ART 4 2-DAY 11 July v.9.60
Died on 11 (or 31) July 1551: Girolamo
Genga, Urbino region Italian painter and architect, born
— He was first apprenticed to Luca Signorelli, probably when the latter went to Urbino in 1494. From 1498 until 1501 Genga was active in the workshop of Pietro Perugino, where he probably met Raphael. He later went to Florence, remaining there for some years, before going to Siena, though the sequence of his movements between 1501 and 1513 is disputed. He probably had a relatively mobile career, moving between different artistic centers. — Genga's students included his son Bartolommeo Genga [1518 – July 1558], Baldassare Lanci, Francesco Paciotto.
–- Madonna and Child(1374x1064pix, 122kb — .ZOOM to 2404x1862pix, 232kb)
–- Madonna and Child with Saint John the Baptist and saint Anthony of Padua (1510, round; 1213x1164pix, 128kb — .ZOOM to 2124x2055pix, 236kb)
–- The Son of Quintus Fabius Maximus buys from Hannibal the freedom of the Roman Prisoners (1104x1186pix, 188kb — .ZOOM to 1932x2075pix, 317kb)
–- Aeneas Fleeing from Troy (1509, 1097x1176pix, 168kb — .ZOOM to 2160x2302pix, 384kb)
–- Madonna and Child, with the Child Saint John the Baptist (60x49cm; 800x657pix, 36kb) was at one time attributed to Raphael.
–- S#> Madonna and Child, with the Child Saint John the Baptist, and Saint Francis behind (109x93cm; 400x341pix, 37kb)
Died on 11 July 1916: Rik
Wouters, Belgian painter and sculptor born on 02 August
— Rik Wouters was one of the most striking figures in Brabant Fauvism. His paintings (e.g. Woman Ironing, The Education) are a feast of color. Wouters’ optimism and vitality contrast sharply with the work of the Flemish Expressionists, of which the museum also has a valuable collection. This movement, which was born during the First World War under the influence of French Cubism, Italian Futurism and German Expressionism, played a significant part in Western European art up to 1945. Frits van den Berghe, Gust de Smet and Constant Permeke each in his own way offers a penetrating view of Flemish life between the wars. — Né à Malines en 1882, Henri Wouters commence sa formation artistique à 12 ans dans l'atelier de son père où il travaille le bois et réalise des sculptures pour meubles. Mais il désire en connaître plus sur la sculpture et s'inscrit en 1897 à l'Académie de Malines où il poursuit ces leçons jusque 1901. En 1900, il s'inscrit à l'Académie de Bruxelles et notamment dans le cours de "sculpture d'après nature"donné par Charles Van der Stappen. A 22 ans, il rencontre la femme de sa vie, Nel. Elle est modèle pour différents artistes et devient la muse qu'il ne cessera jamais de représenter. Il l'épouse et le couple s'installe à Watermael. Malheureusement, les temps sont durs et l'année d'après, ils sont déjà contraints de retourner à Malines chez le père de Rik. A cette époque, il est conquis par le luminisme en peinture : ses baigneuses nues sont éclairées par les derniers rayons du soleil. Peu à peu, les jeux de la lumière le déçoivent et il est mécontent de son travail. Après des tensions avec le père de Rik, ils reviennent à Bruxelles et s'installent à Saint-Josse-ten-Noode où leur misère est grande. L'année suivante, Rik obtient malgré tout un deuxième prix au concours Godecharles avec sa sculpture Rêverie. Il se réinscrit à l'Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Bruxelles en vue de préparer le prix de Rome. Nel est atteinte de la tuberculose et le couple s'installe à la campagne. Ce sera Boitsfort où l'artiste fait plusieurs essais de peinture et des études de lumière en utilisant des couleurs claires appliquées sur du carton, les toiles étant trop chères.
