Направления и жанры живописи второй половины 19 века в коллекциях музея им. Радищева и галереи Тейт. Сравнительная характеристика.
творческая работа учащихся по английскому языку по теме

Contents

Introduction………………………………………………………………….2

1. The Radishchev Museum – History and Development………………………3
2. Directions of the Fine Arts of Russia………………………………………...4

1. Portraits………………………………………………………………..4
2. Landscapes…………………………………………………………….4
3. Seascapes……………………………………………………………....5
4. Genre Painting ………………………………………………………...6
5. Bible Stories…………………………………………………………...6

3. The Tate Gallery – History and Development…………………………….….6
4. The painting basic direction of the second half of the 19 century in England Runaway in dream – painting of the Pre-Raphaelites………………………...7

4.1 Plots……………………………………………………………………….9

4.2 Female Images and Portraits……………………………………………..10

4.3 Landscapes……………………………………………………………….11

Conclusion …………………………………………………………….…….12

List of literature………………………………………………………………14

Introduction

Everyone in Saratov knows the painting collection of the the Radishchev Museum of Fine Arts. Almost all of us have ever been to and have seen its canvases. When we began studying English we learnt a lot about London’s Art galleries and museums. And a lot of questions have risen: What did the artists of the two countries depict at one and the same period of time? Which genres did they prefer? Why? We have decided to compare the two collections at the end of the 19th century and to choose their resemblance and differences.

So the aim of this work is to compare Russian and English paintings of the 2nd half of the 19th century. The objects of our study are the Radishchev Museum in Saratov and the Tate Gallery in London. The subject of our investigation is the pictures of British and Russian artists. The purpose of this work is to analyze the features of the development trends of painting in both countries.

The first chapter of our work is devoted to Russian artists, whose works are in the museum of the city. Here we consider trends and genres that are characteristic for the Russian school of painting of the late 19th century. In the second chapter trends and genres of fine art of the UK are considered, presented at the Tate Gallery.

I

The Saratov State Radishchev Museum

The Saratov State Radishchev Museum is one of the largest and oldest in the country. It was founded in 1885 by a famous artist and landscape painter, professor of the Academy of Arts Alexei Petrovich Bogolyubov, grandson of the great revolutionary writer Aleksandr Nikolaevich Radishchev. Creating the  museum was a matter of his life, and he had to pay a lot of effort and energy. At that time Saratov was called "the capital of the Volga". Large commercial and industrial centre on the Volga, it was a typical "merchant" city. Bogolyubov tried to establish the first public art museum in the Russian province to realize  Radishchev’s dreams of bringing education to the masses.

The section of Russian art in the museum is the most extensive and diverse. It reflects almost all the principal phenomena of the national culture of XVIII - early XX century.

In the museum we can see pictures of V.Borovikovsky, K.Bryullov, V. Perov, I.Repin, V.Surikov, A. Benois, V. Borisov-Musatov, I. Aivazovsky, F. Rokotov, D. Levitsky, F. Matveev, O.Kiprensky, A.Bogolyubov, I. Shishkin, K. Petrov-Vodkin and many other painters and sculptors who have left their mark in the world of art history.

Russian painting of the second half of the nineteenth century occupies three halls in the museum. The first one is devoted completely to the works of the museum's founder A Bogoliubov. The museum possesses the richest and most interesting collection of his canvases, but the exposition shows only a small part of them - mainly paintings of 1870 - 1890s. That is the best period of his art, when his creativity was at the top.

 In the adjoining hall there are paintings and sketches by Russian academic trend artists and painters of the sixties - the early stage of Russian realistic painting. The total victory of realism in Russian painting of the period can be seen in the large hall displaying the works by Itinerants (peredvizhniki) - members of the Society for Circulating Art Exhibitions.

Here you can see sketches and paintings by the most outstanding artists of the second half of the nineteenth century. The peculiarity of the museum exposition is the prevalence of portraits and landscapes, though the Itinerants mainly preferred genre and national historical painting.

II Areas and Genres

2.1 Portraits

   The canvases by I. Repin - four portraits and two landscape sketches - are by right considered to be the pride of the museum collection. The portrait of the artist's daughter Nadya, painted in 1881, is among them. There are few children's portraits by Repin and "Girl in Pink" is one of his best.

