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Landscape in different eras

Landscape painting in art history was always with ups and downs of popularity. In period of Roman times it was one of the common decoration frescos, then in the Middle Age Landscape was not so popular but later in 16th century it started to increase the popularity, in the 17th gained the importance and finally impressionists brought it up to the “most popular” mark among the painting’s style. One exception out of this story is Chinese landscape paintings – till our days this type stays as one of the beloved and popular.


Pygmies Hunting, from the 'Casa del Dottore' (House of the Doctor) from Pompeii, c.50-79 AD (fresco), 126x74 cms Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Naples, Campania, Italy [Online] Available from: http://www.bridgemanimages.com/en-GB/asset/119493/roman-1st-century-ad/pygmies-hunting-from-the-casa-del-dottore-house-of-the-doctor-from-pompeii-c-50-79-ad-fresco [Accessed 29/10/18]




Ma Yuan, Dancing and Singing (Peasants Returning from Work), ink and watercolour on silk. Song Dynasty (960-1279) Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ma_Yuan_(painter)#/media/File:Ma_Yuan_-_Dancing_and_Singing-_Peasants_Returning_from_Work.jpg [Accessed 30/10/18]
















March: peasants at work on a feudal estate, from the 'Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry', vellum, Limbourg Brothers (fl.1400-1416) / Musee Conde, Chantilly, France [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tr%C3%A8s_Riches_Heures_du_Duc_de_Berry#/media/File:Les_Tr%C3%A8s_Riches_Heures_du_duc_de_Berry_mars.jpg [Accessed 29/10/18]












  • Albrecht Dürer artist. Born 21 May 1471 (Rabbit, Tree Yang) Nuremberg, Germany. Movement High Renaissance

Albrecht Durer, View of Nuremberg, 1496 - 1497, watercolour [Online] Available from: https://www.wikiart.org/en/albrecht-durer/view-of-nuremberg-1497 [Accessed 26/10/18]

Albrecht Durer, View of Kalchreut, circa 1511, watercolor, gouache and paper, Height: 216 cm; Width: 314 cm [Online] Available from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Albrecht_D%C3%BCrer_-_View_of_Kalchreut_-_WGA07369.jpg [Accessed 26/10/18]


· My first impression: Albrecht Dürer probably is the first artist you would study in the art school. You can't not know his works. His legacy in engraving and painting portraits still echo up to our days. Personally, it is not my taste of the works but with an understanding of the technique and attitude to the composition, I very much appreciate his art. My prior knowledge and current impression lead me to point 3.

· Background: “Albrecht Dürer was the master of 16th-century German graphic arts. One of the towering figures in the history of printmaking, he was a complex, truly Renaissance man, interested in philosophy and science as well as art. He was one of the first to break the provincial isolation of Germany by traveling to Italy, where he learned from the Italians and in turn influenced them. Dürer’s subject matter mirrors his thoroughly European intellectual orientation. His prints deal with religion, history, mythology, and folklore. He is also one of the first great portrait engravers.” (Encyclopædia Britannica, 2018, online)

“Dürer's watercolor landscapes have a special place in European art circa 1500 but generated no immediate imitators, even among his pupils. Here, while accurately describing the topographical features of the site, Dürer has tried to capture the poetic light and color of the spring landscape.” (Grollemund, Louvre, online)

· Assessment: And after we know his year sign - isn’t it interesting to recognize that one of the most popular art works form Dürer was the Rabbit). Overall in the landscape painting, his way of expressing the nature is very melancholic. Sometimes he can omit the details in favour of the mood and motive. The way how he depicts water and three-dimensionality represent the high skill of the author and tells about the trends of the time. After Leon Battista Alberti in 1435 introduce ways of representation of perspective the whole next generations worked on a naturalistic depiction rather than spiritual world. From my point of view Dürer somehow knew that the second would dominate the first, so he created an imaginary world and tried to go out of the religious obligations of that time. He was the first one to depict realistic daily life plus to this he wrote books and theoretical works. Which is for me an example, because the greater artist is, the more he would put it into words in any way.

  • Claude Lorrain artist. Born 1600 or 1604/5 Chamagne, France. Movement Baroque

Claude Lorrain, The Sermon on the Mount (1656) Oil on canvas, Frick Collection, New York [Online] Available from: https://www.theartstory.org/artist-lorrain-claude-artworks.htm [Accessed 26/10/18]


· My first impression: This the most uninteresting type of paintings and style for me, as the colour overall looks the same and no place in the image which would trigger the attention of the viewer. My point is 2. This mark for me as the artist for sure developed amazing skills of depiction and it is clear that he put great effort to each detail.

