British painting Thomas Gainsborough

Gainsborough turned to the old masters, especially to Van Dyck. To this study he brought an innate genius for drawing and a sensuous delight in colour and movement that seems at times to amount to almost an intoxication with them. No other painter has thus caught, at his best, the essence of silks and lace in motion, nor the tremulous flicker of an eyelash. In contrast to Reynolds, the essence of his genius was intuitive, the touch of the brush getting ever lighter, the atmosphere ever more aerial. The particular discovery of Gainsborough was the creation of a form of art in which the sitters and the background merge into a single entity. The landscape is not kept in the background, but in most cases man and nature are fused in a single whole through the atmospheric harmony of mood. It is no accident that in the works of Gainsborough's late maturity the figures blend with the background to such an extent that they become almost transparent. The effect was possible only by situating the figures in the background, not in order to add an element to the portrait but with the sole purpose of achieving the greatest possible degree of spontaneity. It was this same striving for spontaneity which prevented Gainsborough from portraying his society people in historical costumes or striking attitudes. This was a distinct innovation at a time when the whole tradition was to extol an ideal and historical concept of beauty, to abandon nature and embrace artificiality.

Each of Gainsborough's portraits is distinct and individual, even though taken as a whole, they depict an entire society in its significant manifestation. Gainsborough's truthful and subtle rendering of character is typical of his portrait painting. His special insight into the psychology of women makes him essentially the woman's painter. One of the most fascinating of his works is the study of his "Two Daughters". In its unfinished state it is an exquisite study of young girlhood. Its light colour scheme of blues and yellows belongs to his early period. Later he enriched his palette, but he invariably kept his scheme cool, preferring blues. In such a masterpiece as the glorious "Mrs. Siddons" the prevailing colour is blue, but it loses nothing in richness against any work in more intimate colour. There is a kind of English reserve about Gainsborough's blues, which belongs essentially to his spirit.

Gainsborough's painting is not overburdened by too scrupulous an observance of rules and precepts. The immediacy and spontaneity which are present in nature are present also in his work, to the extent of giving the impression that the artist's supreme ability consists in making even the most artificial elements appear entirely natural and spontaneous.

Emphasis is nearly always placed on the season in both the landscape and the portraits, from the time of Gainsborough's early works until the years of his late maturity. In his most famous early painting "Robert Andrews and Mary, His Wife" Gainsborough shows the pleasure of resting on a rustic bench in the cool shade of an oak tree, while all around the ripe harvest throbs in a hot atmosphere enveloped in a golden light. In his late work "The Market Cart", painted in 1786-1787, that is shortly before Gainsborough's death, the season is autumn, and the picture is penetrated throughout by the richness and the warmth of colour of this season, by its scents of drenched earth and marshy undergrowth. Contrasts of light and shade in a context of flowing, curved and broken lines, produce an impression of animation and mobility which is the characteristic of Gainsborough's art. This mobility is directly connected with his technique of seizing an effect in a rapid stroke, so that a beauty of form emerges from his bold execution and masterly technique. A mobile and weightless quality is found also in the background details and the draperies, where vibrant patches of light have a fluid translucent consistency which recalls the manner of Rubens and anticipates Goya. The formal elements of the painting-colours and lines- thus become expressive in their own right.

Gainsborough is the purest lyricist of English painters, while Reynolds - the master of the epic style.

Answer the following questions:

1/. What new attitude did Gainsborough bring to English portrait painting?

2/. How is his manner of painting contrasted to Reynold's?

3/.What was the function of landscape in Gainsborough's portraits?

4/. How was the effect of spontaneity achieved?

5/. What makes Gainsborough the woman's painter?

6/. What colour scheme did Gainsborough prefer? Give examples.

7/. What did Gainsborough place emphasis on in his portraits and landscapes?

8/. How was light and shade used by Gainsborough?