–- Portrait de Rik au cigare (1913)
–- Les rideaux rouges (1913)
–- Femme Assise (1915, 96x74cm; 880x667pix, 52kb)
— Réflections (1912; 1064x867pix, 232kb)
on 11 July 1885: Roger-Noël-François
de la Fresnaye, French Cubist-Fauvist
painter and draftsman who died on 27 November 1925.
— Although he was born at Le Mans, where his father, an officer in the French army, was temporarily stationed, he came from an aristocratic family whose ancestral home, the Château de la Fresnaye, was near Falaise. His education, which was thorough and classically based, was followed by studies in Paris at the Académie Julian (1903–1904) and at the École des Beaux-Arts (1904–1905 and 1906–1908); from 1908 he studied at the Académie Ranson under Maurice Denis and Paul Sérusier, whose joint influence is evident in early works such as Woman with Chrysanthemums (1909), which has the dreamlike Symbolist atmosphere and stylization characteristic of work by the Nabis.
–- Married Life (1912, 99x119cm; 812x1000pix, 95kb — .ZOOM to 1625x2000pix, 383kb)
— Le 14 Juillet (1914; 835x1047pix, 121kb)
— L'Homme au Foulard Rauge (1922; 1061x692pix, 157kb)
— Castor et Pollux (1922; 947x628pix; 109kb)
— Vaches dans un Pâturage (1909; 856x1063pix, 199kb)
— White House at Audierne (1909; 749x1084pix, 208kb) _ No President ever lived there. However, if you want a picture of the US president's official mansion, click here.
— La Cheminée d'Usine, Paysage de Meulan (1912; 898x1111pix, 290kb)
— Paysage à La Ferté-sous-Jouarre final version (1911; 755x1023pix, 74kb) _ Aux confins de la Brie et de la Champagne La Ferté-sous-Jouarre, bâtie sur les deux rives de la Marne, est située au confluent de la Marne et du Petit-Morin. Ses paysages sont très variés, vallonnés, boisés. Au IXe siècle une forteresse, bâtie sur une île au milieu de la rivière, veillait sur les religieux et paysans locaux. Anculfus, chef de guerre franc, lui donna son nom, Firmitas Anculfi, et construisit une ville fortifiée dans une île de la Marne, entre les hameaux de Saint Martin et de Condetz. Plusieures fois au cours des siècles le nom de la ville a été modifiée. Après Firmitas Anculfi elle deviendra Ferté-Ausculphe, puis La Ferté-Ancoul, La Ferté-Aucoul, Ferté-Aucol (nom qu'elle portera jusqu'à la Révolution française), La Ferté-sur-Marne, et La Ferté-sur-Morin. C'est en 1797 que l'administration municipale décidera l'actuelle dénomination de La Ferté-sous-Jouarre.
Charles de Bourbon [22 Dec 1523 – 09 Sep 1590] est né à La Ferté. Il est devenu évêque à 16 ans, cardinal à 24 ans, a été mis en prison à 65 ans et y est resté jusqu'à sa mort, ayant été entretemps proclamé roi de France Charles X par le Parlement de Paris.
Dès le XVIe siècle l'industrie meulière donna à La Ferté une certaine renommée, grâce à la qualité de sa pierre (Meulière, de "Meule", 1566: pierre à surface rugueuse, variété de calcaire siliceux) et au savoir-faire de ses meuliers (les moulins, de ce fait, fournissaient une farine d'excellente qualité).
Died on 11 July 1901:
Godfried Egide Guffens, Belgian painter born on
22 July 1823.
— In 1838 op 15 jarige leeftijd volgde hij een opleiding "Monumentale Schilderkunst" aan de Academie van Antwerpen (in het atelier "De Keyser"). Tijdens deze opleiding maakte hij kennis met Jan Swerts (1820-1879) met wie hij nadien veel zou samenwerken. Zo kregen ze in 1855 de opdracht om in de Antwerpse Handelsbeurs een aantal monumentale muurschilderingen te maken. Samen werkten ze aan diverse muurschilderingen en ondernamen ook verschillende studiereizen (Parijs, Rome, Napels, Sicilië en verschillende plaatsen in Duitsland). In 1871 verliet hij Antwerpen, waar hij sinds zijn studies woonde en verhuisde naar Schaarbeek. Guffens is vooral bekend voor zijn monumentale, religieuze en historische werken, maar was ook een portretist, vooral in opdracht van de gegoede burgers. In de periode 1886-1899 kopierde hij ook fresco's van Italiaanse meesters uit de 13° tot 16° eeuw.
