French painter Claude Lorrain.
Arcadian art described an ideal and idealised world, an eternal paradise encompassing perfect beauty and peace. It often had its basis in the literature of earlier Greek and Roman and Renaissance poets. The usual features associated with Arcadian literature and art are all here: animals grazing in an abundant landscape; a perfect season; water flowing; shepherds / shepherdesses depicted in classical garments; classical architecture – though often in ruins.
Arcadian artists ‘repeated’ scenes from Arcadian poetry, creating landscapes which provided the viewer with an escape from reality, depicting the way the world ought to be. The scenes they created were remote from everyday life, scenes in which there was perfect union and harmony between man and nature. In Arcadian art the abundant landscape was not merely a backdrop but an integral part of the meaning of the painting. Notice how we look with the reclining shepherd through the idyllic landscape toward the city.
Arcadian landscape
follower of Gaspard Dughet, Italy/France, 1615–1675, Arcadian landscape, late 17th to 18th century, Romeoil on canvas, 43.2 x 64.8 cm; Gift of Hew O’Halloran Giles in memory of his parents Thomas and Jean O’Halloran Giles 1961
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• What was the Colosseum used for?
• The artist has included figures engaged in daily life. What are their activities?
• What time of day is it? How can you tell?
Secondary
• Make a quick sketch of the composition. Notice how the top of the columns lines up with the right hand edge of the Colosseum to make a diagonal which leads the eye into the distance. What else is helping to frame the view?
• Describe the colour of the light in the painting and consider how it influences the atmosphere of the painting.
Capriccio with ruins of the Roman Forum
the French landscape painter Claude Lorrain spent much of his working life in Rome, sketching and painting the old
areas of Rome and the countryside of the Roman Campagna, an area filled with classical ruins. His vision of nature dominated the way the landscape was represented during the mid 18th to mid 19th centuries. His sketches and surviving drawings from the period show that he made detailed studies from life, but the landscape paintings are imaginative constructions, suggesting the way the world ought to be: unspoilt, an ideal place, and the perfect environment to enlighten the viewer and inspire a better life.
Claude Lorrain’s brilliance lay in his ability to paint nature under different conditions of light. He was able to represent light with atmospheric accuracy according to its effects on the colours and shadows of the landscape at certain times and in certain weather conditions. He constructed complex compositions using subtle colours and tones to create heroic narratives.
Capriccio with ruins of the Roman Forum depicts peaceful, everyday life in seventeenth-century Rome. The painting suggests the ruins of a great civilisation, and hints at nostalgia for the past. The view is a ‘capriccio’, or fanciful invention. The painting is not intended to be topographically accurate. At the left of the painting is the Palatine Hill; in the left middle ground are the three remaining columns of the Temple of Castor and Pollux and beside it, a fountain. On the right is another ruined temple surrounded
Claude Lorrain, France/Italy, 1604/05–1682, Capriccio with ruins of the Roman Forum, c.1634, Romeoil on canvas, 79.7 x 118.8 cm; Gift of the Art Gallery of South Australia Foundation assisted by the State Bank of South Australia on the occasion of the 150th Anniversary of South Australia 1985
by fallen masonry. There is a stream that winds its way across the middle ground to the fountain and the Colosseum in the background. The figures in the painting include a herdsman and his female companion with their livestock, and three elaborately dressed artists who are measuring, discussing, and recording the ruins. The landscape is framed by shadows which draw the eye though the landscape to the setting sun in the distance.
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary• Look carefully. How many children can you see? In 1853
many children did not live to adulthood. Why would this have been so?
• What would be different about a picnic scene today?
Secondary
• What were the industrial changes that were happening in England at this time?
• In 1837 Palmer spent two years living in Italy where he studied the seventeenth century landscape painters Claude Lorrain, Gaspard Dughet, Nicolas Poussin and Salvator Rosa. What do the works of these artists have in common? (Think about colour, light, theme, composition, style etc.)
The rustic dinner
samuel Palmer’s paintings and prints are among the major achievements of British landscape art of the first half of
the nineteenth century. Much of his work from the 1850s and early 1860s is dominated by scenes of innocent young children in the English landscape. For Palmer, the English landscape and traditional rural existence offered an escape from the industrial changes occurring at the time. His simple, peaceful rural scenes of life evoke feelings of perfect happiness.
