Last Chance to See: True to Nature at The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
The Fitzwilliam Museum's exhibition on the practice of open-air painting is worth visiting for any art lovers before it closes on 29th August...
By
Adam Wells
August 18, 2022
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
Having opened earlier this year in May, True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is well worth visiting before it closes on 29th August. Showing at Cambridge’s Fitzwilliam Museum, this unique exhibition takes as its theme the eighteenth-century artistic method of on-location landscape painting; frequently known as en plein air, the practice became a key component of artistic training across the time period, making this exhibition as something of a showcase for a specific style of painting. The show also stands as the first ever exhibition to bring together over 100 oil sketches from the collections of The Fondation Custodia in Paris, The National Gallery of Art in Washington and the Fitzwilliam itself, featuring work by such artists as John Constable, J.M.W. Turner, Louise-Joséphine Sarazin de Belmont and Edgar Degas, and includes observation and commentary throughout from scientists, conservationists, writers, curators and children.
Also unique in this exhibition is the arrangement of the various works; rather than being presented chronologically by artist, the landscapes are displayed according to their subject matter, providing a view of the various artists approaching the same geographical features and phenomena in myriad styles. In the exhibition’s introduction, the immediacy of open-air painting is emphasised, with the resulting paintings portraying the landscape on that day, capturing the specific rather than the general and leading to a unique, semi-unplanned piece. In particular this is demonstrated through works by John Constable, a painter who developed a career-long fascination with clouds and their ability to define the mood of a landscape. Constable referred to the sky as ‘the chief organ of sentiment’ in a painting, and emphasis on speed when capturing such transient atmospheric effects is highlighted alongside his paintings from Hampstead Heath, aligned with his interest in the then-new science of meteorology.
The relationship between the landscapes on display and contemporary development of natural sciences is perhaps even more clearly on display in the section of the exhibition focused on rocks and grottoes. Traditionally depicted as places of fear and mystery with mythological connotations of entry to the underworld, the paintings here - accompanied with acknowledgement of the growing awareness of earth sciences - depict a far more existential concern. As a section of accompanying information notes, ‘awareness of the vastness of geological time prompted the notion - troubling for many - that human life was incidental, fleeting’, a temporary feature of the earth’s landscape rather than a necessary component. The use of these geologically-formed phenomena as subject matter, often devoid of human subjects, illustrates a radical shift in the portrayal of the natural world, depicting its immediacy on its own terms rather than focalised through human experience.
While traditional landscape painting often included humans to ‘animate’ the location, the practice of en plein air either drastically minimised human presence within the frame or reduced it simply to implication; as the exhibition commentary points out ‘cultivated fields, tree plantations, smoke rising from fires and chimneys, gardens, domestic pets and laundry on washing lines all remind us that these landscapes are inhabited’. Nowhere is this diminishing of the physical human form clearer than in the section depicting gardens, ruins and built-up urban environments such as landscapes painted from rooftops and windows. The paintings here portray the eighteenth-century city as a landscape in its own right, with only the straight lines and stark angles representing the presence of human design as opposed to natural formation. Further divorcing the built-up environment from those who created it is the frequent inclusion of overgrown foliage, particularly in the paintings of ruins, with the slowly encroaching plant life also reflecting the newly-developed sense of human impermanence implied earlier.
This sense of human transiency culminates in the section focused on bodies of water; paintings of stormy coastlines and crashing waves offer a multisensory thrill, while shimmering light implies movement in even the stillest lakes and ponds. With cliff faces shaped by the slow erosion of waves and the absence of any human figures, the natural liminality of the coastline ‘evoke[s] a sense of reverie and melancholy: we have reached the end and face the unknown’. The immediacy of open air painting develops here to the point that it is difficult to even picture the artist and canvas on the other side of the frame. The ultimate sensation of finality comes in the paintings of volcanoes erupting, again evoking the surging interest in earth sciences as well as the awe-inspiring and destructive power of nature in the face of human depiction.
True to Nature: Open-air Painting in Europe 1780 - 1870 is showing at The Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge until 29th August. Make sure to collect your Yamos, and why not visit their concurrent exhibition, Hockney’s Eye: The Art and Technology of Depiction while you’re there?