Vanaf 1842 tot 1898 stelde hij werk tentoon in binnen-en buitenland. Een postume tentoonstelling ingericht door zijn dochter Hubertine vond plaats eind 1901 in Brussel. In 1981 werd een retrospectieve gehouden in Galerij Tamara (Cultureel Centrum) te Hasselt. Eind 2001 liep er in het Stedelijk Museum Stellingwerff-Waerdenhof te Hasselt, een tentoonstelling "Godfried Guffens en het historisme in Limburg". Deze schilder overleed 100 jaar geleden. Er verscheen ook een publicatie. Er waren ook werken te zien van Louis Hendrix en Jan Willem Rosier. Werk van hem is te zien o.a. in de pas gerestaureerde Sint-Quintinuskathedraal muurschilderingen in het koor en doopkapel te Hasselt, de Raadszaal van het Hasseltse stadhuis ("De overhandiging van de privileges van Graaf Arnold IV aan de stad Hasselt) en in de St. Ursulakerk te Lanaken (muurschilderingen). Verder ook nog in de Sint-Joris kerk te Antwerpen en de O-L-V van Bijstandkerk te Sint-Niklaas (muurschilderingen).
Spijtig genoeg is er ook werk verloren gegaan : muurschilderingen in de Handelsbeurs te Antwerpen en Hallen van Ieper. In Hasselt werd een laan naar hem genoemd (1903) : Guffenslaan. Ook in Schaarbeek is er de Godfried Guffensstraat (zie links). Op deze link krijgt men verder een overzicht van andere werken en kan men tevens een bezoek brengen aan de Schepenenzaal van Kortrijk. Hier illustreren muurschilderingen van Guffens en Swerts uit 1875 de hoogtepunten uit de geschiedenis van deze stad.
— A Bedouin Chieftain (1846, 130x102cm)
— A Young Oriental Woman (1848, 130x102cm)
— Rouget De Lisle Chantant la Marseillaise (1849, 130x187cm; 770x1000pix, 148kb) _ Claude-Joseph Rouget de Lisle [10 May 1760 – 26 Jun 1836], a captain of the engineers and amateur musician, quartered in Strasbourg, is shown singing “le chant de guerre de l'armée du Rhin” on the night he composed it, 24 to 25 April 1792, in the home of the mayor, baron Philippe-Frédéric de Dietrich [14 Nov 1748 – 29 Dec 1793 guillotined], who had requested a marching song for the French troops. The anthem came to be called “la Marseillaise” because of its popularity with volunteer army units from Marseille marching to Paris in July 1792. The Convention accepted it as the French national anthem in a decree passed on 14 July 1795. “La Marseillaise” was banned by Napoléon during the empire and by Louis XVIII on the Second Restoration (1815) because of its Revolutionary associations. Authorized after the July Revolution of 1830, it was again banned by Napoléon III and not reinstated until 14 March 1879.