This arcadian scene of joy and abundance was probably painted in 1853. The children in the painting are enjoying a picnic under the shade of trees. The harvest is ready to be collected, the land is golden and the sky is clear. It is a perfect summer’s day. The boy on the left-hand side appears to be about the age of Palmer’s son Thomas, at the time aged twelve. He could well have been Palmer’s model.
Palmer viewed the English landscape with a spiritual passion. His paintings demonstrated his respect for nature as the product of divine creation. He drew on biblical descriptions and his own personal beliefs, combining these influences with an idealised and poetic vision of rustic life.
Samuel Palmer, Britain, 1805–1881, The rustic dinner, c.1853, Londonwatercolour on paper, 53.3 x 75.5 cm (sheet); South Australian Government Grant 1956
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• What were your first impressions when you saw this photograph?
• What comment do the installation and the photograph make about our environment? Write a paragraph describing this arid environment, or one you have seen.
Secondary
• Vogrincic: ‘Fifty million years ago this was all rainforest and that is almost beyond the imagination. My work really deals with how we can see things differently.’
Find out more about the artist and comment on this viewpoint.
• Use this installation to introduce a discussion about environmental issues in Australia.
Matej Vogrincic installed a temporary work in the desert of South Australia, at a barren stretch of country known
as Moon Plain, twenty-five kilometres north-east of Coober Pedy. The work consisted of 1800 white plaster watering cans in three different sizes and shapes. Vogrincic had made these over three months in an underground pottery in Coober Pedy. These cans were then arranged across a site of approximately 800 square metres. The installation existed for a time as part of the landscape, until it was destroyed by dust storms.
Vogrincic’s choice of motif and material are an ironic and witty play on the fact that Moon Plain is one of the driest locations in Australia, with land composed almost entirely of gypsum, the principal ingredient of ordinary plaster. With these choices the artist highlights the increasingly important environmental water issue. By returning the gypsum to the landscape, Vogrincic also explores broader sustainability issues and the way in which humankind too often exploits and manipulates nature to adverse affect.
Untitled is one of a number of photographs taken of Matej Vogrincic’s installation by Alex Makeyev, (Australia, born 1957) according to the artist’s instructions. These photographs were conceived as a complementary component of the work. The photographer has captured the poetic effects of light on a constructed landscape, and the vastness of the Australian desert and sky.
Untitled
Matej Andraz Vogrincic, Slovenia, 1970, Alex Makeyev, photographer, Australia, 1952, Untitled, 2002, Moon Plain, near Coober Pedy, South Australia, type C photograph on paper, three plaster watering cans, 100.2 x 124.2 cm (image); South Australian Government Grant 2003 © Matej Andraž Vogrincic, photo Alex Makeyev
QuestIons and actIVItIes
Primary
• In small groups explore your natural environment. Select a defined area and record its features through drawings and / or photography. Back in the classroom recreate the area using a variety of media (papier-mâché, cardboard, paper, photos, drawings).
Secondary
• What would be the curator’s reasons for exhibiting Study of anthills, Tanami Desert, Central Australia in this Making Nature exhibition?
• What connections do you see between the works of Mark Boyle and Matej Vogrincic?
study of anthills, Tanami Desert, Central Australia belongs to a series called Journey to the surface of the Earth. The
objective of the series was to make ‘multi-sensual presentations’ of 1000 randomly selected sites around the world. Through an investigation of each site – typically restricted to six square feet – Boyle explored concepts of reality, the environment, aesthetics and the process and experience of examination.
Boyle spent six weeks recording the total environment of the Tanami Desert site by documenting all mineral, liquid, gas, vegetable, animal and human traces. He removed, fixed and duplicated the surfaces of the site including dust, mud, sand, stones and pebbles.
By locating this work in a gallery setting, Boyle asks viewers to consider the beauty, function and detail of nature as art. Boyle argued that nature was a living art and intrinsic to daily reality. By making us aware of our environment he hoped that our attitudes towards nature would change, so that we would appreciate it for what it is.
Study of anthills, Tanami Desert, Central Australia
Mark Boyle / The Boyle Family, Britain, 1934–2005, Study of anthills, Tanami Desert, Central Australia from the series Journey to the surface of the Earth: Australia, 1979, Tanami Desert, near Alice Springs, Northern Territory dirt, mixed media, resin, fibreglass, 180 x 180 x 33 cm; South Australian Government Grant 1980 © Boyle Family/DACS 2009
