Tag: Frick Collection

National Gallery, London – Turner on Tour

National Gallery, London – Turner on Tour

“Dieppe” and “Cologne” on loan from the Frick, NY

Two magnificent pictures by Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, 1775 – 1851) returned to the UK for the first time in over 100 years. Harbour of Dieppe: Changement de Domicile and Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening are on display at the National Gallery, London, until 19 February 2023. Lent by The Frick Collection, New York.

Exhibited at the Royal Academy London in 1825 and 1826 respectively, the paintings reflect Turner’s lifelong fascination with ports and harbours. Turner’s sketching tours within Europe were central to his fame as an artist-traveller, drawing in sketchbooks and producing paintings from them back in his studio in England. These monumental paintings have always belonged together. “Dieppe” in brilliant afternoon sun, pulls you into the hustle and bustle of a fishing harbour; “Cologne” at dusk, is set at the shore of the river Rhine in the centre of the German city. In 1911 the two paintings were acquired by the American industrialist and art patron Henry Clay Frick.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, 1775 – 1851), Harbor of Dieppe: Changement de Domicile, 1826, 174x225cm, Frick Collection, New York. 

Turner visited the French fishing port of Dieppe, in Normandy, twice in the early 1820s before painting Harbour of Dieppe: Changement de Domicile in his London studio. Set in the afternoon, the work draws from sketches made on site, as well as from memory and imagination. In this Romantic view, signs of modernisation, such as the steamboats then in use, are excluded. Turner focuses on the vibrant energy of the town filled with glowing sunlight and hundreds of figures engaged in lively activities. He captured the details of local dress, studied the ships and their rigging up close and made detailed renderings of the town’s architecture. The French subtitles Turner assigned the painting – “Changement de Domicile” (change of home address) – may refer to the couple to the right, who appear to be loading or unloading objects from boats. 

Joseph Mallord William Turner (British, 1775 – 1851), Cologne, the Arrival of a Packet-Boat: Evening, 1826, 169x224cm, Frick Collection, New York.

Cologne, Germany, had long been a major commercial, educational, and religious centre. Situated on the banks of the Rhine, Cologne was still largely medieval in appearance when Turner visited. Only a small section of the city is visible in his painting: the tower and spire of the church of Groß St. Martin piercing the evening sky, with defensive towers, walls, and the customs house leading up to it. There is a sense of time standing still. The ferry boat carrying tourists to shore is about to disturb the peace of the scene.

Turner visited Italy in 1819 and was highly inspired by the Mediterranean sun. Light became an increasingly important motif in Turner’s later work, and these two paintings certainly are the start of that artistic journey. Turner said: “The sun is God”. These words and the two paintings on view in the National Gallery summarise his belief.

Turner on Tour, National Gallery, London. Until 19 February 2023, Admission free.

Charles Baudelaire (French, 1821 – 1867) wrote a collection of short prose poems “Petits Poèmes en Prose”, published in 1869, one of those is “The Port”. Turner’s use of light in “Dieppe” and “Cologne” is a poem in painting, as Baudelaire’s words are a poem in prose.

The Port
A port is a delightful place of rest for a soul weary of life’s battles. The vastness of the sky, the mobile architecture of the clouds, the changing coloration of the sea, the twinkling of the lights, are a prism marvelously fit to amuse the eyes without ever tiring them. The slender shapes of the ships with their complicated rigging, to which the surge lends harmonious oscillations, serve to sustain within the soul the taste for rhythm and beauty. Also, and above all, for the man who no longer possesses either curiosity or ambition, there is a kind of mysterious and aristocratic pleasure in contemplating, while lying on the belvedere or resting his elbows on the jetty-head, all these movements of men who are leaving and men who are returning, of those who still have the strength to will, the desire to travel or to enrich themselves.

Le Port
Un port est un séjour charmant pour une âme fatiguée des luttes de la vie. L’ampleur du ciel, l’architecture mobile des nuages, les colorations changeantes de la mer, le scintillement des phares, sont un prisme merveilleusement propre à amuser les yeux sans jamais les lasser. Les formes élancées des navires, au gréement compliqué, auxquels la houle imprime des oscillations harmonieuses, servent à entretenir dans l’âme le goût du rythme et de la beauté. Et puis, surtout, il y a une sorte de plaisir mystérieux et aristocratique pour celui qui n’a plus ni curiosité ni ambition, à contempler, couché dans le belvédère ou accoudé sur le môle, tous ces mouvements de ceux qui partent et de ceux qui reviennent, de ceux qui ont encore la force de vouloir, le désir de voyager ou de s’enrichir.
Winter in art

Winter in art

“Baby, it’s cold outside…”

Now that we are in the middle of the winter, I’ve started thinking about how this “winter” concept has been represented in art. It’s the harshest season of the year, certainly when there was no electricity or gas, but some touching images have been produced over the centuries.