   After six years in Moscow, I.Repin wrote a portrait of A.Bogolyubov. Energetic, despite his advanced age, active and purposeful, he appears in a portrait in 1882. Noble's profile looks sharp silhouette against a dark background, enhancing the clarity and significance of the portrait image. Reflecting the typical artists of the Itinerants ideas about the value of human personality, the portrait of 1882 is among the best works of  I. Repin and is one of the most famous art museum exhibits.

   Acute mental vision is marked by portraits by I. Kramskoy (another portrait of Bogolyubov 1876),V. Surikov ( portrait of Scherbatova), K.Makovsky (portrait of E.A.Vorontsova-Dashkova, 1885), V.Gorbunov (portrait of Belinsky 1871),

V. Vereshchagin (portrait of Nechayeva N.P. 1860), F.K. Winterhalter (E.N. Krivtsova’s  portrait)

2.2 Landscapes  

   A keen lyrical feeling imbues the landscapes of A. Savrasov, F. Vasiliev, M. Klodt, L. Kamenev and N. Dubovsky. At the time landscape is turning into the medium of realizing innovative searchings of painters accustomed to plein air trend. Alongside with sketches there are large-scale landscapes on display in the museum. They convey the beauty of Russian nature and provoke reflection on tragic contradictions of life which reveal both the motif shown and emotional world of the artist.

   The museum has one of the last major works of an outstanding landscape painter Isaac Levitan: "The Tempest. Rain ". The painting was first shown in 1899 at the Twenty-seventh exhibition of the Itinerants, at once attracted public attention and provoked many reactions in the press at that time. It is a heavy storm. The strong wind is blowing. It’s dark. What explains the artist's constant return to this sad topic? During these years Levitan was already seriously ill.

   Alexei Savrasov (1830-1897) is considered the founder of the National lyrical landscape. He created many works poetically revealing the identity of Russian nature. These are, undoubtedly, belongs to "Spring" in 1883.

The further increasing importance of landscape will be especially typical for Russian painting of the turn of the century.

2.3 Seascapes

Seascapes and naval battles are represented by some paintings of A.Bogoliubov – “First Battle of Russian Fleet Commanded by Naum Seniavin against Swidish Fleet at Ezel Island”, “Gangeut Battle. Third Moment”. (Capture of the Fregate by Peter the Great at Gangeut) 1876, “Lieutenant Skrydlov s Deed on Danube” (Skrydlov Attack to the Turkish Steamboat. Danube) (1881) and I.Aivazovsky’s  “Ship at the Shore”. A series of paintings of naval battles brought Bogoliubov’s  dramatic skills to the fore, with the flames of burning ships reflected in water and clouds. Aivazovsky is best known for his seascapes. His technique and imagination in depicting the shimmering play of light on the waves and sea foam is especially admired, and gives his seascapes a romantic yet realistic quality that echoes the work of English watercolorist J. M. W. Turner. Especially effective is his ability to depict diffuse sunlight and moonlight, sometimes coming from behind clouds, sometimes coming through a fog, with almost transparent layers of paint. Light, as an idea, plays an important part in Aivazovsky’s creative work. An attentive observer feels that depicting the sea, clouds and atmosphere, the painter, in fact, depicts light. Light in his art is a symbol of life, hope and belief, a symbol of eternity.

                  2.4 Genre Painting

The genre painting is represented by works of V. Makovsky, Vasnetsov, N. Bogdanov-Belsky, G. Myasoedov, a large canvas of M. Nesterov, where landscape is not merely a background, it also reflects the feeling.  The painting "Love Potion" of Mikhail Vasilievich Nesterov (1862 - 1942 years) stops  almost every visitor of the Radishchev museum, paying attention to the mystery, fairy tales, the beauty of a sad character. The subject brings us to the folk tales and legends. A girl in a Russian national costume is sitting on the bench, surrounded by flowers and tall grass. An old witch stands on the threshold of the doorway, carefully and sympathetically looking at his visitor. He discovered the secret of her soul. Nesterov focuses on the emotional state of the heroine, who came to the magician with her personal drama.

