Thursday, December 22, 2016

Painting in the Conservatory

One way to escape the cold of winter is in a private conservatory, a glass-walled room that serves as a greenhouse and a sunroom.

Several 19th century artists explored this meeting place between exotic nature and civilized fashion. In a conservatory you can sip tea in the jungle, without the jaguars and mosquitos.

James Tissot (French 1836-1902)
"In the Conservatory" by
Frances Maria Jones Bannerman
John Atkinson Grimshaw
(English, 1836-1893) Il Pensoroso
Rivals (1878 – 1879), by James Tissot

Carl Blechen (German, 1798-1840)
The Interior of the Palm House on the Pfaueninsel Near Potsdam, 1834
Oil on canvas 52 1/2 x 50 in. (135 x 126 cm)

James Tissot, Lilacs, 1875



6 comments:

  1. Grimshaw - the only one of these that sort-of juxtaposes the outdoor gray with the indoor green.

    Tissot - the shiny tiles are great.

    I've got a similar room on my home. NOT Victorian. 60s with louvered windows. But it is raining today in California and I think I will go out there and pretend to be in one of these paintings.

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  2. Along with "Lounge," Conservatory was a term I had learned by the age of seven, courtesy of playing the board game, Clue. I'm guessing Col. Mustard, with the lead pipe, in the Conservatory.

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  3. The one attributed to Grimshaw seems to actually be "In the Conservatory" by
    Frances Maria Jones Bannerman. Grimshaw did paint a picture of a conservatory scene by the name given, but it's a different image: https://www.wikiart.org/en/john-atkinson-grimshaw/il-penseroso

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  4. Thanks, Philip. I've made the correction and added the real Grimshaw.
    Steve, that's a fun memory to associate with this.
    Susan, you've been getting a lot of rain in CA recently, right?

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  5. Hello,
    I’m Gilles Plat. I'm an italian student of academy of fine art. Firstly i wonted to compliment and thank-you for the book of climatological theories aplicated to the realism technique, i helped me a lot.
    About this i would like to have a simply information. I’m doing a way in the landscape and i want to deepen the concept and technique of the painting behind the Huston River School. Would you advise me to a book for study them?
    Tank you,
    Have a nice day.

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  6. Gilles, I'm not aware of a good book about painting methods of the Hudson River School. Almost all books on landscape painting I can think of are highly influenced by impressionist thinking, which is quite different. Most of what I've learned has come from just looking at their paintings and reading Asher B. Durand's 1855 essays "Letters on Landscape Painting."

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