It was not just landscape painters who gave us winter scenes with frozen rivers and skaters. Painters also personified winter as an old man with a fur coat and warming his hands at a brazier. And from the the 18th century, artists depicted winter as a young woman, adding a sensual and warm touch to the cold.

I choose some ten works of art, all depicting winter as a “personification”; as a human figure depicted with symbolic attributes, representing the abstract idea of “winter”. Starting with the French Impressionist Berthe Morisot, as I like her paintings so much. And then going back in time to the 17th century Flemish painter David Teniers, to Madame de Pompadour – lover of King Louis XV of France, to the bedroom of King George III of England, to La Frileuse, the chilly girl, by the French sculptor Houdon. It’s an eclectic batch of art, but all lovely. They give inspiration and warmth in this cold season. Like Vivaldi’s Winter from The Four Seasons.

Along with its Summer pendant, Winter depicts a fashionable Parisian woman who personifies a season. Berthe Morisot debuted the paintings together at the Paris Impressionist exhibition in 1880. Morisot’s images of the Parisienne, a popular figure type representing an elegant, upper-class Parisian woman, were considered utterly contemporary. A critic said about Morisot’s Winter: “with its figure, so courageously modern, of the Parisian woman braving the cold in her furs.”

Berthe Morisot (Édouard Manet’s model and sister-in-law) was one of the most respected members of the Impressionist movement. At the beginning of the 20th century, her aura began to dim and her painting, labelled “feminine”, was relegated to second rank. Only recently, thanks also to the grand 2019 Morisot exhibition in the Musée d’Orsay, Berthe Morisot was incontestably regarded again as a great artist.

Abraham Bloemaert (Dutch, 1566 – 1651), Allégorie de l’hiver (et de l’amour) or Winter (and love), c.1627, 70x58cm, Musée du Louvre, Paris.

This old man by the Dutch Golden Age painter Abraham Bloemaert is representing Winter. Wearing a fur hat and very carefully warming himself at a small stove full of red-hot coals or charcoal. His nose and cheeks reflect the heat of the coal. It’s not only a representation of winter, but also hinting to love and passion. Love – and it’s pleasure – happens to be gallant to the ones who court the fire of love with caution.

David Teniers the Younger (Flemish, 1610 – 1690), Winter, from the series The Four Seasons, c.1644, Oil on Copper, 22x16cm, National Gallery, London.

David Teniers the Younger brings the cycle of the seasons to an end with an old man representing Winter. Wrapped in velvet and fur, he hunches over to warm his hands at a brazier, a small stove that’s heated with charcoal. His face is wrinkled, his beard long and frosted with white. In the background a small, monochrome skating scene. It’s a personification of winter and Teniers chose a character of an appropriate age and dressed him accordingly. Winter as the last season of life.

The tiny picture is on a copper base, which allowed the paint to flow more freely than it would on canvas. Teniers could show minute detail: the facial characteristics and expressions, Winter’s splendid hat and the objects on his table. Allegorical paintings of the seasons were popular at the time, and Teniers painted several versions of the subject. David Teniers was cashing in on the popularity of the series and turning them out quickly to fulfil demand.

Caesar Boëtius van Everdingen (Dutch, 1616 – 1678), A Young Woman Warming her Hands over a Brazier: Winter, c.1646, 97x81cm, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

This young woman by Caesar Boëtius van Everdingen warms her hands above a dish of glowing coals, holding her hands under a piece of cloth. She personifies Winter. This season was usually represented as an old man: old because the year is coming to an end, like towards the end of life. Van Everdingen’s choice of a young, richly attired woman is rather unusual. Cesar Boëtius van Everdingen was a Dutch Golden Age painter, from Alkmaar.

Giovanni Battista Pittoni the younger (Italian, 1687 – 1767), Allegory of Winter and Summer, c.1730, 125x112cm, Bristol City Museum & Art Gallery, Bristol, United Kingdom.

For this allegory of Winter and Summer, the painter Giovanni Battista Pittoni turned to traditional iconographic examples. Summer is personified as a young woman, and Winter as an old man warming his hands over a brazier. Summer gestures to a small angel-like figure in the top right corner (difficult to see on the picture). That’s the Spirit of Dawn whose urn of water provides the dew droplets of summer and frost in the winter.

