Сочинение: English Painting and Art Galleries

Сочинение: English Painting and Art Galleries

English painting.

Our life seems to be impossible without art. It really occupies an important

part in our daily life. Art offers us not only pleasure and amusement but it

is also a vehicle of culture and education. Art penetrates into all spheres

and sides of our life and makes it brighter, richer and more intellectual.

People like and know different types of art. Some of them are fond of

painting. Others have a special liking for music or they have a passion for

literature. But all of us cant help admiring the canvases of such great

painters as Thomas Gainsborough, Rembrand etc.

So, art units different people, influences the development of personality,

makes our innerworld richer, feels our soul with different feelings. It makes

us stronger, inforces us in difficult situations.

Time is flying art is forever.

Painting in England began to develop later than in over European countries.

That's why some of the greatest foreign masters were attracted to England by

the titles of nobility conferred upon them. Holbein, Antonio Mor, Rubens, Van

Dyck were almost English painters during longer or shorter periods of their

lives.

Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599 - 1641), who married the daughter of an English

Lord and who died in London is considered to be the father of the English

portrait school. He worked at the court of Karl I, was an extremely hard

working painter. His most famous works are: his self portrait, «Portrait of

the Man» and «Karl I».

But not until William Hogarth (1697 - 1764) do we find a painter truly

English. Hogarth was the printers son, uneducated, but a curious observer of

man and manners. His first work dates from 1730. Among his best works are

«Captain Coram», «The Shrimp Girl», serial «Mode Marriage».

His pictures of social life brought him fame and position in the society. One

of his serials “Mode Marriage” consists of 6 pictures. “The Marriage

Contract” is the first.

Both fathers are siting to the right. One of them an earl is proudly pointing

to his family tree. The other is reading the marriage contract. The Earls son

is looking at himself with pleasure in looking glass. The daughter of the

second man is playing with her wedding ring and listening to the complements

of a young lawyer. The subject matter of the picture is the protest against

marriage for money and vanity. Other pictures of this serial have the same

subject matter.

Hogarth was sure that success came to him due to hard labor. He wrote “Genius

is nothing , labor is diligence.”

Sir Joshua Reynolds (1723 - 1792) is one of the outstanding British

portraitists, who had an important influence on his contemporaries. Within a

short period of time he achieved a considerable success. In 1755, at the

highest point of his career he painted 120 portraits. When, in 1768, the

Royal Academy of Arts was founded, he naturally became its first president.

In 1784 he became a principal painter of the King. He was a highly educated

person, wonderful colorist. His colors are difficult to judge today, because

they were not scientifically applied. That's why many of his paintings have

cracked and faided. Among his best works are: «Cupid untiring the Zone of

Venus» and «Mrs. Siddons». They are well-known all over the world. For 20

years he was the most prominent artist of his day even in the face of rising

Gainsborough.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727 - 1788) succeeded brilliantly as a portrait

painter. Society went to him for portraits. A good amateur violinist and a

lover of drama, he was an artistic person by nature. Joshua Reynolds and

Thomas Gainsborough created a national type of the English portrait. His

manner of painting differs from Reynolds. Thomas Gainsborough's portraits of

actors, actresses and his close friends are famous. One of his greatest

friends was Richard Sheridan, the dramatist, whose portrait belongs to one of

the best pictures of this painter. Even in his portraits Thomas Gainsborough

is an out-of-door painter. The backgrounds of his portraits are often well-

observed country scenes. He was one of the first to be elected to the newly

established London Academy of Arts. Thomas Gainsborough is acknowledge as an

excellent women painter. “The Portrait of the Duchess de Befou”, ”Mrs.

Siddons”, “Two Daughters” are among his best creatures.

His portraits are painted in clear tones in which blue and gray predominate.

One of his best pictures is the famous “Blue boy”. His other masterpiece is

“The Portrait of Duchess de Befou”.

