Pallant Landscapes : An Appreciation of the Countryside

For centuries, landscape was usually seen as a backdrop in history or religious paintings, but British Landscapes: A Sense of Place at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester shows how it evolved as a genre in its own right.

And in particular, how artists in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries were not just reproducing a scene before their eyes but trying to convey in their pictures the emotions and feelings evoked by the land and countryside: the sense of the place, as Pallant Director Simon Martin, who curated this exhibition, aptly describes it. The show's not on for much longer, but here's a few of our impressions, and let's start with a painting that's a fine example of how an artist puts current events and concerns on canvas.  

It was December 1916 when Mark Gertler painted this view of the South Coast Near Swanage. It looks so peaceful, the sea is smooth, the distant cliffs of the headland appear soft and even the nearby greenery is out of focus. But World War 1 was raging across the Channel, and millions of young men were dying. Gertler was a conscientious objector. Look again -- at his use of black to depict the trees, the paths that all seem to come to dead ends and that dark blurred greenery.

With the return of peace, a lighter mood, at least for those with the money and the means to enjoy life. 

This is a delightful combination: Edward Bawden's 1927 Tree and Cow wallpaper design is the perfect backdrop for these framed posters by Paul Nash from the mid-1930s, two of which invited Londoners to use public transport to live amid the comfort and greenery of the new suburbs, while also making the most of the exciting possibilities offered by the West End. The third promoted Shell petrol to use your new car for a journey to enjoy the sights of the British countryside.

Next up: a truly evocative work in pencil and watercolour by Ethelbert White, an unfamiliar name to us. 

A charming depiction of four ways of getting around in 1925: by train, horse-and-cart, bicycle and on foot (a walker is just discernible in the shade of the railway arch). It's a backdrop that somehow looks familiar to anyone who's been on a summer walk in the environs of London, in Surrey perhaps, even today. Is it left under the bridge to the station or the other way, you might ask.

This pleasant landscape appears more natural, but the two metal struts are rather disconcerting. 

We thought at first it looked like part of an aircraft window, but if this was a view from an aeroplane we would be flying dangerously low. Most puzzling -- or indeed baffling -- but actually it's a view out of a window in a house roof, as revealed by the title Skylight Landscape. This is again Paul Nash, who created a studio in the attic of the house of his patrons Charles and Clare Neilson in Gloucestershire, from where he could look across the treetops at the hills beyond. A very similar view of the same hills by Nash, minus the skylight, can be seen in the show now on at Southampton City Art Gallery.  

Both Nash paintings were made during World War II, and this watercolour by Eric Ravilious also shows the impact of war on the countryside. 

This wintry scene in Dorset features bare trees, misty hills and a threatening sky. Everything with a shade of grey. A barbed-wire fence adds to the bleakness, as you look across to the Cerne Abbas Giant. This well-endowed bare figure cut into the chalk hillside gives his landscape a bit of humour, history and human presence. But there is a difference.... the normally white outlines of the figure were turfed over in wartime to prevent the giant from being a landmark for German aircraft. 

    

Made 28 years later, artist John Hubbard's work Coastal Landscape, Dorset is dramatically different. His layers of pigment suggest the white foam of the sea crashing on to the cliffs.

It was so evocative, we could almost hear the rush of water and fizz of the foam and taste the saltiness in the air.

Our last picture, and the most recently created one, is quite stunning. Thames Painting: The Estuary is over 2 metres high.  

The landscape is slightly three-dimensional in places, with grains of sand and tiny bits of grit giving the canvas more texture and making it look like a pebbly beach (Max Beckmann was doing something similar in 1930s seaside scenes). What appears to be very fluid paint also gives the shoreline a dramatic feel. The flowing lines could represent the streams of water that run down a beach when the tide has seen the sea recede. The luminous misty background and blurred pale water on the right plus the tiny figures and their boats increase the dramatic scale. This was the last work Michael Andrews produced while undergoing cancer treatment; what a way to go out. 

Practicalities 

British Landscapes: A Sense of Place is on at the Pallant House Gallery in Chichester until November 1. The gallery is open from 1000 to 1700 Tuesdays to Saturdays and 1000 to 1600 on Sundays. Full-price admission is £17, including a £2 Gift Aid donation, and you can book online here. Allow yourself about 75 minutes to see the show. 

The gallery is just a few minutes walk from Chichester station, to which there's a train every half-hour from London Victoria Mondays to Saturdays. The journey takes about 90 minutes. Hourly trains on Sundays take longer. 

Images

Mark Gertler (1891-1939), Near Swanage, 1916, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester

Installation view of Paul Nash lithographs on Edward Bawden wallpaper 

Ethelbert White (1891-1972), The Railway Bridge, 1925, Chichester District Council 

Paul Nash (1889-1946), Skylight Landscape, 1941, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester

Eric Ravilious (1903-1942), Cerne Abbas Giant, 1939, Private collection 
John Hubbard (1931-2017), Coastal Landscape, Dorset, 1967, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester. © The Estate of John Hubbard
Michael Andrews (1928-1995), Thames Painting: The Estuary, 1994-95, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester