Celebrated trees; tree portraits

8/16/2014

I've been looking at a a beautiful book: Jacob George Strutt's Sylva Britannica (1826). This consists of portraits of remarkable trees, with a fascinating text. It is large - folio size. I don't understand why there has (apparently) been very little research done on Strutt. Apart from an excellent thesis by Beryl Hartley, I can't find any modern articles on him. This is his etching of the Tortworth Chestnut - a tree in Gloucestershire that is probably over a thousand years old.

I went to see this tree a couple of weeks ago - obviously it has changed a bit in nearly 200 years - but I think Strutt has captured its character remarkably well.

4 Comments

Carin Bradley

1/1/2015 07:35:48 am

Researching this topic for some time as part of postgraduate HoA at York!
Looking forward to reading more on your blog

anne anderson link

10/4/2015 10:02:30 am

Dear Christiana

found your blog. Stay in touch as still working on trees after curating Under the Greenwood: Picturing the British Tree for St Barbe. Hoping to give a lecture at Somerset House on 28th or 29th Nov on the Elm for the Conservation Foundation, an event that will be part of National Tree Week

anne anderson link

2/3/2016 08:13:56 am

Now working on Elms for 2016 Yew Seminar this weekend (6th Feb ) St John's Church Waterloo, London from 10.30.

Michelle link

10/8/2021 02:33:23 am

Great Article! Thank you for sharing this very informative post, and looking forward to the latest one.

Author

You can read a review of it hereFrom c. 2010-2017, I was engaged in research for a book on trees in British art, asking questions, such as: how does the interest in trees develop, how do ideas change over the 18th and 19th centuries? I looked at drawing manuals, illustrated books on trees, oil paintings, watercolours and prints, landscape gardening, poetry, artists' writings. The artists I found most important and/or interesting included the following: Paul Sandby, Thomas Hearne, John Constable, Samuel Palmer, James Ward, John Martin, Edward Lear, Francis Danby, Jacob George Strutt and Henry William Burgess.

The book has now been published by Sansom and Company and its title is "Silent Witnesses: Trees in British Art, 1760-1870". You can read a review of it here.

My next research project is taking a look across the Atlantic and at the role of trees in American painting of c. 1800-1870. I'm getting to know new trees - hemlocks, red oaks, white pines - and new artists - Thomas Cole, Asher Brown Durand, Frederic Church, Worthington Whittredge, William Trost Richards.

Trees IN 19th-century British AND AMERICAN art

Celebrated trees; tree portraits

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