We can see a young noble woman, her charming face is full of freshness and

lifeness. The charm of the expression of her face and the coloring are

characteristic for the artists style. Her calm pose, the elegance of her

gesture of her hand stresses her nobility. Outwardly we may see that in this

portrait Gainsbourough followed the rules of traditional ceremonial

portraits. But it is not so. The partied lips of the woman, a timid gesture

of her hand help to create a true impression of the sitter.

The artist has a wonderful sense of color, line and composition. He makes the

affective use of light and shade. The picture is executed mostly in light

tones in the dark background. Numerous shades of blue prevail in the picture.

The combination striking of pink shades in her face and body are contrasted

with gray and blue shades on her pounded hair, dress and scurf. It makes the

impression of freshness and beauty. Gainsbourough depicts the details of her

dress skillfully. The woman is graceful and charming.

The picture glorifies the idea of woman's beauty. It is exhibited in the

Hermitage in St. Petersburg.

Thomas Gainsbourough greatly influenced the English school of landscape

painting. He was one of the first English artists who painted his native

land. His delicate understanding of nature is especially felt in the pictures

where he showed peasants. The best landscape of his are: “Watering Place” and

“Harvest Wagon”. Both of them are exhibited in the National Gallery.

Among his other landscapes are: “The Sunset”, “The Market Card” and “The

Cottage Door”. His great love for the countryside and his ability to show it

made him an innovator in this field. He was the first English artist who

painted his native countryside so sincerely.

Thomas Lawrence (1768 - 1839) was the painter of kings, princes, great

diplomats and generals. All these are presented in large, full-dressed

portraits, painted with elegance. His portrait of Vorontsov (1821) is an

example of the brilliant official portrait. The portrait presents a young

general, a brilliant man of fashion but it doesn't characterize his nature

Landscape is another glory of English art because in it English art also rose

to supreme highs. John Constable (1776 - 1837) is one of the most outstanding

painters, who developed his own style of painting. He considered sketch, made

directly from nature, the first task of a landscape painter. He introduced

green into his painting: the green of trees, the green of summer, all the

greens which until then other painters had refused to see. He made quick

sketches based on his first impressions of natural beauties. John Constable

used broken touches of color. His work is important as the beginning of the

impressionist school.

He was a son of a wealthy miller. He began to take interest in landscape

painting while he was at Dedham grammar school. His father didn't favor art

as the profession and Constable as a boy worked almost secretly, painting in

the cottage of the local plumber, who was an amateur painter by nature

himself. Constable left school to work for his fathers business. During his

spare time he studied painting. His keen artistic interest was so strong that

his father allowed him to visit London where he began to study sketching.

After 2 years in London he returned to his fathers business for a year. The

year spent at his fathers mill was a great importance for him. He learned to

watch the sky with the exactness of a miller, to note the direction of the

wind, the significance of the clouds. In 1799 Constable entered the Royal

Academy school in London.

In his paintings the artist showed the new altitude to the nature. He refused

to learn works of famous landscape painters and decided to go to the country

and to paint nature as he saw it.

Constable depicted nature in his own realistic way, he was the first artist

who began to paint sketches which were as big as paintings. He was able to

show the inside life of nature. John Constables innovation influenced greatly

the development of French landscape painting.

In 1826, when he was 50, he showed a number of landscapes in the Paris salon.

Among them was the famous “Hay Wain”, painted in 1821, for which the painter

was awarded the Gold Medal. He was elected to the Royal Academy in 1829, but

he felt, that this honor had come too late in life to have much meaning.

Among his best landscapes are: “The Flatford Mill”, “A Farm in the Valley”,

“Hay Wain”, “The Flatford Mill”, “Cottage door”, Dedham Valley”, “The Corn

Field”, etc.

