SEPTEMBER 2015 :

Cubism is an early 20th century style and movement in art in which perspective with a single viewpoint was abandoned and use made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes and sometimes collage. It was a reaction against traditional modes of representation and impressionist concerns with light and colour. The style, created by Picasso and Braque, and first named by the French art critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1908, was inspired by the later work of Cezanne and African sculpture.

By breaking the objects and figures down into distinct areas or planes, the artists aimed to show different viewpoints at the same time and within the same space and so suggest their 3D form. In doing so they also emphasised the 2D flatness of the canvass instead of creating the illusion of depth. This marked a revolutionary break with the European tradition which had dominated representation from the Renaissance onwards of creating the illusion of real space from a fixed viewpoint using devices such as linear perspective.

Examples of Cubist work which were chosen by members of the group are shown below:

“Les Desmoiselles d’Avignon” (1881-1973) Oil on 1907 243cm x 234cm Museum of Modern Art, New York

The , which was considered immoral when first exhibited, depicts five female prostitutes from a brothel in Barcelona (not Avignon). The African mask influence is shown on the two figures on the right hand side.

The painting is often compared with ’s work “The Bathers” which was painted between 1895 and 1905.

“Man with a Guitar” Georges Braque (1882-1963) Oil on canvas 1912 116cm x 81cm Museum of Modern Art, New York

Braque painted Man with a Guitar in a mode that came to be called Analytic Cubism. Abandoning traditional use of perspective, Braque created a convincing three-dimensional illusion of space, challenging viewers to understand a subject broken down into its geometrical components and often represented from several angles at once. He once said, “Fragmentation helped me to establish space and movement in space.”

Many of Braque and Picasso’s works of this period are similar. To the right is Picasso’s version of Man with a Guitar painted in 1911.

“ of Picasso” (1887-1927) Oil on canvas 1912 93cm x 74cm

Juan Gris, a Spanish artist, travelled to Paris in 1906 and met Picasso and Braque and, on giving up his work as a satirical cartoonist, became an analytical cubist painter. He eventually progressed to Synthetic Cubism involving extensive usage of papier collé or collage.

This collage, (right) held in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is an example of Synthetic Cubism by Picasso and is one of many called Guitar which were constructed by him between 1912 and 1914 using paper, cardboard, wire, glue and string. More colourful emerged from French artists, Robert Delauney and his close friend Jean Metzinger. Below are samples of their work.

“Red Eiffel Tower “ Robert Delauney (1885-1941) Oil on canvas 1911-12 125cm x 90cm Guggenheim Museum, New York

“Nature Morte” Jean Metzinger (1883- 1956) Oil on Canvas 1911 93.5cm x 66.5cms Auctioned at Sotheby's in New York, 2008.

Christopher Nevinson (1889-1946) was one of the most famous war artists of World War I. However, he also did some beautiful, colourful paintings such as this one entitled The Arrival which was painted around 1913 and is part of the Tate collection, donated by the artist’s widow in 1956.

Finally we have an example of Cubist architecture from Josef Chochol (1880-1956). This house is in Vyšehrad, Prague in the Czech Republic and was one of three he designed in 1913.

OCTOBER 2015 - 17th Century English Artists Some of interpreted “English” liberally but we had a good selection to discuss. Among them were Robert Streeter (1621-1679) who painted landscapes, and and became serjeant-painter to Charles II. He painted the ceiling of the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford which consists of 32 oil on canvas works, restored in 2008.

Inigo Jones (1573-1652) was the first significant English architect. Amongst his many buildings is the classical Palladian Queen’s House at Greenwich, originally commissioned for Anne, wife of James I, in 1619. Work halted when she died but was restarted in 1629 and completed in 1635 for , wife of Charles I.

William Hogarth (1697–1764) was an English painter, printmaker, pictorial satirist, social critic and editorial cartoonist who has been credited with pioneering western sequential art, an art form that uses images deployed in sequence for graphic storytelling or to convey information such as comic strips and film animation. He also painted “conversation pieces” such as the cast of the Beggar’s Opera, a popular 3-act play by John Gay written in 1728.

Anne Killigrew (1660-1685) was only 25 when she died of smallpox, already a noted poet and painter. She was related to Thomas Killigrew who wrote plays and was responsible for the building of the theatre now known as Drury Lane. Her father and uncles were close to the royal family and opposite is her painting of James II painted shortly before her death. It forms part of the Royal Collection.

Aert van der Neer (1603-1677) was a Dutch landscape painter who specialised in moonlight and winter scenes. This oil on canvas is entitled “ A river landscape at sunset with fishermen drawing in their net in the foreground, windmills beyond ”. It was sold for £75,650 at Sothebys in 2011.

Sir (1599-1641) was a Flemish artist who became the leading court painter in England after enjoying great success in Italy and Flanders. He is most famous for his portraits of Charles I and his family and court, painted with a relaxed elegance that was to be the dominant influence on English portrait painting for the next 150 years. This well-known painting of Charles I (1635 or 6) is part of the Royal collection.

John Michael Wright (1617-1694) managed to stay on good terms with both sides of the civil war, painting Cromwell’s daughter and also various members of the Court after the Restoration. This portrait of Barbara Palmer, the Duchess of Cleveland (the most notorious of Charles II’s mistresses) painted in 1670, is held by the National Portrait Gallery.

A similar portrait by Sir (1618-1680) and painted in 1666 is also held in the National Portrait Gallery. These are obviously good likenesses of the Duchess as they both look the same.

Sir Godfrey Kneller (1646-1723) was the leading portrait painter in England during the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and was court painter to English and British monarchs from Charles II to George I. The Chinese Convert is a famous 1687 painting by Godfrey Kneller depicting the Chinese man Michael Alphonsius Shen Fu-Tsung. The painting was ordered by King James II when he met Shen Fu-Tsung during his visit to England in 1685. The portrait still hangs in Windsor Castle. Shen Fu-Tsung was able to catalogue the Chinese books that were present in the Bodleian Library, and to describe their content, something which nobody had been able to do until then. He also showed the librarian the correct way to hold a Chinese book, starting with which way was up.

Mary Beale (1633-1699) was the daughter of a Suffolk clergyman, John Cradock, and married Charles Beale, an artist's colour-man, in 1652. A painter working professionally from the mid-1650s, produced numerous portraits, particularly of her family and friends, who included a number of prominent churchmen. She was a friend of Sir Peter Lely and Robert Streeter. Many details of her busy working life are recorded in the notebooks kept by her husband, who acted as her studio assistant. In 1665 the Beales moved from London, to escape the plague, to Hampshire where Mary set up her studio and wrote Discourse of Friendship, on the equality of the sexes in marriage and society.

These two oil sketches of her son Bartholomew were painted by Mary in 1660, found in a Parisian trinket shop by an art historian and now hang in Tate Britain. Unfortunately, Bartholomew died at a early age so these must have been a poignant reminder for her. It is not clear whether Mary was related to Marmaduke Cradock, the Somerton painter.