CHARLES EASTLAKE’S JOURNEY IFRnOM PPLYMOuUTrH sTO uTHiE tNAToIONfAL AGALrLERt Y TEACHER’S NOTES Contents 2

• Introduction to the exhibition 3 • About the Teachers Pack 3 • Who was Sir Charles Eastlake? 4 • Selection of works in the exhibition 6 • Symbols in Art 14 • What can we do for you? 16 • How to book a visit 16 • Further resources 16

cover: Gerolamo dai Libri (c.1474-1555?) - The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne (detail). © The National Gallery, London Introduction to the exhibition 3

The life and legacy of Sir Charles Eastlake (1793 – 1865), the first director of the National Gallery and seventh President of the Royal Academy, is honoured in this collaboration between Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery and the National Gallery, London. Painter, scholar and arts administrator, Eastlake was born in Devon, a county that has produced many great British artists.This exhibition investigates Eastlake’s artistic development in Plymouth and subsequent activities as a central figure of the Victorian art world in London.

The exhibition brings together a selection of paintings associated with some of Eastlake’s distinguished (Plymouth-born) art teachers, as well as by his friend J.M.W.Turner, from the collections of Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery and the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery.

A selection of the Old Master paintings that Eastlake acquired for the National Gallery, will also be on display, along with rarely-seen documents from the National Gallery’s archive and library that demonstrate the extraordinary lengths to which he went to secure these masterpieces. One of Eastlake’s 36 travel notebooks, for instance, will be on show, revealing his thoughts about the authenticity, technique, state of preservation and fairness of the asking price of the pictures he saw.

About the Teachers Pack

The aim of this pack is to provide a way to look at, learn from, and engage with the various works and themes of the exhibition. Seven key works are discussed within this pack that you will find on display, along with an introduction to Sir Charles Eastlake himself.

Elements of this pack can support your visit to the exhibition, and can also be adapted for use in the classroom pre- or post- visit.

Please refer to page 16 for guidance on how to book a visit. Who was Sir Charles Eastlake? 4

Charles Eastlake was born in Plymouth on the 17 November 1793. He was born into a family already heavily involved in the arts in Plymouth. Eastlake’s father, George, who was Admiralty Law Agent in the city, set up the Plymouth Proprietary Library (which still exists on North Hill) in 1810, while the mayor Henry Woollcombe, a family friend, founded the Plymouth Institution in 1812. Eastlake in Plymouth Eastlake received his art education from two Plymouth-born painters, Samuel Prout and Benjamin Haydon, and learned much from the teachings of a third Devonian, Sir Joshua Reynolds, who had been the first President of the Royal Academy. Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery held a major exhibition of Sir Joshua Reynolds’ work in 2009. A Teacher’s Pack was produced and sent free to each school in the city, and is also available to download from our website.

From 1815, the Plymouth Institution held art exhibitions, to which the young Eastlake lent his portrait of the Emperor Napoleon captive on board HMS Bellerophon off Plymouth Sound. This painting sold for an extraordinary amount of money, allowing him to travel to Italy.

Eastlake maintained close ties with Plymouth and in 1832 was presented with the Freedom of the City.

First Travels in Europe Plymouth was a thriving port during Eastlake’s early years, where news of great European events was first received before reaching London. Being an artist, and being interested in European art in particular, may also have led to his desire to travel. He made a brief trip to France in 1815, and then, in 1816, he travelled to Italy. He spent the next 14 years abroad, returning only on the death of his father, and later on to visit his brothers.

While in Italy he was able to study the work of the Old Masters – includingTitian, Leonardo, and Raphael, and also to travel, making many notebooks of notes and sketches. His own paintings were very popular at the time, particularly his scenes of bandits and peasants in the Italian countryside. Most importantly, he began to develop his ideas on the theory and history of art, which would later be of great importance to his career. Eastlake’s interest in British Art 5

Perhaps best remembered for his acquisition of continental Old Masters, Eastlake sought in many ways, but with more limited success, to promote British art.

Following in the footsteps of Sir Joshua Reynolds, Eastlake, as the seventh President of the Royal Academy, gave formal lectures or ‘Discourses’ to its art students. Eastlake also worked alongside established British painters during his quarter-century as Secretary of the Fine Arts Commission, during which time he commissioned scenes from British history and literature for the new Houses of Parliament.

