PROFESSOR CHRISTIANA PAYNE
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Trees IN 19th-century British AND AMERICAN art

The role of trees in landscape painting, c. 1760-1870

trees as individuals

4/13/2017

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I've very much enjoyed reading Peter Wohlleben's book, The Hidden life of Trees: What they Feel, How they Communicate - Discoveries from a Secret World. In one chapter, he talks about the individual personalities of trees, how they will behave differently in the same situation. One will be cautious, shedding its leaves early, while another will live dangerously and hang on to them as long as possible. When a gap appears in the forest, one tree will grow lower branches, exposing itself to danger from fungi when the gap closes up and the lower limbs wither from lack of light, another will be more prudent and resist the temptation.

A passage in Strutt's Sylva Britannica, similarly, insists on the individual character of a tree:

"To the casual observer of nature the view of one tree may seem much like the view of another; ... but it is very different with the ardent contemplatist of Nature ... He loves to trace in each individual specimen, its particular anatomy and character. Every winding branch, and every shooting stem, has a charm for him; and he is interested throughout each stage of the existence of these wonderful vegetables, from the tender sapling to the leafless withered trunk." (p. 19)

Constable's Study of Trees made in the grounds of Charles Holford (Higgins Art Gallery, Bedford) illustrates this perfectly. There seems to be no logical explanation for the twisting rhythms of the Scots pine, which make it look like a dancer partnered by the rigidly upright larch next to it.
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    From 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".

    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. 

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