Scenery in Dialogue, Looking Back at Western Landscape Painting from Hockney: A Life In Pictures
David Hockney is considered as one of the most influential artists in this era. In 2020, when the COVID-19 epidemic raged all over the world, he indicated with a brush that "the epidemic can't isolate spring", and watched everything grow and the seasons change when flowers bloom and fade.
Observing and depicting nature has always been one of the themes of David Hockney 's paintings. The Paper learned that on April 9th, Berlin Gallery will display "Three Trees Near Dyle, Tuexen" created by David Hockney in 2007-2008 side by side with the landscape paintings of Rembrandt, John constable and Van Gogh, in order to reflect on the contemporary inspiration of classical works with "Hockney: A Life In Pictures: the landscape in dialogue".
“David Hockney：The scenery in the dialogue” The exhibition "Three Trees Near Dale, Tuexen" is one of Hockney's representative works depicting nature in Britain. Hockney believes that photography can't fully capture the beauty of his hometown Yorkshire. He declared war on photography, but at the same time, he used it as an auxiliary tool to realize his ideas. His recent landscape paintings combined traditional vocabulary and digital technology, expressing his inheritance of ancient landscape paintings and observation and description of natural landscapes. In the exhibition, Hockney is an interlocutor of landscape painting, separated by centuries from Renaissance and Baroque until impressionism works first approached each other. They not only prove the lasting influence of landscape painting, but also reveal its complexity and versatility.
David Hockney, "Three Trees Near Dale, Tuexen", a ramble about landscape painting in autumn of 2008. David Hockney took the viewer through the North Yorkshire Country Trail through "Three Trees Near Dale, Tuexen" to watch the seasons change. From the summer of 2007 to the autumn of the following year (the painting sequence is Xia Dong Spring and Autumn), he painted not only a natural cycle, but also a dream. In Berlin Gallery, four wide-screen paintings hang in the order of spring, summer, autumn and winter. It can be said that when the landscape is presented on the screen, nature has been defined, and it has been reclassified in the museum until it conforms to the reading and viewing habits of the public. However, when you stand in the exhibition hall of Berlin gallery, the huge works give people an unusual overwhelming experience.
At the exhibition site, David Hockney's "Three Trees Near Dale, Tuexen" is such a large and bright landscape painting, which is a slice in the process of painting development. The trace of the exhibition to the landscape painting started from Piero della Francesca's "The Penance of St Jerome" in the early Italian Renaissance, about 1450, and its landscape as the background is marked, especially the expression of tree trunks.
Piero Della Francesca, The Confessed Saint Jerome, came to the 17th century around 1450 along the exhibition line. The exquisite description of trees by Baroque landscape painter Claude Lorraine made people see that the focus perspective was broken at that time. Recently, the work "Arch Bridge Landscape", which just belongs to Rembrandt, shows the alder that is blown by the wind and touched by the light, with a dense atmosphere.
Dherdt Hobbema, "Country Street under Trees", the exhibition about 1663 also pays attention to some less noticeable works. For example, in a "Dutch Landscape" created by Philips Koninck in 1660, the artist has used the perspective of drones to draw a small church and windmill in the village at the foot of the mountain, as well as a swamp that blends with the sky in the distance.
Philips konic, Scenery of the Netherlands, works from 1655 to 1660 in Huo Keni. His artistic origin began in England and passed on to Thomas Gainsborough and constable. The painter from Yorkshire learned from his predecessors that landscape is a construction of reality; When he arrived at Van Gogh, he turned the scenery into realistic brushstrokes. Van Gogh's Harvest in Provence in the exhibition is a sketch of his famous work Harvest. However, Van Gogh's wheat field is a busy scene for harvest, but Huo Keni's wheat field is empty, and no farmers or passers-by disturb the withering of flowers and plants. This challenge to barbizon school's idyllic painting style became the key to Hockney 's success.
Constable, Heim Village on the Stoll River, circa 1804.
Van Gogh, The Harvest of Provence, 1888 Scenery has never existed in isolation. With the outbreak of the industrial revolution, the land described by constable and thomas gainsborough gave way to steam machines, and factories grew along the river banks. Hockney: A Life In Pictures's nature is threatened by the global climate and environment, and its beauty has always been in a virtual state.
David Hockney, Three Trees Near Dale, Tuexen, in the winter of 2007, but his brush described the structure of branches more eagerly, and his palette followed the midday light. In this way, he satisfied his contemporaries' longing for an unchanging world.
David Hockney, "Three Trees Near Dale, Tuexen", rediscovered Rembrandt's works in the summer of 2007. Another important discovery of this exhibition is that the collection of "Arch Bridge Scenery" in Berlin Gallery was proved to be by Rembrandt, and it has been attributed to Rembrandt's student Govert Flinck for decades.
Rembrandt, Landscape of Arch Bridge, had been speculated for many years before this conclusion was published in 1638. In 1989, Rembrandt Research Project pointed out that the Landscape of Arch Bridge in Berlin Gallery was "strikingly similar" in style, technology and theme to the Landscape of Stone Bridge in the National Museum of the Netherlands. At that time, it was concluded that flink must be a brilliant reproducer of Rembrandt's works. Although experts have long questioned the attribution and thought that the author was Rembrandt, there is no further basis. In recent years, after repeated scientific and technical analysis of this small work with a size of only 28.5x 39.5 cm, it is confirmed that the creation age of this work should be earlier than the known 1638.
Rembrandt, Stone Bridge Scenery, collected by the National Museum of the Netherlands (not the exhibit in this exhibition) "We often see works that appear in pairs, which usually gives the impression that the painter tries to reinterpret in another style or optimize his finished work, so he draws a similar work." Dagmar Herschfeld, curator of Berlin Gallery and an expert on Rembrandt studies, said, "In 1924, Arch Bridge Landscape entered the Berlin Gallery. After analyzing it, it shows that Rembrandt has completely changed the picture during his creation, including changing the position of storm clouds, changing the size of mountains and adjusting a group of trees. These changes have made the painting more compact. " After in-depth study of the works, the changing way of composition began to be clear, and each adjustment tended to be more familiar with Rembrandt's contrast style of light and shadow. The survey also confirmed that, contrary to previous understanding, the "Arch Bridge Scenery" of Berlin Gallery was created before the "Stone Bridge Scenery" of Amsterdam, and the "Stone Bridge Scenery" was more accurate and transparent in color.
Two Rembrandt works at the exhibition site, the left is "Arch Bridge Landscape". Rembrandt is famous for his figures, and only seven of his surviving landscape paintings are known at present. Upgrading from Flint to Rembrandt means that its price has risen to more than 10 million euros, which does not mean that this work will be sold. "It only makes sense if the work appears in the exhibition and is seen by more people."
In 1643, in addition to the above works, the classical painters who talked with Huo Keni included Jacob van Ruisdae and Richard Wilson, etc. The answer to why Huo Keni's work was called "Three Trees Near Dale, Tuexen" may be found in an etching painting by Rembrandt in 1643. Rembrandt also painted three trees, and Huo Keni's imagination of Yorkshire was also integrated into the three trees.
David Hockney, "Three Trees Near Dale, Tuexen", the exhibition in autumn 2008 will last until July 10th. This article is compiled from Andrew Kilb's "Dream of Eyes" (Faz Net) and Kate Connolly's "Works Belonging to Students Confirmed by Rembrandt himself" (Guardian).