During his directorship of the National Gallery, Eastlake bought portraits by Reynolds and Gainsborough, and Turner’s work became well represented as a result of the settlement of his contested will in 1856, when the Gallery received 19,000 of his drawings, watercolours and paintings. The majority of these have since been transferred to Tate Britain. Selection of works in the exhibition 6

• Samuel Prout (1783 – 1852), Plympton Grammar School • Ambrose Bowden Johns (1776 – 1858), View of Plymouth from Coxside • J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851), Plymouth from Mount Edgcumbe , 1814 • Charles Eastlake (1793 – 1865), Contemplation , c.1836 • Jacopo Bassano (active c.1535; died 1592), The Good Samaritan , c.1562 –3 • Gerolamo dai Libri (about 1474 – 1555?), The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne , 1510 – 18 • Giovanni Battista Moroni (1520/4 – 1579), Portrait of a Man holding a Letter (L’Avvocato) , c.1570 Samuel Prout (1783 – 1852) 7

Plympton Grammar School Oil on canvas Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery

Aged 14, Eastlake attended Plympton Grammar School near his family’s second home, Hillside. It is unclear whether he received any art tuition here, but formerly the school had nurtured pupils who went on to make their name in the art world, notably Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose father, the Rev. Samuel Reynolds, had been Headmaster of the school (further information can be found in theTeachers Pack for Sir Joshua Reynolds: The Acquisition of Genius , available from our website). Samuel Prout was another of these pupils. The schoolboys, who were taught in a single large classroom, would play under the Gothic-style portico. The school later became Hele’s School, and has since moved to a new site. Activity Clearly, Plympton Grammar School was a very important part of many artists’ lives, so much so that Samuel Prout decided to make a painting of the building. Think about the buildings that you spend the most time in – perhaps your house, your own school, or a favourite place to visit. What is it about that building that makes it special or important to you? The decoration? The materials it’s built out of? The people you share it with? Try drawing or painting a picture of this building that conveys this importance to the people viewing it. Can we think of this painting as a portrait? Ambrose Bowden Johns (1776 – 1858) 8

View of Plymouth from Coxside Oil on paper Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery

Ambrose Bowden Johns, a landscape painter and drawing master, was at the centre of the Plymouth art world. He assisted various local artists including Prout and Benjamin Haydon in their early years, and was a friend of J.M.W. Turner during the 1810s. He also promoted exhibitions in the city and helped found the local sketching society. This view shows Coxside, the area that became the industrial heart of Plymouth during the 19th century, supplying the dockyard with everything from rope to candles. Activity During your visit to the exhibition at Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery, look closely at the wonderful paintings, drawings and other items on display, at the panels, labels and posters needed for interpretation, and at the cases and furniture used to enjoy these objects. If you were to stage an exhibition of your paintings in school, what kind of things would you need to consider when planning your exhibition, to ensure people know about the exhibition and want to visit, and to allow people to enjoy the exhibition when they do?

We would call these decisions and processes ‘curation’, ‘marketing’, ‘graphic design’ and ‘spatial design’, and are among the many things we have to consider when staging professional exhibitions. J.M.W. Turner (1775 – 1851) 9

Plymouth from Mount Edgcumbe Watercolour Plymouth City Museum and Art Gallery

Eastlake first encounteredTurner while training at the Royal Academy. In 1811, he ensuredTurner visited his family when on his first trip Plymouth.They were also together in the summer of 1813 whenTurner returned for a second sketching tour.Turner, inspired by the ‘Italianate light’, meaning the artists believed the quality of light in the South West to be similar to that encountered in Italy, and aware of the many gifted painters from Devon, claimed falsely he was born in Barnstaple (his father had been born in South Molton, North Devon). Activity Why not combine your visit to the exhibition with a trip to the Hoe, Mount Batten, or Mount Edgcumbe? After seeing the landscape paintings of Ambrose Johns and J.M.W.Turner, and looking closely at the expert way in which they were able to capture light, movement, and view in one small watercolour, why not try for yourselves – outside?These artists would more often than not have carried a small watercolour box with them while sketching, and while these works would have undoubtedly been finished inside, the initial work may have been started outside.Today, we would call this way of working ‘en plein air’, and associate it with Impressionist painters such as Monet, who was himself influenced greatly by the work ofTurner. Charles Eastlake (1793 – 1865) 10

Contemplation, c.1836 Oil on canvas Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery, Exeter