William Joseph Turner (1774 - 1851) was the greatest English romantic,

landscape and marine painter. He was a son of a fashionable barber, started

drawing and painting at his early age. His father used to sell the boys

drawings to his customers and in such a way he earned money for the boys

learning of art. At 14 he entered the Royal Academy School. His water-colors

were exhibited at the Royal Academy when he was only 15. At 18 he started his

own studio and received a commission to make drawings for magazines. For some

years he tramped over Wales and Western England. As Turner never married, he

devoted his life to art. Visitors were rarely admitted to his house and no

one was aloud to see him at work. He loved his paintings as a man loves his

children. At the age of 27 he was elected as a Royal Academician. From that

time his paintings became at great demand and brought good money. The last

years of his life he spent in a little cottage at Chelsea.

He liked to watch the sunrise and sunset. And it is said, that only a hour

before his death he had his chair wheeled to the window, so that he might

look for the last time at the sun, shining upon the river.

During his life Turner created some hundreds of paintings and some thousands

of water-colors and drawings. After his death his own entire collection of

paintings and drawings was willed to the nation. They are exhibited at the

National and Tate Galleries in London. Some of his famous pictures are: “The

Fighting Temeraire”, “Rain, Steam and Speed”, “Light and Color”, “Fisherman

at Sea” and others.

William Turner dedicated most of his paintings to the sea. He was a sailor

and the sea in itself absorbed him. He gave to his seas mass and wave as well

as movement. His waves seem to be alive.

“Calais Pier” is one of his greatest creations. The picture of a storm in it

is real and impressive. In the center of the picture there is a boat with

people in it. All the figures are living individuals. The farther objects in

the picture failed in the darkness, attracting our attention to the people in

the boat. Those who look at the picture can smell the water and hear the

shout of the wind. Color as well as tone in William Turners pictures produces

the effect of sunlight.

The name of William Turner is famous above all other landscape painters.

So if portrait painting is one of the glories of English art, landscape is

another: in both directions it rose to supreme highs.

Russian painting

The Tretyakov Gallery

The state Tretyakov Gallery is one of the best-known art galleries in Russia.

Different genres of painting are exhibited there. It takes its name from its

founder Pavel Tretyakov, a Moscow merchant and connoisseur. In the middle of

the XIX th century Pavel Tretyakov began to collect Russian paintings. A man

of high culture and fine aesthetic taste, he selected the most significant

and characteristic works of the Russian school of painting. He dedicated 40

years of his life to his main calling: the establishment of a National Art

Museum. Many works of “Peredvizhniki” are exhibited in this gallery.

Tretyakov started by collecting contemporary paintings, but soon he extended

the boundaries of his collection. Art of the XIX th century, works of Brulov,

Ivanov, Vasnetsov; works of Art of the XVIII th century and ancient Russian

art - all gradually found their way into Tretyakov`s collection. More than

once he had to add wings to his house in the Lavrushinskiy pereulok. In 1881

he opened his collection to the public. In 1892 he denoted his collection to

the city of Moscow. Since then, the gallery had received hundreds of pictures

from other museums and private collections. It has a rich collection of old

Russian icons. The world famous icon, "The Trinity”, painted in the early XV

th century by Andrey Rubliov is exhibited there. The gallery contains halls,

devoted to the magnificent works of such XVIII th century celebrities, as

Rokotov, Levitskiy, Borovitskiy, Shchedrin. The first half of the XIX th

century is represented by brilliant works of Brulov, Ivanov, Tropinin,

Venitsianov. The second half is especially well represented. The gallery has

the best collection of the “Peredvizhniki”, such as Kramskoy, Perov,

Yaroshenko, Myasoedov and others. Linked with “Peredvizhniki” are such great

names, as Surikov, Repin, Vereshagin, Vasnetsov, Levitan. Here you can see

historical painting, portraits, stylists, landscapes, seascapes and others.

Nowadays the gallery is an important source for studding and promotion of

Russian Art.

