I have already touched briefly on the organisation of the work of Claude Lorrain (Claude Gelee) into fore middle and background but will go in to more detail about his work here.
Claude Lorrain was a French painter who moved to Rome in 1627 and has come known as the master of the Pastoral Landscape. Claude would have been in the habit of sketching from nature but this was to build up reference material. He would not have painted in plein air - he 'was convinced that taking nature as he found it seldom produced beauty. His pictures are a composition of various draughts which he had previously made from various beautiful scenes and prospects' according to Reynolds (1)
His paintings were always composed in the studio and often had a similar structure. He used framing devices such as trees in the foreground where the action and any figures were usually placed. The foreground was often dark and there was often a lack of any device linking foreground and middle ground. The eye instead being drawn to the middle ground by a warm light bathing the subject in this area. Moving further back in the paintings, aerial perspective was used with progressive greying and reduction of detail in subject in the background. Look at the three examples below:
 |
| Claude Lorrain: Landscape with Paris and Oenone |
 |
| Claude Lorrain: Landscape with Merchants |
 |
| Claude Lorrain: Landscape with Dancing Figures |
The first thing that strikes me when compering these three scenes is how similar they are. All of the, have trees framing figures in the foreground. The foreground is relatively dark and the middle ground is illuminated by contrast (although not so markedly so in the painting at the top with Paris and Oenone). There is often a body of water in the middle ground but not a path or a river leading the eye upwards through the composition. The foregrounds and middle grounds are quite clearly delineated from one another - almost like a stage set with flat pieces of painted scenery protruding from the wings. The background in comparison is much paler in each case with greyer and bluer tones to eat. In each case Lorrain has not painted a real landscape but a constructed and idealised landscape. He has tried to improve on nature. He had very specific almost formulaic ideas about what constituted beauty in a landscape.
Now let's look at Turner and compare his compositions with those of Lorrain. First look at the two paintings below:
 |
| Claude Lorrain: Seaport with the Embarkation of the Queen of Sheba 1648 |
 |
| J.M.W. Turner: Dido Building Carthage 1815 |
Turner has clearly referenced Claude's earlier work in Dido Building Carthage. The compositions are very similar. Both have buildings and figures in the foregrounds and buildings ad trees framing the middle distance. An expanse of water is in the centre of the frame in each piece with the rising sun illuminating the water surface and drawing the eye upwards. In fact Turner made sure that these two paintings would hang alongside each other at the National Gallery in London by stipulating this as a condition when he bequeathed his works to the nation in his will. (2). By choosing one of his earlier mature works to hang alongside that of Claude he is saying something about his claim to favourable comparison with the great landscape painters of the past. Exploration of the symbolism of these two paintings is beyond the scope of this research point so I will not be sidetracked by it here!
Turner, however, was not content to emulate the works of past masters, He was a prolific artist and throughout his career continued to explore his means of expression. His approach to composition, hence was not as formulaic as that of his predecessors especially in his later work. As time progresses the delineation between foreground, middle ground and background becomes less clearly defined. For example look at this sunset thought to have been painted between 1830 and 1835
 |
| J.M.W. Turner: Sunset ? 1830-1835 |
In his later works, Turner's compositions were often more dynamic than the 1815 example seen above. In the example below, the title suggests that Turner is trying to convey the sensations of "Rain, Steam and Speed' to the viewer. The dynamic composition and blurring and indistinctness of the subject matter help to convey this. The strong diagonal of the train track recedes across the fore and middle ground into the distance. The speeding train look almost as though it could carry on out of the canvas running over the viewer. The viewer is this involved in the action rather than a distant observer.
 |
| J.M.W. Turner: Rain Steam and Speed- The Great Western Railway 1844 |
I mentioned Turner's "Snow Storm" in my Research point : Landscape Series 1. Turner was certainly interested in representation of the sublime (see this Research Point: Depiction of Landscape 2). There was significant development in the compositions he used, however over time. Compare the following two images:
 |
| J.M.W. Turner: The Shipwreck 1805 |
 |
| J.M.W Turner: Snow Storm- Steam Boat off a Harbour's Mouth making Signals in Shallow Water, and going by the Lead. The Author was in this Storm in the Night the Ariel left Harwich 1842 |
Both paintings present a terrifying storm at sea - a spectacle of the sublime. However, in the first and earlier painting the observer is placed outside the action as a detached onlooker - safe and sound. In the second painting Turner emphasises his own placement within the scene in the title of the piece (he may or may not have been truly there). However, this along with the disorientating vortex of the composition serves to give the sensation that the painting's viewer is actually involved in the action. (3). Turner used the vortex as a compositional device in many of his late works.
References:
(1) Landscape and Western Art. Oxford History of Western Art. Malcolm Andrews. Oxford University Press 1999
(2) J.M.W. Turner (British Artists Series). Sam Smiles. Tate Publishing 2000 (reprinted 2009)
(3) Turner, Monet, Twombly: Later Paintings. Jeremy Lewinson. Tate Publishing 2012
No comments:
Post a Comment