— the music — the words:
Died on 11 July 1593: Giuseppe Arcimboldo,
Italian painter, draftsman and tapestry designer, active also in Austria
and Bohemia. He was the first Surrealist (officially Mannerist)
(human faces made up of vegetables, or fish, or birds, etc.) (born approximately
— He came from a distinguished Milanese family that included a number of archbishops of the city; his father was the painter Biagio Arcimboldo. Giuseppe is first documented in 1549, working with his father for Milan Cathedral; he received payments until 1558 for supplying paintings, designs for an altar baldacchino and stained-glass windows for the cathedral: The Story of Lot and The Life of Saint Catherine in the south transept windows are usually attributed to him. He collaborated with Giuseppe Meda in designing the gonfalone of Saint Ambrose in Milan, probably sometime soon after 1558. In 1556 he received a commission to paint the south wall and vault of the south transept of Monza Cathedral, also in Lombardy, a work that must have been completed by 1562. Portions of a fresco of the Tree of Jesse on the south wall there can be attributed to him. In 1558 he was paid for designing tapestries for Como Cathedral. On the basis of stylistic comparison with the windows in Milan and the frescoes in Monza, the design of a tapestry representing Saint John the Baptist Preaching and Baptizing can be attributed to Arcimboldo. The Archbishop of Milan, Carlo Borromeo, probably paid for this tapestry.
Arcimboldo was painter and general factotum for the court in Prague from 1562 to 1587. Arcimboldo was one of the first, or maybe "the first" Renaissance painter to be more interested in objects other than people. Of course, all his pictures of things are pictures of people. This interest in painting things would evolve, in another 20 years -- at the beginning of the Baroque era, into in what is now called the still-life picture.... that is a picture of flowers and vegetables without people, for example by the relatively unknown Roman artist Francesco Zucchi [1562–1622], who brought the Arcimboldo style to Rome. At about the same time Caravaggio [28 Sep 1573 – 18 Jul 1610] began to paint realistic still-life pictures, perhaps prompted by seeing the Zucci pictures. Or maybe as an exercise trying to copy images projected by a concave mirror. Arcimboldo did some painted portraits as well as the composite pictures shown here. If anyone has some of his standard portrait work it would be nice to include them here. He also designed tapestries and stainedglass windows... tapestries, now there is something we don't have at all... where are the tapestries?
In the middle of the sixteenth century Arcimboldo made a normal debut with youthful works including designs for window s and tapestries respectively in Milan and Monza cathedrals and frescos for the cathedral of Como. None of these gave any inkling of the bizarre originality he would soon develop. In 1562 he was summoned to the Imperial court in Prague and almost immediately his original and grotesque fantasy was unleashed. He invented a portrait type consisting of painted animals, flowers, fruit, and objects composed to form a human likeness. Some are satiric portraits of court personages, and others are allegorical personifications.
Arcimboldo's style has been so often imitated over the centuries that it is sometimes difficult to make exact attributions. He has been seen by some as the forerunner of Surrealism in the 20th century, but, more to the point, he should be seen in his own context at the end of the Renaissance. This was a time when people (collectors and scientists alike) were beginning to pay more attention to nature. Arcimboldo really created the fantastic image of the court in Prague, creating costumes, set designs, and decorations. Emperor Rudolf II set him the task of researching and buying works of art and natural curiosities, as well as giving him countless commissions for paintings. In 1587 Arcimboldo went back to Milan but stayed in contact with the Emperor. Towards the end of his life, he sent the Emperor the idiosyncratic portrait of him in the guise of the Greek god Vertemnus.
Although Arcimboldo was extremely famous during his lifetime, he was soon forgotten after his death. We do not know why people ever lost interest in his art. Perhaps he was misunderstood by the generations that followed. The interest to his abstruse and fantastic pictures, of which we only have a very few originals, nowadays, revived only at the end of the 19th century. Apart from the fantastic pictures, he probably painted quite a few more traditional ones. But many of these, too, seem to have disappeared.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo was born into the family of a painter for the Milan Cathedral in 1527. The other variants of the name: Josephus, Joseph or Josepho Arcimboldi or Arcimboldus. It is uncertain which version is the correct one, because the painter used all these variants to sign his works. Many art historians agreed to use the variant of Giuseppe Arcimboldo.