The Hermitage

The Hermitage in St.-Petersburg is one of the most famous museums in the

world. The museum's foundation dates to 1764, when Katherine the Great

received 225 west - European paintings as a dept from Berlin merchant Yoghant

Ernst Gatskovskiy. First the museum was intended to be a place of solitude,

resembling the park pavilions, which were called at that time “Hermitages”.

It consisted of two pavilions - Southern and Northern and a garden, suspended

between them. Walls in the Northern pavilion were hung with pictures. Later

the whole collection of paintings and antiquities got its name.

The museum grew rapidly throw out the XVIII th century and soon became one of

the greatest art galleries. At the start of the XIX th century it was

reorganized into special departments and the school of restoration was added.

Today the Hermitage collection consists of some 3 million pieces which are

exhibited in 353 rooms, occupying 5 buildings: The Winter Palace, Small

Hermitage, Large (Old) Hermitage, New Hermitage and Hermitage Theatre. All of

them can be seen from the Neva river. The museums six departments boast works

of art and culture, dating from ancient times to the present day.

The department of Pre-historic culture has one of the richest collections of

ancient archeological funds.

The department of classical antiquity contains a unique collection of Greek

and Roman sculpture, painted antique vases, cut jams and jewelry.

The department of East houses exhibits from ancient civilizations of Egypt,

Asia, Turkey, Mongolia, China and Japan.

The department of Russian culture preserves and exhibits materials, dating

from early Slavic times to the second half of the XIX th century. Here you

can see old Russian icons, portraits, water-colors, pencil drawings, objects

of applied art - porcelain, glass, stone, metal jewelry, costumes, carpets

and tapestries.

The department of numismatics owns a collection of over 1 million coins,

orders, medals from different countries and times of which any world museum

would be proud.

The most famous of all the Hermitage departments is the department of West-

European art, comprising a picture gallery and a collection of sculpture and

decorative art. They date from the medieval era to the present day, including

canvases of the foremost artists of Italy, Spain, Holland, France, Germany,

England as well as sculptures, pencil-drawings, works of applied art.

The Perm State Art Gallery

The Perm State Art Gallery is one of the oldest Art museums in the country.

Its history began long before the revolution. The special art department

attached to the Perm Scientific Industrial Museum was created in 1902 and the

first exhibits were received by the museum. The Art Academy presented

paintings and 24 engravings from the pictures by Repin, Brulov and Vasnetsov.

In 1907 the gallery were given pictures and landscapes by Vereshagin. The

exhibition was organized in 1907 and many works from Perm, Ekaterinburgh and

Vyatka were left at the gallery.

After the revolution of 1917 the Scientific Industrial Museum undertook a

serious and hard work in saving art values. As a result of this work in 1920

the second exhibition was held in Perm. Visitors could observe works of

Aivazovskiy, Vasnetsov, Korovin-Nesterov and other famous masters. Later the

gallery was extended by exceptional examples of wooden sculpture. It also got

the pictures of the famous Russian painters of the XVII th - XIX th

centuries. In such a way the gallery was enriched.

In 1927 the Art Museum was named The Perm Gallery. In 1932 it possessed so

many exhibits that had to move to a former cathedral, a unique monument of

Russian classicism. In 1945 the gallery got the name of the Perm State Art

Gallery.

Not many Art galleries of the country can match the collection of the Perm

State Art Gallery in variety and artistic worth. Our gallery ranks with such

treasuries as the Hermitage, the Tretyakov Art Gallery and the Pushkin Museum

of Fine Arts.

Now the gallery possesses more than 36000 exhibits, including Russian, Soviet

and West-European paintings, sculpture, works of the decorative Art and

numismatics.

The Old Wooden Sculpture of Perm represents an original sphere of the XVII th

- XIX th centuries Russian sculpture. It was inspired by old Russian

Traditions and the Perm local style of wood carving. Wooden Sculpture of Perm

is produced in the technique of sculptural relief and is regarded as “carved

icons”. The sculptures are marked by a powerful spiritual potention and

produce a great emotional effect.