Painting and sculpture

English Art: Painting and sculpture in England from the 10th century.

The Portrait painting started in the 15th century and the landscape painting reached its splendor in the 19th century with John Constable and J M W Turner. In the 20th century, two groups such as Camden Town Group and the Bloomsbury Group accepted to modern influences in painting and in sculpture. 

In the 50s, the movement pop art began in the UK and the artists of this time tried out with mixed and unusual media, such as dead animals.

Medieval: 10th until 15th centuries

The painting and sculpture of this time was religious and their international organization had a national character. During the 13th century, painting appeared with Henry III and declined in the 14th as a result of the Wars of the Roses. The chronicler Matthew Paris was one of the figures of this time.

Tudor and Elizabethan: 15th until 16th centuries

The Renaissance style started with the sculptor Torrigiano. In this century, the reign of Henry VIII put an end to church art. Painting, in the case of portrait painting, remained largely through this influence. One of the exponents of this period was Hans Holbein, who painted portraits of Henry's court. On the other hand, in Elizabeth's reign English painters evolved a distinctive style in the portrait miniature.

 

17th century

English art was once again revitalized by some foreign artists such as Peter Paul Rubens and Anthony van Dyck. The 17th century portraiture was dominated by his baroque elegance. William Dobson, who succeeded van Dyck as court painter to Charles I, and Robert Walker, who painted portraits of Oliver Cromwell and other Puritan leaders were one of the successors.

18th century

Independence English art was obtained with great achievements in portraiture and landscape. Two outstanding figures as Gainsborough and Reynolds have transformed portraiture. The subtlety and refinement to their portraits, their images expressed the wealth and confidence of the English society are the elements they captured in their paintings.  William Hogarth has challenged the fashionable portraiture of the 18^th century, who painted faces and scenes of contemporary life with a vigorous and unapologetic frankness.

The work foreign artists such as Canaletto was established landscape painting in England. Richard Wilson, a first British artist stood out at landscape, and
William Blake, the poet and etcher, was a unique figure and he established his own individual style to show a complex personal mythology. 

19th century

Painters such as Constable and Turner that they gave deepness and range to landscape painting because it not only one of the most popular expressions of English art. The English art dominated the Pre-Raphaelite movement. The arts and crafts movement promoted a revival of crafts and good design in the 19th century.
The French artists influenced English art in the end of the century  such as Edgar Degas and the Impressionists.

20th century

English artists introduced to post-Impressionism and Fauvism in 1910. In 1911 it was formed the Camden town group to encourage artists that they brought  a new sense of form and color foe the description of scenes of everyday London life. 

Between the primary and secondary world war, the artists started to reflect a wide range of styles and intentions. Artist such as Matthew Smith, who worked in a fauvist style. Stanley Spencer tried to express a visionary apprehension of everyday life with the use of detailed realism. Abstract art was evolved by Ben Nicholson; other artists such as Paul Nash, Ceri Richards, and Graham Sutherland responded to surrealism. Henry Moore that he dominated English art was influenced by the surrealism of the 20th century.

English art  was became pluralistic after World War II. A strong figurative tradition was continued, in very different styles by Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach, John Bratby, Keith Vaughan, etc.

Some famous artists from England are: 

Cecil Kennedy

Cecil Kennedy was born in Leyton (England) on 4th February, 1905 and he died on 1997, St Albans (England). He comes from a family of artists and he is known as one of members of the English Contemporary School. He has painted some portraits, although will be remembered for his detailed paintings of flowers. Kennedy studied art in London and began to exhibit his works. At the 24 years,  he had introduce at the Royal Scottish Academy and the Royal Hibernian Academy and then he went on to exhibit at the Royal Academy and  also in the provinces.

In 1930 he  married with Winifred Aves. For him, she was a major influence and inspiration to Kennedy. During a long time ago, they worked together as a creative team considering that  she had the skill to create the beautiful floral arrangements that Kennedy painted.

In 1944 Kennedy focused in Antwerp and here where was that he familiarized with the Dutch and Flemish Old Master flower paintings. He knew many friends Flemish painters and so this interaction he changed Kennedy's painting style and technique.