                    2.5 Bible Stories

Historical - mythological canvas of the evangelic cycle "Dreams" by V. Polenov is also to a large extent a landscape. It was finished in 1894. Christ is sitting on the shore of Sea of   Galilee in Palestine. This is the most legendary place where Jesus delivered his famous Sermon on the Mount. Polenov avoids a narrative story. He wants to transfer the internal state of the traveller, starring far into the horizon. The artist depicts  Christ as an ordinary man, outside the usual rules. The man and the  nature completely enrich each other.

III    The Tate Gallery

History and Development

And now we would like to tell about the Tate Gallery and its artists who are the brightest representatives of the basic direction in painting of the second half of the19 century.

The Tate is an institution that houses the United Kingdom's national collection of British Art, and International Modern and Contemporary Art. It is a network of four art museums: Tate Britain, London (previously known as the Tate Gallery, founded 1897), Tate Liverpool (founded 1988), Tate St Ives, Cornwall (founded 1993) and Tate Modern, London (founded 2000).  There are plans to open a TATE in Southampton in 2020.

The original Tate art gallery was called the National Gallery of British Art, situated on Millbank, Pimlico, London at the site of the former Millbank Prison. The idea of a National Gallery of British Art was first proposed in the 1820s by Sir John Leicester, Baron de Tabley. It took a step nearer when Robert Vernon gave his collection to the National Gallery in 1847. A decade later John Sheepshanks gave his collection to the South Kensington Museum (later the Victoria & Albert Museum), known for years as the National Gallery of Art (the same title as the Tate Gallery had). Forty years later Sir Henry Tate who was a sugar magnate and a major collector of Victorian art, offered to fund the building of the gallery to house British Art on the condition that the State pay for the site and revenue costs. Henry Tate also donated his own collection to the gallery. It was initially a collection solely of modern British art, concentrating on the works of modern—that is Victorian era—painters. It was controlled by the National Gallery until 1954. By the mid 20th century, it was fulfilling a dual function of showing the history of British art as well as international Modern art. In 1954, the Tate Gallery was finally separated from the National Gallery.

                  IV

The Painting Basic Direction of the Second Half of the 19 century in England

Runaway in Dream – Painting of the Pre-Raphaelites

The second half of the XIX-th century, the present actively gets into art and becomes its basic theme. People even more often limit a circle of the interests to visible, heard and perceived things, but not all … In the middle of the century, in 1849, in rationalistic Victorian England,, there was a group of the artists who have opposed a real world to the worlds of the imagination, similar to a magic fairy tale and mystery. The World behind the looking-glass world thought up during this epoch, the English professor mathematicians Luis Carroll

The Pre-Raphaelites — a direction in English poetry and painting in the second half of the XIX-th century, formed in the beginning of 1850th years for the purpose of struggle against conventions of the Victorian epoch, the academic traditions and blind imitation classical samples.

Young artists headed by Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Holman Hunt and John Everett Milles, and later, William Waterhouse named themselves the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as the Pre-Raphaelites). Later  not only direct members of a brotherhood, but also other artists like John Brett, and also poets and the writers of the Victorian England professing similar esthetic views were named  the Pre-Raphaelites in a counterbalance to artists of the academic direction, that were considered followers of the great Italian. Members of a brotherhood have directed to the fine world of art in a border with the world of a dying gothic style and the  Renaissance when artists were "fair before God" handicraftsmen, when the aspiration to an ideal hasn't deprived main thing art yet, in their opinion, - sincerity.

Following romanticists of the beginning of the century, they derived inspiration from images of the Middle Ages. In legends, tales of chivalry, songs and sagas. And from the very beginning, near to magic images of medieval legends, there were fine faces sacred Christian and martyrs. It is a little later in their works antique motives have come, but their interpretation strikingly differed from the habitual.