Eastlake declared that “ landscape is a great deal more interesting than portrait (painting) ”. However, because of a persistent eye complaint exacerbated by bright sunlight, and because he came to realise that he was not as skilled a painter in the grand style as friends such as J.M.WTurner were, Eastlake turned increasingly to genre painting - paintings of everyday life, and idealised female portraits. He sought to imbue such works with the grace of Raphael and the rich tonality ofTitian, two Italian Old Masters of the highest standard Activity What is this lady contemplating? Contemplation has a long history with both philosophy and religion. In Greek philosophy, Plato thought that through contemplation the soul may ascend to the highest levels of knowledge.To Plotinus, a philosopher that followed on from Plato’s theories, the highest contemplation was to experience the vision of God. In Christianity and other religions, contemplation refers to a content- free mind directed towards the awareness of God as a living reality. Perhaps the biggest clue might be the rose in her dress. In art, roses usually symbolise love and beauty, and are also often associated with Christianity, as roses with five petals are linked to the five wounds of Christ on the cross. Perhaps, as Eastlake was living in Italy, he was also thinking of the Italian practice of placing roses on the door of a room where secret or confidential matters were discussed. What do you think? Jacopo Bassano (active c.1535; died 1592) 11

The Good Samaritan, c.1562 –3 Oil on canvas The National Gallery, London

In the Bible, the Parable of the Good Samaritan is found only in the Gospel of Luke. Interestingly, Luke the Evangelist is the patron saint of, amongst other things, artists. In the parable, the setting is the road between Jerusalem and Jericho, a road notorious for ambushes and kidnapping. The town is based on Bassano, the artist’s birthplace, which Eastlake first visited in 1830. Eastlake painted his own version of the scene in 1850. He purchased this painting, formerly in the collection of Sir Joshua Reynolds, from the posthumous sale in 1856 of the poet and National Gallery Trustee, Samuel Rogers. Activity Here, we are looking at a view of Bassano, the home of the artist – do you think this road was as dangerous as the biblical road? The two characters walking off into the background are the priest and the Levite. Did you notice the two dogs? They usually symbolise faithfulness and guardianship. Do you think the artist included two dogs because of the two men walking away from the injured traveller? We still use the term ‘Good Samaritan’ when we describe someone that has helped others. Think of a different ancient story – can you decide on any symbols that you can use in a painting to describe this story, without using words? Gerolamo dai Libri (c.1474 – 1555?) 12

TheVirgin and Child with Saint Anne Oil on canvas The National Gallery, London

Originally this painting was the central panel of a triptych in the church of S. Maria della Scala, Verona. The holy figures of Mary, Christ and Mary’s mother, Saint Anne, are depicted in an enclosed garden. The lemon bush recalls humankind’s fall in the Garden of Eden, while the dead dragon at Mary’s feet and the olive branch held by Christ may also relate to the ending of the 1516 siege of Verona. Italian ‘Madonna’ paintings of this kind were particularly admired in England at the time. It was acquired by Eastlake in 1864, and is noted in one of his travel notebooks also on display in the gallery. Activity This painting was part of a much larger altarpiece – a painting that would be hung behind the altar in a church, depicting religious subjects. Altarpieces were often made up of a number of different paintings, sometimes by the same artist, but more often than not by different artists. Multi-panelled paintings are called diptych, triptych, and polyptych – two panelled, three-panelled, and multi-panelled. The left panel of this altarpiece was by an artist called Paolo Morando, which is also part of the National Gallery collection, while the right panel, by Francesco Torbido is now missing. Split your class into groups of five. Can they make a five-panel polyptych painting? It doesn’t have to be of a religious subject – pick any story. Try to split the story into five key elements, one for each panel. Giovanni Battista Moroni (1520/4 – 1579) 13

Portrait of a Man holding a Letter (L’Avvocato), c.1570 Oil on canvas The National Gallery, London

Moroni painted altarpieces and allegorical pictures but is best known for his portraits, several examples of which were either purchased or recommended by Eastlake as eligible for the national collection. The sitter has not been identified but has been described as a lawyer because of the title on the letter (‘Mago’ referring to Magistrate). The painting was bought by Eastlake in what proved to be his last major purchasing drive – at the Pourtalès sale in Paris in 1865. Activity The sitter is dressed in black, a fashion of dress that had been absorbed into Italy from Spanish tastes of the time. The Spanish-style was known as being elegant, whereas extravagance and richness were more common in the rest of Europe. Fashions are a very useful way of identifying when a painting was made, especially if a painting is unsigned. Think of fashions today. What dominant style of clothing tells us about life today? What accessories or technologies must we have to fit in, or look ‘cool’? How does the addition of these fashions to a portrait painting help us understand when it was made? Try making portrait paintings that include these symbols of modern life, perhaps mixing in a few older symbols alongside. Symbols in Art 14

Use this list of symbols in your own work in the classroom.

Anchor – In Early Christian art, anchors symbolised hope.

Angel – Angels were the messengers of the gods, and were often used as a representation of heaven.