The Winter pastel by Rosalba Giovannia Carriera was acquired by George III, King of England. It entered the Royal Collection in 1762 as “a Beautiful Female covering herself with a Pelisse”. In traditional images Winter was typically shown as an old man, but Rosalba Carriera transformed the subject into a beautiful young woman. “Winter” was put on display in George III’s bedchamber at Buckingham Palace, alongside “Summer”.

Rosalba Carriera was born in Venice. She began her career as a painter of snuffboxes, but rose quickly to fame for her pastel portraits, which became highly desired across Europe. Carriera made several sets of allegories of the Four Seasons. The largest group of pastels by Carriera belonged to Frederick Augustus Elector of Saxony. Over 100 of her pastels were on display at his residence in Dresden in a ‘Rosalba Room’. The artist became blind in later life and died in 1757.

François Boucher (French, 1703–1770), The Four Seasons: Winter, 1755, 57x73cm, The Frick Collection, New York.

François Boucher painted this Winter from the series The Four Seasons in 1755 for Madame De Pompadour, King Louis XV’s long-term official mistress. Their original location is unknown, but their peculiar shape suggests that they were used as overdoors, no doubt in one of Pompadour’s many properties in France.

Instead of the hardship that traditionally illustrates the theme of winter, Boucher depicts a delightful encounter in joyous colours, a frosty background and a landscape buried under snow. A Tartar in pseudo-Russian dress pushes an elaborate sleigh with the heroine – most likely referring to Madame de Pompadour herself. Glancing out at us coyly, she sports a billowing fur-trimmed gown and a little fur necklace. Her hands may be warmed by a muff, but her upper body is completely exposed. This combination of luxury and seduction, treated in a fanciful and humorous manner, is typical of Boucher.

Étienne-Maurice Falconet (French, 1716 – 1791), Winter, c.1770, Marble, 135 cm, The Winter Palace, State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg.

In April 1764, the 42-year-old Madame Marquise de Pompadour, the official chief mistress of King Louis XV of France unexpectedly died, and in the workshop of her beloved sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet, the last of the statues she commissioned remained unfinished – the marble Winter, a young woman sitting on an ice cube and gracefully covering flowers with her robe.

A year later Falconet received an invitation from the Russian Empress Catherine the Great to work at her court. It was agreed that at the expense of the Russian treasury all unfinished work from the Falconet workshop would travel with him to Russia. And part of that deal was the unfinished “Winter” sculpture. Falconet completed “Winter” only 5 years after arriving in Russia. That’s how this statue, made by a French sculptor, ended up in the Winter Palace of the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. Contemporaries of Falconet received the work as a masterpiece and the artist himself wrote: “This might be the very best work which I can do; I even dare to think that it is good.”

Jean Antoine Houdon (French, 1741 – 1828), Winter (La Frileuse), 1787, Bronze, 144x39x51cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

L’Hiver or Winter is a bronze statue of a young woman cast by the neoclassical French sculptor Jean-Antoine Houdon. The statue personifies the winter season and is nicknamed La Frileuse, The Chilly Girl. This is reflected in both the medium (a cold, dark bronze) and the features of the sculpture, a young woman clad only in a shawl. Upon its completion and presentation at the 1787 Salon, the French yearly art fair, Winter shocked the French artistic establishment but delighted art lovers. The critics at the Salon indulged in some irony: “La Frileuse by Monsieur Houdon does not seem to achieve its effect. When someone is really cold, he tries to pull all his limbs close to him and covers his body more than his head. Nevertheless, it is pleasant to the eye and the proportions are correct” and “One must concur that winter would be a very desirable season if pretty shivering girls did not cover themselves in any other way.” Don’t think this critic will still have a job after saying this nowadays. In terms of her clothing, the Metropolitan Museum of Art describes it as “elegant but hardly adequate”. La Frileuse made me think of the song Let it Go from Frozen, “The Cold Never Bothered Me Anyway.”

The statue was bought by Louis Philippe Joseph, Duc d’Orléans, confiscated during the French Revolution and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

Paul Heermann (German, 1673 – 1732), Winter, c.1700, Marble, 65x64x34cm, Getty Center, Los Angeles. 

Shrouded in a heavy hooded cloak, this elderly man by Paul Heermann looks down with a deeply furrowed brow. As a personification of Winter, the bust gives visual expression to the chilling cold of that season. His old age refers to winter’s occurrence at the very end of the calendar year. This bust was probably part of a series of sculptures personifying the four seasons. At the Versailles Palace, it was fashion including statues of the seasons in the program for garden sculpture. The high level of finish and finely worked details of this bust, however, suggest that Winter was meant to be viewed up close, in an indoor palatial setting.

