Future Study Days

The Cotswolds was one of the first rural centres of the Arts and Crafts Movement, with architects and designers of the Movement moving to the area to work and craft from the 1890s onwards. The designers and makers who moved settled in the area became a key part of the artistic and cultural life of the area, their influence still felt today by the many crafters who live and work there. From the first, churches in the region of all denominations commissioned work from Arts and Crafts designers, from whole churches, including one of the so-called `cathedrals of the Arts and Crafts` to some of the most important Arts and Crafts stained-glass schemes. Their work and its legacy is very much alive in the Cotswold churches today.

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British and American Artists in Venice

The first English artist to paint Venice seriously was Turner who made three visits between 1819 and 1840. Although these were brief, Venice was to have a great impact on his later style and he produced a large quantity of wonderfully loose oils and watercolours. John Ruskin also fell in love with Venice and his three volume book ‘The Stones of Venice’ became a best seller in Europe and the United States. Not only did Ruskin produce fine watercolours and photographs of Venice , he also encouraged younger artists like Goodwin, Boyce and Inchbold to paint there.
In 1879 following his disastrous court case against Ruskin, James McNeil Whistler arrived in Venice bankrupt and depressed. The Fine Art Society had paid for him to work there for three months, but he remained for over a year producing some of his best etchings, pastels and oils. His Venetian exhibitions in Bond Street were an enormous success and his position as the leading modern artist in Britain was re-established.
John Singer Sargent had been to Venice as a child, but returned in 1880 to start a long love affair with the city. His relations bought the Palazzo Barbaro on the Grand Canal which became his spiritual home from where he set off each summer to paint sparkling watercolours, some of his finest works. Other artists working there before the First World War include Walter Sickert and Arthur Melville. The day ends with a brief look at contemporary artists Ken Howard, Diana Armfield and Bernard Dunstan who have all made Venice their own.

Turner-The Bridge of Sighs

“The Discovery of Venice”

Although Canaletto had successfully painted and sold pictures of Venice in England, Venice was put on the British artistic map by Turner who made three brief visits to the city in 1819, 1833 and 1840. Despite only staying for a short time, Turner produced a huge number of oils and watercolours of Venice, usually painted from memory and from his sketchbooks which he created while walking round Venice. His Venetian paintings shown in London were highly successful and he was followed by artists such as Samuel Prout, Richard Parkes Bonington and Clarkson Stanfield.

John Bunney – Facade of St Marks

“The Butterfly on the Lagoon – 1879-1880″

James McNeil Whistler very foolishly took John Ruskin to court over an article that Ruskin had written about one of his paintings. While Whistler won the case, he was awarded no damages and had to pay the court costs. As a result he was declared bankrupt and in 1879 he arrived in Venice with a commission from the Fine Art Society in Bond Street to stay a couple of months and produce 12 etchings. In the event he stayed for over a year and produced etchings, pastels and oils. His adventures and practical jokes in Venice were recorded by his American students, but despite the fun, Whistler produced many superb works in what was certainly the most creative year of his life. Three exhibitions back in London restored his reputation and finances. We have the correspondence between Whistler and his mother and between the artist and his London dealers who continued to finance his stay while seriously doubting that he would ever return!

John Singer Sargent – On the steps of the Salute

“The Palazzo  Barbaro Circle – Sargent in Venice”

John Singer Sargent first visited Venice as a young boy returning as an art student and painted some intense oils of Venetian life in
1880-1882. Escaping from portrait painting in London he returned in the 1890’s to produce a series of sparkling watercolours while staying with his cousins at the Palazzo Barbaro, where Henry James, Robert Browning and Walter Sickert mingled with British and American expatriates. Sargent’s watercolours of Venice are dazzling images of light and movement and in this lecture we are able to reconstruct the life of British, French and American expats in Venice.

Presenter: Julian Halsby

Julian Halsby

Studied History of Art at Cambridge. Formerly Senior Lecturer and Head of Department at Croydon College of Art. Publications include Venice – the Artist’s Vision (1990, 1995), The Art of Diana Armfield RA (1995), Dictionary of Scottish Painters (1990, 1998, 2001, 4th edition 2010), A Hand to Obey the Demon’s Eye (2000), Scottish Watercolours 1740-1940 (1986, 1991), A Private View – David Wolfers and the New Grafton Gallery (2002). Interviews artists for the Artist Magazine and is a member of the International Association of Art Critics and The Critics Circle. A practising artist, he was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1994 and appointed Keeper in 2010.