Visual Arts, movement of industrialization, British art, nature, representation of nature, Renaissance movement, Europe movements, British school, Thomas Gainsborough, Stubb, Turner, British artistic community
Nature is at the center of the romantically dominated period of the 18th and the 19th century in British art. Before that, it was cities that dominated the intellectual and artistic movements. The period of the Enlightenment provoked enormous transformations in the artistic world, and the focus was on society, power, industry and economy. In Britain, this followed the movement of industrialization that transformed a rural country into a more urban one. Of course, these changes had a repercussion on the way nature was represented in British art.
[...] That was the ground of an English school of art that developed in the 18th century. Thanks to the evolution of techniques in the agricultural part of society, economic development and prosperity, nature became an important subject. The artistic isolation of the 17th century started to become a strength that helped British art to find its identity. Gainsborough who was a very important artist of the 18th century, a favourite of the Royal family, became a precursor in the representation of nature. [...]
[...] Science, nature and art merged with the objective to go towards beauty. Stubb is one of the masters of animal painting. He created a new sort of painting that was a combination of aesthetic and science like "the anatomy of the horse"(1766). Painting animals meant more than just being accurate, or just aiming at beauty, it was the representation of the sublime. In the 19th century, nature became more and more a way to express emotions about society. With the opening of new possibilities (travel, modernity, new goods and techniques?), artists developed new trends and going to the countryside was one of them. [...]
[...] Modernity, industry, the quest for aesthetics and science merged into the creation of a national identity. The unique relation to nature in Britain is the result of an ambition, inventing a British form of art. The political, economic success of the British Empire probably served as a balancing point in creating the nostalgic and so accurate depiction of landscapes, animals or human emotions. In that sense, British art and nature as a symbolic element were born in that golden age for painting. [...]
[...] Three horses pulling a farm cart is the perfect symbol of a never-ending scene that can be understood by anyone in England at that time. The depth of the colours and the intention of the painter, his attention to details, make of that painting a masterpiece. Constable was accompanied in this quest by Turner, one of the major British painter of that time. They both shared the same vision of a world led by shades and lights. Their way of depicting society spread to the entire British artistic community. The Ship Wreck by Turner is the image of a battle in a stormy sea. [...]
[...] Nature became a source of inspiration for all Romantics and dreamer. As an example, the use of trees in Gainsborough's painting "The Watering Place" is relevant. Trees are huge and dark, they dominate the painting as a terrifying element. But at the same time, they also have that ability of protecting and enveloping us. They are the perfect visual definition of the use of Nature at that time. The dramatic changes that occurred in agriculture in Britain was visible in art. [...]
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