In 1549, at the age of 22, Arcimboldo made his debut as an artist. The records of the Milan Cathedral tell us that, together with his father, he was paid for designing several stained glass windows. He went on to work for the Milan Cathedral after his father’s death, until 1558. During this period he designed stained glass windows for the Milan Cathedral and several gobelin tapestries for the Como Cathedral.
In 1562, Arcimboldo became a court painter of Emperor Ferdinand I (Habsburg) and left for Vienna, then moved to Prague. During the 2 years, when Arcimboldo served Ferdinand I, he painted several portraits of the Imperial family as well as the first series of his Four Seasons. The artistic concept of these pictures of 1563 was unique and laid the foundation of Arcimboldo’s success as a painter. The documents of the time bear witness to the fact that monarchs and his contemporaries in general were quite enthusiastic about his art.
| When Ferdinand
I died, in 1564, and was succeeded by Emperor Maximilian II (1527-1576),
Arcimboldo continued as his court artist. There is little doubt that a large
number of pictures were painted between 1564 and 1576, but only very few
of them are known to us: Water
Lawyer (1566), The
Cook (1570) another series of the Four Seasons in 1572, two series
of Four Seasons in 1573, including Spring
(1573). In 1575 Arcimboldo made several paintings for the private chambers
of the Emperor. We do not know of any other works. But apart from painting,
Arcimboldo also had other duties at the Imperial court. As he was a man
of many talents he also served the Emperor as an architect, stage designer,
engineer, water engineer and art specialist. Because of his extensive knowledge
he was able to exert his influence on Maximilian II.
Like his 2 predecessors, Emperor Rudolph II (1552-1612) also took Arcimboldo into his service. The eleven years, which the artist spent with Rudolph II, were probably the peak of his career. The Emperor was extremely fond of Arcimboldo and showed great appreciation for him. All we know about Arcimboldo’s activities as an artist at the Imperial court is that he painted The Four Seasons twice in 1577, that he dedicated a red leather folio containing 150 pen-and-ink drawings to the Emperor in 1585, and that he organized a number of festive processions and tournaments in the same year. We have no knowledge of any further pictures, which he might have painted, at the court in Prague after 1585.
In 1587, after 11 years of service and a number of urgent requests, Arcimboldo finally received permission from Rudolph II to return to his native Milan. And so he went back in the same year, but honored the Emperor’s request to continue working for him even, though he was no longer in his service. In 1591 he painted two of his most famous pictures, Flora (1591) and Vertumnus (1591), which he sent to Prague. Vertumnus was particularly appreciated by everyone, especially by Rudolph himself. It is a head-and-shoulder portrait of the Emperor, showing him in the form of Vertumnus, the ancient Roman god of vegetation and transformation. Rudolph consists entirely of magnificent fruits, flowers and vegetables. Delighted with these paintings, Rudolph II awarded Arcimboldo one of his highest orders in 1592.
Self-Portrait (1575, blue and black ink and wash; 444x345pix, 16kb).
–- Vertumnus _ (1591, 70x57cm) _ There is no mistaking this masterpiece of fantasy and virtuoso imagination by Arcimboldo. The mythical Vertemnus (or Vortumnus), god of harvests and abundance, is in fact a bizarre portrait of the Habsburg Emperor Rudolf II, who may not have been a couch potato (he never watched TV), but is here depicted as a bunch of vegetables. In the sixteenth century the emperor's cosmopolitan court in Prague became a centre of international art, where Arcimboldo moved in the refined and exclusive circles of late European Mannerism. His painting might appear almost irreverent, but in fact is the manifestation of his eager search for new ideas and his exploration of different ways of expression. (It also gives quite a good impression of the Emperor.) This led him to break the usual rules in order to provoke uncensored reactions and emotions. The paintings and objects contained in Rudolf of Habsburg's Wunderkammer (room of wonders) were unfortunately scattered after a Swedish army sacked Prague during the Thirty Years' War (1618-48).