In their world there are no trifles. Behind each smallest detail (always written with attention and love) the mysterious infinity of the true, divine nature of the world creation disappears. What was in it for them the main thing? The only answer  - beauty. All of them could subscribe under Dostoevsky's theorem confirming what exactly it will save the world. Not without reason they counted creation of absolutely fine works of art among the main tasks of the association. In all subjects that they took from a reality, for designing of the world, they found beauty which in turn was the certificate of divine greatness and the nature which had a transcendental origin. The beauty for them was that thread of Ariadna which connected our world and the Divine world.

4.1 Plots

First Pre-Raphaelites preferred gospel plots, and avoided in painting of church character and treated the Gospel symbolically, attaching special significance not to historical accuracy of represented gospel episodes, and their internal philosophical sense. So, for example well-known Ecce Ancilla Domini (1850),   by Gabriel Dante Rossetti and Girlhood of Mary Virgin (1849)

Christ in the House of His Parents (1850) by John Everett Millais The painting depicts the young Jesus assisting Joseph in his workshop. Joseph is making a door, which is laid on his carpentry work-table. Jesus has cut his hand on an exposed nail, leading to a sign of the stigmata An assistant of Joseph's, representing potential future Apostles watches these events.

The Pre-Raphaelites were engaged also in historical themes, achieving the greatest accuracy in the image of actual details; addressed to products of classical poetry and the literature, to works of Dante Alighieri, William Shakespeare, John Keats. They idealized the Middle Ages, loved the medieval romanticism and mysticism.

Ophelia( 1851—1852) by John Everett Millais  , one more history of tragic love …  the most known picture where the muse of Rossetti Elizabeth Siddal is depicted. Ophelia is a fictional character in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. She is a young noblewoman of Denmark, and potential wife of Prince Hamlet

Mariana 1851. This is Mariana from Shakespeare’s play Measure for Measure.

And again Shakespearean characters, at this time Claudio and Isabella, 1850-53 (characters of the play Measure for Measure) painted by Holman Hunt.

The Lady of Shalott is one of the most known pictures of the English artist John William Waterhouse, created in 1888. It is the first version of a picture, devoted to the poem of Alfred Tennison with the same name «Magician Shalott" (in Russia it is known in Balmont's translation).

4.2 Female Images and Portraits

The Pre-Raphaelites have created in the fine arts new type of female beauty — released, quiet, mysterious which will be developed later by artists of modernist style. The woman on paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites — the medieval image of ideal beauty and feminity, they admire and worship to it. Especially we can see it in Rossetti works who admired the beauty and mysteriousness.

Among them Beata Beatrix (1864-1870), "monument" of love to the lost wife …,

Proserpina 1874  and Mary Nazarene 1857. Dante Gabriel Rossetti uses a figure of Proserpina from Ancient Greek and Roman mythology.

The mystical, pernicious beauty, la femme fatale has found expression at William Waterhouse later. In this connection it is possible to name a picture Ophelia(1894). On one of such pictures Ophelia is shown just before the death sitting near the lake. Ophelia is a sign picture (1888), till now remaining one of the most popular exhibits of the Tate Gallery.

Images of a  tragic love was attractive for Pre-Raphaelites and their followers  in the end of the XIX-th century They involved, in particular, such themes, as sincere cleanliness and tragic love, the unrequited love, the unattainable girl, the woman perishing for love, noted by a shame or a damnation, and also the dead woman of unusual beauty.

Portrait genre as a whole is presented the most brightly in John Millais works.

Mrs James Wyatt Jr and her Daughter Sarah circa 1850, Sir Henry Thompson, Bt 1881

The Yeoman of the Guard 1876 .It Is a portrait of John Charles Montague, Millais shows him in the uniform of the yeomen, usually known as ‘Beefeaters’.

Mrs Bischoffsheim 1873, Miss Eveleen Tennant 1874

Millais was one of the most successful society portrait painters of the late nineteenth century.

4.3 Landscapes

Holman Hunt, Millais, Medoks Brown worked much in a landscape genre ,  John Brett also had certain popularity  Landscape painters of this school are known in particular for the image of clouds inherited from the well-known predecessor, William Turner. A landscape was written out with the maximum accuracy. Hunt has expressed the thoughts: «I want to draw a landscape. Representing each detail what I can see».  