· Background: “In spite of its nominally realistic subject, Harbor Scene at Sunset is a pure work of the imagination… Claude's harbor paintings are also unique in their pioneering use of sunlight as the only depicted source of illumination… As in much of Claude's work, the sky itself is a dominant feature… Biblical themes feature more prominently in Claude's paintings from the 1650s onwards, as he begins to work on a larger scale, and to focus on heroic and historical subject-matter to a greater extent.” (The art story, online)

· Assessment: Technique of execution of the painting for me is extremely blah and devoid of expression. Most often in the composition a sharp perspective frames the sky. People often fit into the landscape and do not play any leading role in contrary to this in Bruegel’s (1525-1569) works people are important and they bring narrative about life in the landscape. Claude’s people are serious and seem to try to solve the problems of the World or they are in melancholy mood thinking about sophisticated things, but, again, for Bruegel at the end of the story, the crowd is a variety of funny individuals with own history. The last attitude closer to my understanding and mood and Lorrain’s art is not giving me any valuable information and sympathy. Probably, this thinking came to my mind due to many artists in Russia worked in this style, so my prior knowledge gives me rather a negative context.

  • L.S. Lowry in full Laurence Stephen Lowry, artist born 1 November 1887 Stretford, England (Pig, Metal Yang)

Industrial Landscape 1955 © The estate of L.S. Lowry Oil paint on canvas, 1143 x 1524 mm [Online] Available from: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/lowry-industrial-landscape-t00111 [Accessed 26/10/18]


· My first impression: It is an interesting composition of the landscape with almost comic figures of people. Colour range is rather a pastel and grey but it is, I think, reflect the time of industrialisation. The architecture depicted with certain precision and atmosphere. My evaluation is 3,5


· Background: He developed a unique approach to cityscapes, painting industrial structures such as factories, cotton mills, and stark residential buildings, in front of which crowds of small, sticklike figures go about their everyday activities. (Encyclopædia Britannica, online) Due to his use of stylized figures and the lack of weather effects in many of his landscapes he is sometimes characterized as a naïve "Sunday painter" (Wikipedia, online)

· Assessment: Dynamic and spot on as a time reflection. Simple and intricate. Specific work style and recognizable pattern. Whether something big was created in art or not, but one thing is clear, the artist accurately reflected the tendencies of that time.

  • Graham Vivian Sutherland (1903–1980) born 24 August 1903 Streatham, London (Rabbit, Wood Yang)

Western Hills, Graham Vivian Sutherland, Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Date 1938/1941, oil on canvas, 55,5 x 90,5 cm [Online] Available from: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/landscape-with-rocks-86190/search/actor:sutherland-graham-vivian-19031980/page/7/view_as/grid [Accessed 07/11/18]


· My first impression: Colour, lines, plot - everything makes me feel the magic atmosphere. My evaluation is 5 points. Mystical and ordinary elements are mixed together which is supported by tonal range.


· Background: Although Sutherland had converted to Catholicism in 1926, and from 1950 until he died was deeply involved in religion, he never stopped creating work based on nature and natural forms. Sometimes he was able to combine religious symbolism with nature, such as with putting thorns into his religious artwork. Sometimes forms which are often considered threatening in appearance are completely invented and have an organic appearance (Wikipedia, online) He had a vivid gift of visual metaphor and his landscapes are not topographical, but semi-abstract patterns of haunting and monstrous shapes rendered in his distinctively acidic colouring… he returned to printmaking, producing coloured lithographs. (Artuk.org, online)



Landscape with Rocks, Graham Vivian Sutherland (1903–1980) Glasgow Museums Resource Centre (GMRC), 1945, oil on board, 94 x 72.4 cm [Online] Available from: https://artuk.org/discover/artworks/landscape-with-rocks-86190/search/actor:sutherland-graham-vivian-19031980/page/7/view_as/grid [Accessed 07/11/18]


· Assessment: Probably here, I close to say that I wish to express in a similar way. Great academic knowledge reflected in a unique way of expression – this what makes artist different and specify him out of the rest.


  • George Shaw artist. Born 1966 (Hors)


George Shaw, Ash Wednesday: 8.30am, 2004/5. [Online] Available fromhttps://www.southlondongallery.org/exhibitions/george-shaw-the-sly-and-unseen-day/ [Accessed 26/10/18]


· My first impression: This Artist I knew before. I was fascinated by his composition and colour combination. Today I evaluate his work at the personal rank 4.