–- Spring (1563)
Summer (1573, 76x64cm) _ The painting is one of the series representing the four seasons. There exists several other versions of the series.
_ Summer (1563, 67x51cm) _ Part of an early version of the cycle dedicated to the four seasons. Each one is symbolically represented by a startling and evocative juxtaposition of fruits and objects typical of that time of the year. Arcimboldo found this subject particularly congenial and often painted groups of pictures on a theme. Not only did he paint the four seasons, but also the four elements (Earth, Air, Water, and Fire)
–- Autumn (1573)
Eve and the Apple with Counterpart, both (1578) on one page.
The Librarian (1566, 97x71cm) _ Arcimboldo's most famous works are the fantasy paintings representing human faces and composed from flowers, fruits, fishes and other objects. Sometimes these paintings have allegoric or moral references.
Vegetables in a Bowl or The Gardener _ When rotated 180 degrees the vegetables in a bowl are transformed into the portrait of a gardener.
The Cook (1570) _ Another picture that can be viewed upside down. But, for this one, you won't need to turn your monitor over or to stand on your head: the rotated image is shown on the same page.
>Born on 11 July 1694: Charles~Antoine
Coypel, French painter, tapestry designer, and writer who
died on 14 March 1752, grandson of Noël
Coypel, half-nephew of Noël-Nicolas
Coypel had precocious success as a painter, as his father and teacher Antoine Coypel [1661-1722] was the Premier Peintre du Roi. Upon his father's death in 1722, Charles inherited the elder Coypel's painting and design responsibilities at court, became the chief painter of the duc d'Orléans, and received lodgings at the Louvre. He eventually became Premier Peintre himself in 1747, as well as director of the Académie Royale. Besides talents in painting and engraving, Coypel possessed some literary talent: he produced two tragedies, several comedies, prose, and some poetry. He also excelled as a tapestry designer for the Gobelins manufactory; the twenty-eight scenes he created for the Don Quixote series woven continuously between 1714 and 1794, were his most successful. He received several commissions for paintings for the Palais de Versailles, and he worked for the king's mistress, Madame de Pompadour. In 1747 Coypel received an order to design a series of theatrical scenes for tapestries for the queen of Poland.
— Coypel had a resoundingly successful career, largely due to his administrative capacity in the various official positions that he held. In 1747 he became director of the Académie Royale and chief painter to the king. He also was an accomplished writer of verse and plays as well as art criticism. As a painter he was versatile and prolific, but his worst painting, Supper at Emmaus (1746), is pathetically inept.
–- Self-Portrait (1734, 98x80cm; 720x578pix, 28kb) _ Wearing the official academy costume — a brown velvet waistcoat, lace shirt, and long powdered wig — Coypel gracefully turns towards the viewer. When he made this half-length self-portrait, Coypel was forty years old and already a full professor at the Académie Royale in Paris. With an open-handed gesture, Coypel presents both himself and his work to the viewer. He stands against a portfolio containing colored paper; underneath, a silver holder contains sharpened pieces of chalk, the medium essential to his profession. Written on the portfolio is a dedication: “Charles Coypel has painted himself for Philippe Coypel, his brother and his best friend, 1734.”
Coypel's younger brother was a valet de chambre to King Louis XV, so the picture served also as a tool for self-promotion. Displayed in the Philippe's house, the self-portrait would have boldly presented the confident image of Charles to the powerful members of the king's inner circle. A brilliant portraitist, Coypel excelled in the medium of pastel. He first drew a detailed underdrawing lightly in pencil, then made crisp outlines using a sharpened pastel crayon. The soft, harmonious coloring completes the work and conveys the differences in texture between his thick velvet waistcoat, the gossamer white lace, and the smooth and shiny buttons.