THE ART OF THE USA

America's fine arts developed under conditions far different from those in many other countries. The United States began as a group of colonies; its settlers were drawn from many places with differing customs and traditions. All of these customs and traditions had to be adapted to life in a strange and difficult environment. A formal "American" culture grew and developed only after the United States was established as an independent nation. Its growth over the years has been marked by the conflict between two strong forces of inspiration- domestic, sometimes primitive, creativity, and European sophistication. Generally, the very best American artists have been those who managed to combine both forces to create their own original form.

Just as there is, however, no single American ethnic or cultural group, there is also no peculiar or recognizably "American" style in the arts. There is, rather, a mixture of many styles, reflecting the reality of American society.

Artistic creativity in the colonial period and the early decades of the new nation generally found expression in the production of useful, everyday implements such as simple, elegant furniture or colorful patchwork quilts. For the busy, practical-minded Americans, portraits were the only kind of "fine" art that seemed necessary. Most American artists of the time were self-taught. Their work had the primitive charm of folk art-first-hand observation, a sense of character and instinct for color, line and pattern.

America's first well-known "school" of landscape painting – the Hudson River School - appeared in 1820s. Led by Thomas Cole /1801-1848/, the Hudson River painters combined great technical skill with romantic American scenery. Their paintings were visual explorations of light and natural wonder. This tradition of directness, simplicity of vision, and clarity developed in the late 19th century into something new- naturalistic portrayal of the broad range of American life. Rural America- the seas, the mountains, and the men and women who lived there - was the subject of Winslow Homer /1836-1910/.

Controversy became a way of life for Americans. In fact, much of American painting and sculpture since 1900 has been a series of revolts against tradition. "To hell with the artistic values, "announced Robert Henri /1865-1929/. Henri was leader of what critics dubbed the "ash-can" school because of the group's realistic portrayal of the squalid aspects of city life.

Just a few years later the "ash-can" artists were pushed aside by the arrival of modernist movements from Europe, such as cubism and abstraction.

The Depression of the 1930s and growing world tensions sparked an increase in romantic social protest art. Artists everywhere in the world mounted extraordinary pictorial attacks on social systems in scores of paintings and public murals.

In the years following World War II, a group of young New York artists emerged with a fierce drive to remake the goals and methods of art. This movement, known as Abstract Expressionism, became the first American art movement to exert major influence on foreign artists.

The Abstract Expressionists went further than earlier European artists had in their revolt against traditional graphic styles. Among the movement's leaders were Jackson Pollock /1912-1956/ and Willem de Kooning /1904-1988/. These artists stressed space and movement.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s young artists reacted against Abstract Expressionism. These artists - among them Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns - used photos, newsprint, and discarded objects in their paintings. The early 1960s saw the rise of "Pop" art. Artists such as Andy Warhol, Larry Rivers, and Roy Lichtenstein reproduced, with satiric care, everyday objects and images of American popular culture-Coca-Cola bottles, soap cans, cigarette packages, and comic strips. "Pop" was followed by "Op" - art based on the principles of optical illusion and perception.

The 1970s and the 1980s have seen an explosion of forms, styles and techniques. These different kinds of art bear a variety of names: earth art, conceptual art, performance art.

Still, the spirit rise in the 1980 of a new group of young artists has shown that painted figures on canvas remain popular with the art-viewing public. This new group, which included David Salle and Susan Rothenberg are the newest stars of the art world.

/ David Goddy. Art and Music in the US/

Answer the following questions:

1/. What were the conditions under which America's fine arts began to develop?

2/. What two strong forces of inspiration influenced the development of a formal "American" culture?

3/. What was art like in the colonial period in America?

4/. What school of painting was the first to appear in America?

5/. What did their tradition of painting develop into in the late 19-th century? 6/Who revolted against tradition in art?

7/. How is the art of the Depression years characterized in the text?

8/. What movement in art was the first in America to influence foreign artists? 9/ Who reacted against Abstract Expressionism?

10/. What is "Pop" art?

11/. What is peculiar of the art of the newest stars of the art world?