Cecil Kennedy is an renowned prestige artist and is the finest British painter of flowers of the 20th Century. In his work, he applies modern exotic miscellaneous flowers with traditional English flowers and herbages besides plant species. He had much knowledge about flowers and his use of all white flower arrangements expressed his awareness of 20th Century horticultural trends such as Vita Sackville-West's White Garden at Sissinghurst. His work is famous for its detail and artful composition.

Cecil Kennedy's piece of art

Beautiful Victorian oil painting "Still life Flowers"

The painting represents a lovely still life of flowers showing roses, tulips etc. It is very amazing, impressive in quality.

"We have never heard before about Cecil Kennedy. The flowers of the painting seem very exotic and unknown to us, it brings memories when we were  children, it is very melancholic because of the dark and dull colors of the piece of art. The outlining is so delicate, that we might think those flowers are real. It gives us the impression that the landscape is not important, but the object is." 

Opinion by Giovanna Sepúlveda and Katherine Canales.

Lucian Freud 

Lucian Freud He was born on December  8th, 1922, in Berlin and he died on  July 21st, 2011. He and his family moved to London in 1933 to escape the Nazi Party and he got British Nationality.

Freud was a figurative artist who his style developed over time. In his youth he was influenced by Surrealism. He was called The Ingres of Existentialism and also he has been called the last great figurative painter.

In his paintings, he painted people either family and friends but also painted flesh. He was well known for painting nudes and he did not seek to praise and his self portraits were as uncompromising as his portraits of other people.

His watchman play a part in the painting of a portrait considering that Freud was reluctant to paint people he didn't know. He was a very fine draughtsman and latterly he became renowned for how he manipulated oil on canvas.

Lucian Freud's piece of art

"The Benefits Supervisor Sleeping"

This painting is an oil on canvas that represents an obese and naked woman posing on a sofa .  

It is a portrait of Sue Tilley that weigh about 127 kg. Freud explain that her body does not have muscle and she has a different texture.

Graham Sutherland

Graham Vivian Sutherland  was born on August, 24^th in 1903 in London and he died on February 17^th, 1980 in London. He was a English painter and he was known for his Surrealistic landscapes.

Sutherland studied art at Epsom College in London. He stood out printmaking, and he was  teacher at the Chelsea School of Art. As an engraver, he took inspiration in the romantic painter Samuel Palmer and he was influenced by William Blake, Paul Nash, Henry Moore, and Pablo Picasso. His first work had the characteristic by an exacting representationalism that developed in the Surrealism. During 1940 to 1945 he was an official war artist and his paintings give a factual and evocative record of desolation.

Sutherland started with the Crucifixion for St. Matthew’s Church in Northampton. This painting is one of the most important religious paintings of the 20th century. In his last work he added anthropomorphic insect and plant forms which he converted into powerful and frightening totemic images. The hard and spiky shapes of fossils gave the theme of his large Origins of the Land.

Also, Sutherland was known for his expressionistic and penetrating portraits. His painting of the writer Somerset Maugham was the first of an impressive series and he also designed an enormous tapestry for the new Coventry cathedral. 

Graham Sutherland's pieces of art

"Head III"

This painting shows a delicate creature that it is the invention of Sutherland’s imagination. This creature would be a kind of an insect or a crustacean. The work of Alberto Giacometti and Francis Bacon in relation with this picture was the frontality of its pose, gaze and the simplicity. The interpretations of this creatures were seen as threatening or pessimistic.

 

"The origins of the land"

This painting was made for the comparison with the history of the land of Britain created by its mineral wealth. In the painting, at the top the painting, the earth is aflame while underneath strange root-like forms suggest the promise of life.

"In this painting, we implied the beginning of England capturing it with different shapes and colors that gives the paint. The shapes are unique and each one represents a different meaning. In addition,  we had never heard about this artist and it caught our attention in the way that it represents the land of the angles."

Opinion by Alexandra Rojas and Mario Vega

For more information about the history of British art visit:

http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?groupid=3438&HistoryID=ad13&gtrack=pthc 

For more information about Lucian Freud visit:

 http://www.elcultural.es/version_papel/SEMBLANZAS/11037/Lucian_Freud/