The Vale of Rest (1858-9 by Millais). The painting is of a graveyard, as night is coming on. Beyond the graveyard wall there's a low chapel with a bell. In the foreground of the scene, there are two nuns - the heads of the two nuns are level and symmetrical.

Our English Coasts, 1852, The Haunted Manor 1849,Cornfield at Ewell 1849 by Holman Hunt.

John Brett is an English artist close to movement Pre-Raphaelites, the most known for the carefully traced landscapes. Brett's most successful pictures were panoramic views of the sea. His beach scenes with meticulously rendered boulders and rock formations tend to be laboured and repetitive.

Britannia's Realm 1880, The British Channel Seen from the Dorsetshire Cliffs 1871, Florence from Bellosguardo 1863.

Painters did scrupulous etudes of tones from nature, reproducing them as far as possible bright and distinct. This microscopic work demanded huge patience and work, in the letters or diaries Pre-Raphaelites complained of necessity to stand for hours under the hot sun, a rain, a wind, to draw, at times, very small piece of a picture. For these reasons, their landscape hasn't received a wide circulation, and then the impressionism has come to change it.

The Pre-Raphaelites as an art direction is widely known and popular in Great Britain..It also named the first British current which has reached of an international recognition, however, among researchers this value is different: from revolution in art to pure innovation in the technician of painting. There is an opinion that movement began with attempt of updating of painting, and had further a great influence on development of the literature and all English culture as a whole.  

                  Conclusion

So, having conducted the analysis of research of painting in the second half of the19th  century presented in the Radishchev Museum in Saratov (Russia) and in the Tate Gallery in London (Great Britain), we have come to a following conclusion: painting of both directions has both various and similar lines.

The basic direction in Russian painting is realism, presented by peredvizhniki, who showed a real life of that time. In England the Pre-Raphaelites dominate, displaying the mystical world, the world of imagination.

As for such genres as portrait and landscape we can find them at both directions. In collections of both museums they are presented especially widely. But at the Pre-Raphaelites’ painting alongside with portraits of celebrities the huge place is given to female images – to heroines of poems, ballads, Shakespeare's plays. Russian artists paint landscapes in more realistic manner, showing the native nature without decorating it. The Pre-Raphaelites follow a special manner – they paint out each detail with special accuracy and reliability.

Seascapes are more widely presented in Russian artists’ painting.

Bible scenes can be found at both directions, but they occupy a special place at the Pre-Raphaelites’ painting which often addressed to plots from Jesus Christ life and Maiden Maria.

The art works of the Pre-Raphaelites have been closely connected with literature — with the Italian poet of Renaissance Dante Alighieri, English poets John Milton and William Shakespeare, knights and fantastic characters, medieval ballads, fairy tales and legends in which the fine lady is worshipped. At the same time peredvizhniki depicted not imaginary characters but real people.

In our research we wanted to excite interest to creative works of Russian artists, a pride for our remarkable city museum in which, as well as in the Tate Gallery, the pictures which have gained the world popularity are collected. At the same time we have tried to take your interest to the history of English painting of the given period, hoping that it can raise interest to Russian art and expand frameworks of intercultural dialogue. We consider that our research work can be used at the lessons of the English language and Fine Art lessons.

                  List of Literature              

1. History of world painting. The Victorian painting and прерафаэлиты: Natalia Majorova, Gennady Skokov — Moscow, the White city, 2008.

2. World art. Pre-Raphaelism: — Moscow, the Crystal, 2006.

3. Pre-Raphaelism. The illustrated encyclopedia: I.Mosin — Moscow, the Crystal, Onyx, 2006.

4. The Pre-Raphaelites: Igor Svetlov — Moscow, the White city, 2006.

5. The world of encyclopedias of Avanta +, St.-Petersburg, Astrel, 2009.

6. http://artclassic.edu.ru/. ru.wikipedia.org ›Rossetti

7. Pre-Raphaelites works: Edmund Shvinglhurst – Moscow, Publishing house: "Speka", 1995

8. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radishchev_Art_Museum

9. http://ogis.sgu.ru/ogis/MusSite/eng/frames1.htm

10. http://www.russianpaintings.net/doc.vphp?id=445