Jacob Matham (Dutch, 1571 – 1631) engraver, after Hendrik Goltzius (Dutch, 1558 – 1617) drawer, Winter, 1589, from the series The Seasons, engraving, diameter 26cm, National gallery of Art, Washington DC.

This Winter engraving has a very traditional iconography. The personification of Winter is an elderly man wearing a coat and warming his hands by holding a pot containing a fire; beyond is a wintery townscape with ice skaters and people collecting fire wood; the signs of the winter zodiac (Pisces, Aquarius and Capricorn) in the sky; and a cute little putto plays the cold Northern wind blowing into a cloud which results in rain and snow. And just so that we do not get it wrong, Hendrick Goltzius put the name “Hyems” just above the man, which is Latin for “Winter”.

Hendrick Goltzius designed four series with the seasons; Winter depicted here is from the set engraved by Jacob Matham.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 – 1792)

July 16th, 1723, birth of Joshua Reynolds. English painter and the most fashionable portraitist of the 18th Century elegant society of England. As a young painter he made his grand European tour and studied all the Italian Old Masters. This influenced his style of painting, which we now know as the Grand Style. His clients were portraited in the most impressive and perfect way. Reynolds portraits show lavish dresses and hats fit for Royal Ascot. His paintings have often been inspiration for Hollywood costume designers.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), “Elizabeth, Lady Taylor” (1780), 127x102cm, Oil on Canvas, Frick Collection, New York.

Joshua Reynolds had a busy career. No exception were 6 sitters a day, each for an hour. And next to work he was an incredible socialite, social climber and self-promoter Reynolds was a smooth talker, friendly to everyone and had no enemies. He stayed single his whole life, but of some of his female clients it was said that they visited his house for more sittings than strictly necessary for painting a portrait.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), “The Hon. Miss Monckton” (1777), 240x147cm, Oil on Canvas, Tate, London.

Reynolds also painted so-called “fancy pictures”, which are character studies. Painted after someone, often a family member of the artist, but now mostly unknown who the model was. Here is Reynolds “The Age of Innocence”. It’s from the Tate London and an all-time favorite of the public. Reynolds himself entitled this painting simply “A Little Girl”. The current and more poetic title has been given after Reynold’s death.

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792), “The Age of Innocence” (1788), 77X64cm, Oil on Canvas, Tate, London.

Reynold’s use of pigments for paint was of less high standard. His paintings have fading colors and the blacks tend to crack. But better to have a “Reynolds” of low quality than none at all. Sir Joshua Reynolds died in 1792 and was buried in St Paul’s Cathedral in London.

John Constable (1776 – 1837)

On June 11th, 1776, birth of John Constable, English landscape painter. Now considered one of the greatest English painters, but during his life more successful outside England than at home. From Suffolk, England, Constable spent almost his whole life painting the local landscape, with clouds full of rain. His paintings show the England we know from Jane Austen and Downton Abbey. It all looks very romantic, and even the endless rain and clouds have their own charm.

John Constable (1776 – 1837), “Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden” (1826), 89x112cm, Oil on Canvas, The Frick Collection, New York.

Here is Constable’s “Salisbury Cathedral from the Bishop’s Garden”, from 1826. Painted for his friend the Bishop of Salisbury. The Bishop and his wife are standing in the front and he points out to the spire of the cathedral. An earlier version of this painting exists (in London’s Victoria and Albert Museum), but when the Bishop had seen that version he asked Constable if the weather could maybe be a bit more sunny. That’s why this second version has more blue sky. Apparently even for the English themselves, the endless clouds and rain can become too much. In our modern days of Instagram, one would put a filter over it. And that’s what Constable did by painting this second and more sunny version. Unfortunately the Bishop died just before his “sunny” painting was completed. It’s now on view in the Frick Collection, New York.

John Constable (1776 – 1837), “Stonehenge” (1835), 39x60cm, Watercolor, Victoria and Albert Museum, London.

Also here is Constable’s wonderful 1835 watercolor painting of the Stonehenge ruins. This watercolor expresses sadness. Its painted after his dear beloved wife passed away and left him alone with their seven children. Constable was extremely sad and deep grief came over him. Look now at this painting. We see one strong remote set of stones standing in the centre, all other pieces have fallen to earth. But lonely as these remote standing stones are, there is hope. A beam of light (or is it a rainbow?) gives warmth and power. I think Constable is expressing his feelings here and also uses this painting to cope with his grief. Constable is like that lonely standing piece. Everything around him fell down, but Constable knows that he needs to cope with his losses. This beautiful Stonehenge watercolor painting confirms to me the healing strength of art. Constable himself said: “Painting is but another word for feeling”.