Philippe Coypel brother of the artist (1732, 75x61cm; 962x752pix, 98kb) _ Ce portrait représente Philippe Coypel [1703-1777], Ecuyer du Roi, frère et “ami qui plus est” de l'artiste. Peint l'année de son mariage, il a peut-être été peint comme cadeau à cette occasion, puisqu'il était associé à un pendant, Portrait de Madame Coypel (1732).
— Perseus and Andromeda (1727, 131x196cm; 498x760pix, 48kb)
— France Offering Thanks to Heaven for the Recovery of Louis XV (1744, 59x50cm; 985x760pix, 72kb)
–- Scène de l'histoire antique (152x172cm; 871x1001pix, 56kb) _ On bended knee, a patrician woman begs a general to stop his soldiers from doing violence to her people (specific incident is not specified).
on 11 July 1946: Paul Nash, English Surrealist
painter born on 11 May 1889.
— Nash, the son of a successful lawyer, was born London. Nash was educated at St. Paul's School and the Slade School of Art, where he met Stanley Spencer, Mark Gertler, William Roberts and C. R. W. Nevinson. Influenced by the work of William Blake, Nash had one-man shows in 1912 and 1913.
On the outbreak Nash enlisted in the Artists' Rifles and was sent to the Western Front. Nash, who took part in the offensive at Ypres, had reached the rank of lieutenant in the Hampshire Regiment by 1916. Whenever possible, Nash made sketches of life in the trenches. In May, 1917 he was invalided home after a non-military accident. While recuperating in London, Nash worked from his sketches to produce a series of war paintings. This work was well-received when exhibited later that year.
As a result of this exhibition, Charles Masterman, head of the government's War Propaganda Bureau (WPB) recruited Nash as a war artist. In November 1917 he returned to the Western Front where he painted several more pictures. Nash's work during the war included The Menin Road, The Ypres Salient at Night, The Mule Track (1918), A Howitzer Firing, Ruined Country and Spring in the Trenches. Nash was unhappy with his work as a member of War Propaganda Bureau. He wrote at the time: "I am no longer an artist. I am a messenger who will bring back word from the men who are fighting to those who want the war to go on for ever. Feeble, inarticulate will be my message, but it will have a bitter truth and may it burn their lousy souls." After the war Nash experimented with surrealism and abstract art. Nash also taught at the Royal College of Art and worked as a designer and book illustrator. During the Second World War Nash was employed by the Ministry of Information and the Air Ministry and paintings produced by him during this period include The Battle of Britain and Totes Meer.
— Wood on the Downs (1929) _ Nash helped organise and exhibited in the first surrealist exhibition of 1936. He is ranked as one of the greatest lyric artists of the English School - alongside Turner and Blake. It has been said of him that he was: Essentially a landscape painter, no artist has interpreted the beauty and rhythm of the English countryside as perfectly as he. Wood on the Downs is an articulate and monumental treatment of a vivid but unsensational subject. It is described in English Art & Modernism as a painting that summarises the first three decades of twentieth century British painting. There is an emphasis on a substantial paint surface, a feature of the best work of the Camden Town Group and a clear formal structure testifies to a continued recognition of the importance of Cezanne. The continental influences of Surrealism and Cubism were being gradually adopted into a context that became entirely appropriate to English painting.
— Northern Adventure (1929) _ This is the second version of a view from the window of Nash's flat in London which overlooked St. Pancras Station, across a vacant lot, containing an advertising hoarding. The work demonstrates Nash's increasing interest in architectural landscapes and in Surrealism. In the first version, oval windows line the station building. In Northern Adventure these have been removed, substituted for an outsized window which floats in space at an angle. This strange displacement of the window calls to mind the work of the Surrealists. It was a device used by the Italian artist, Giorgio De Chirico and its inclusion in Nash's work provides a reflection of the sky which is otherwise cut from the composition. In Nash's autobiography, 'Outline', his notes under the chapter titled 'Searching' read; "A new vision and a new style. The change begins. Northern Adventure and other adventures."