Anvil – Often these denote a warrior, though if the anvil is depicted tied to the feet of a suspended female in mid-air, it represents the goddess Juno.

Apple – Related to Adam and Eve, and their temptation to eat the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge. Often this is referred to as the ‘fall of man’.

Bird – The bird was the symbol of the soul in Ancient Egypt. They are also used to represent Air, on of the Four Elements, and Touch, one of the Five Senses.

Book – A symbol of learning and authorship.

Cards – Card games were seen as the mark of an ‘idle nature’, so some used them to symbolise a vice, or laziness.

Carnation – Pink, and especially red carnations, are used to symbolise marriage.

Clock – Clocks are used to symbolise the passing of time. In a portrait, clocks often represent the sitter’s moderation and self-restraint.

Corn – The attribute of Ceres, a classical goddess of agriculture. Corn is therefore linked to the personification of Summer.

Crane – A long legged bird, usually shown with one foot lifted from the floor, symbolising vigilance.

Crook – A shepherd’s staff, curved at one end. It is an attribute of both Apollo and Pan, both guardians of flocks and herds.

Dandelion – This bitter leaved plant is often used to symbolise grief.

Dragon – A dragon chained or trodden underfoot symbolises the conquest of evil.

Eagle – An eagle is an ancient symbol of power and victory, and was represented on the banners used by Roman armies. The eagle is still used today on many flags.

Ermine – The stoat in winter, when it has white fur and a black tip to it’s tail, is a symbol of purity.

Flowers – When many flowers are represented together, they symbolise Spring, and also Smell, one of the Five Senses.

Gourd – A hollowed out, dried fruit, similar to a pumpkin or squash. They were commonly used to store water in for long journeys, and therefore symbolise a pilgrimage.

Grape - Grapes are commonly used to symbolise the blood of Christ. In non-Christian art, they also represent Autumn, one of the Four Seasons.

Ivy – An evergreen plant symbolising immortality. Symbols in Art (continued) 15

Knot – A symbol of union. The tying of a knot by Cupid symbolises the ties of love.

Landscape – in religious painting, landscapes are often used to reinforce moral allegory. One half of the painting may contain a landscape with clear sky, the other with dark cloud, symbolising good and evil.

Laurel – In portraiture, laurel bushes or branches are sometimes used to imply that the sitter is a literary or artistic figure.

Mistletoe – An evergreen plant that often grows through trees, mistletoe was believed to be the embodiment of the living spirit, and therefore symbolises life. It is often shown worn as a protective talisman.

Olive – An olive branch is an ancient symbol of peace.

Peach - A peach with one leaf still attached is an ancient symbol for the heart and tongue, and was adopted to symbolise truth.

Pillar – A pillar often represents strength and steadfastness.

Poppy – In Ancient Greece, poppies were used to represent Hypnos, the god of sleep, Morpheus, the god of dreams, and also to represent night.

Rat – Rats and mice, due to their destructiveness in the home, became symbols of decay, and the passing of time.

Raven – In the Bible, a raven brings food, usually a loaf of bread, to a holy man in the desert.

Rose – White roses generally represent purity, and in the Renaissance were likened to Venus, Roman goddess of love and beauty.

Scales – An ancient symbol for judgement, used for weighing good and evil, right and wrong. In Ancient Egypt, the scales were used to weigh the heart of the dead against the feather of truth, to determine their path to the afterlife or underworld.

Snake – Commonly used to represent evil, the snake also came to be used to represent wisdom and the power to heal.

These symbols were adapted from Hall’s Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art . What can we do for you? 16

We are able to offer schools various options when visiting the exhibition.Visits can be arranged for anywhere between one class to an entire school . In many cases, a member of staff can be present to facilitate your visit. We are also very happy for you to visit as a self-directed group.

The exhibition provides a perfect opportunity for your pupils to experience nationally significant art first hand – and will act as a starting point for working in sketchbooks, fact finding, and talking about the themes that surround the exhibition.

How to book a visit

Booking in advance is essential for visits.

We want to ensure your group has the best experience possible at each of our galleries, so please remember to contact us first before organising your trip. We are very popular with schools, colleges and other user groups, so our galleries can get very busy from time to time.

For enquiries for school visits, contact [email protected] . Please have a range of possible dates available before contacting us, as it may not always be possible to offer you your first choice date.

Please remember to bring along sketchbooks and pencils for your visit, as wet materials, and also dusty materials will not be permitted in the exhibition galleries. If you have any questions regarding materials, please contact us using the email above.

Further resources

Many of our previous Teachers Packs, Notes, and Resources are available as PDF downloads from our website - www.plymouth.gov.uk/museumlearningresources.htm