· Background: His favoured medium is Humbrol enamel paints, more usually used to paint model trains and aeroplanes. (The National Gallery, Online) “I can't stand light. It is irritating because it changes. The paints I use can't handle light." … He admits to sometimes wearing a black mask when he is painting…” (Independent, Online)

· Assessment: Just now I understood that each day I’m changing... Year ago I would say I love his art and it is fascinating but now it’s not enough for me. I still love his way of presenting things – simple and funny and at the same moment dramatic and deep. This yellow colour on the picture – how amazing the technique with sky... just difference with a tree and back towers gives such an effect of deepness of hue. I can really enjoy herein.

But something is missing for me... Can it be that the painting just a reality which I can see one day? For normal people probably the sunset will be as all sunsets in the world but I can define a bit more, not that I’m better, but I’m trained for this... Anyway, a world which surrounds me is easy to depict it is a matter of practise but this art I can’t call a great art. Other works of the artist for instance figure drawings didn’t make a big impression on me either - no clear understanding of light and structure of bones with muscles. Also, there is a certain critique of the society in a dirty fans and painted trees of surrounded by rubbish. This is not my subject to bring the critique via direct/straight depiction. But all these elements build overview about an artist which doesn't appeal to me.


  • Sarah Woodfine artist. Born: 1968 (Monkey) in Poole, England, United Kingdom


Sarah Woodfine, Newfoundland, 2003, Pencil on paper in perspex box, 23 x 30 x 23 cm [Online] Available from: http://www.daniellearnaud.com/artists/artists-woodfine-image-newfoundland.html [Accessed 26/10/18]


· My first impression: 4,5. No colour - is a big subject for me. Small microcosms in a gallery. Aquarium. Film noir. This are associations which happened after observation.

· Background: Woodfine explores imaginary worlds that border between the familiar and fantastical. There is a certain element of gothic darkness to her work. This is conjured up through the relationship between the precise and heavily drawn pencil process she employs combined with the subject matters depicted. Her drawing method employs a repetitive almost obsessive-compulsive process. (Suchin, online). Sarah Woodfine trained as a sculptor, and this is evident in her approach to landscape, architecture and optical illusion, which are recurrent themes in her work … This is an important acquisition for the V&A, which aims to collect drawings by contemporary artists that represent technical and conceptual innovation, and works which extend the conventional definitions of drawing. Newfoundland does all of this with elegance, wit and originality. (Victoria and Albert Museum, online)

· Assessment: Woodfine’s art is rhetorical, with simple forms. On one side it gives an impression of the loneliness of the time we are living in. Glass aquariums with minimalist elements (heritage of the Bauhaus?) build the allegory of flats we are living in. On the other side, it is a 3D depiction, in between sculpture and drawing, with minimal elements rising maximum questions.

Judging art via the Internet it is only 50% of impression, as I strongly believe the real impression viewer can receive only out of real work on the wall. With works of Sarah Woodfine is the same – on computer screen difficult to pensive dimensionality and detailing.





Bibliography and references


  1. Andrew Graham-Dixon, Art, the definitive visual guide. 2008 Great Britain, Dorling Kindersley Limited.

  2. Encyclopædia Britannica, Contributor: Gabor F. Peterdi, Printmaking, March 09, 2018 [Online] Available from: https://www.britannica.com/art/printmaking/History-of-printmaking [Accessed 26/10/18]

  3. Grollemund Hélène, Work View of the Arco Valley, Albrecht Dürer [Online] Available from: https://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/view-arco-valley [Accessed 26/10/18]

  4. The art story, Important Art by Claude Lorrain [Online] Available from: https://www.theartstory.org/artist-lorrain-claude-artworks.htm [Accessed 26/10/18]

  5. The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, L.S. Lowry, Encyclopædia Britannica, Date Published: October 28, 2018 [Online] Available from: https://www.britannica.com/biography/L-S-Lowry [Accessed 30/10/18]

  6. Wikipedia L.S.Lowry [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L._S._Lowry [Accessed 30/10/18]

  7. The National Gallery, George Shaw [Online] Available from: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/learning/associate-artist-scheme/george-shaw-1[Accessed 30/10/18]

  8. Independent, George Shaw [Online] Available from: https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/in-the-studio-george-shaw-painter-8197952.html [Accessed 30/10/18]

  9. Text by Peter Suchin, Sarah Woodfine [Online] Available from: http://www.daniellearnaud.com/artists/artists-woodfine.html#Newfoundland [Accessed 01/11/18]

  10. Victoria and Albert Museum, 'Newfoundland' by Sarah Woodfine, 2005 [Online] Available from: http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/n/newfoundland-by-sarah-woodfine/ [Accessed 01/11/18]

  11. Wikipedia, Graham Sutherland [Online] Available from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Sutherland [Accessed 07/11/18]

  12. Artuk.org, Sutherland Graham Vivian [Online] Available from: https://artuk.org/discover/artists/sutherland-graham-vivian-19031980# [Accessed 07/11/18]

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