Winter Sea (71x97cm) _ Muted shades of green and white are combined with black to create an impression of the sea at night. As well as suggesting moonlight, the palette of steely colors conveys a sense of somberness and cold. Concentrating on color and form, Nash represented nature as a pattern that verges on the abstract. The sharp, angular shapes of the waves evoke the forbidding nature of the winter sea.
— A Howitzer Firing (71x91cm) _ Along with Nevinson and Wyndham Lewis, Nash (1889-1946) was one of the major British war painters who, like them, had been influenced by Cubism and Futurism prior to 1914. He signed up in 1914, was made a lieutenant in 1916, and fought near Ypres. An accident led to his repatriation in May 1917. He then set down to work from memory and from his sketches. Nash's paintings rely on detailed observation, from which he extracts the substance of his pictorial, lyrical and tragic effects. This is the case with this picture, where Nash is not content merely with a representation of the gun under camouflage nets. The initial flash of light and the reddening of the sky in contrast with the shadow of the foreground heighten the picture's expressiveness.
— Night Bombardment (1919, 183x214cm) _ Produced for the Canadian War Memorial, this painting is reminiscent of the work of Vallotton, in spite of the difference in the two painters' ages, training and experience of the war. In this commemorative picture, Nash combines figurative elements - mainly tree trunks, barbed wire and the dark entrance to a dugout - with geometrical elements - now curved, like craters and smoke etc., now angular, like the explosion, parapets and wooden frames. It reminds one of early Nevinson, which relies on the same pictorial system. However, faced with a monumental format, Nash introduces a further element, with the brutality of his earthy colors, the muddy grey-browns, the red of the barbed wire and the whitish lights, forming sharp contrasts against the backdrop of an opaque sky.
— The Ypres Salient at Night (1918, 71x91cm) _ Void (1918, 72x92cm) _ The Menin Road (1919, 183x317cm) _ The battle around Ypres lasted as long as the war itself. This appalling blood-bath was for the Commonwealth troops like Verdun for the French: an endless carnage in a marshy landscape where the wounded were swallowed up in the mud. These three paintings by Paul Nash, while showing how he moved from Cubo-Futurism towards descriptive naturalism, bear witness to the extreme violence of the destruction, in the wetlands, in the mutilated woodlands and around the town, itself destroyed. Void can be seen as the archetype of the Great War landscapes: not a soldier to be seen, abandoned lorries and guns, flooded trenches, a limp corpse among the shells and rifles, smoke and, in the distance a plane, either dropping bombs or falling to the ground, we cannot tell. On top of everything, it rains continually. There can be no more hope of coming back alive from such a place which no longer has a name, which has become a field of death.
–- S#> The French Farm (1926, 54x73cm; 660x900pix, 142kb)
— Behind the Inn (1922, 63x76cm)
–- S#> Swanage, Low Tide (1935, 38x56cm; 510x753pix, 94kb) _ Nash painted this when he and his wife Margaret were living in lodgings at No.2 The Parade, on the Swanage seafront. Nash was fascinated by this part of the Dorset coast and its varied surrounding landscapes and he worked tirelessly to capture its mysterious geological character. The Swanage period was undoubtedly one of Nash's most productive and is distinguished by his exploration into Surrealist imagery (The chapter that deals with this period in his autobiography is entitled Swanage or Seaside Surrealism). However, even the simpler views such as the one captured in this painting are progressive works of acute observation. Nash had an immensely heightened perception in the two crowded years spent in Swanage, during which time he also carried out a commission to compile and edit The Shell Guide to Dorset (1936). Nash was initially captivated by Swanage and its environs, so much so that he employed an architect to design a house in the town; but the attraction was short-lived. This may have been partly due to the weather which proved highly detrimental to Nash's asthmatic condition, as well as to a delayed distaste for the vulgarity of the architecture, the inhabitants of the town, and those who came by the coachload to visit.
–- S#> Nymph in a landscape (1916, 28x37cm; 420x554pix, 76kb)