INSIDE
VIEW
Interiors and still Lives
Accepted
and popular genres in painting, studies of interiors
and still lives are much rarer themes in printmaking.
In
early old masters prints, perhaps because of the propensity
to narrative-led biblical subjects or classical mythology, ‘outdoor’ settings predominate.
With the iconic exception of Dürer’s St
Jerome in his Study interiors tend to be stage-set architectural
spaces, setting the scene for events or relationships
of spiritual significance rather than detailing home
comforts inside rooms with four walls. Furniture, if
any, is minimal. Ancillary objects are symbolic; though
in the beautifully observed vase of lilies in an Annunciation,
or a specific saintly attribute, lie the origins of still
life.
The
political and social situation in 17th century Holland
which determined new directions in subject matter in
painting, was paralleled in printmaking but to a lesser
extent. Rembrandt’s interiors are largely atmospheric
ambiences, often obscured by chiaroscuro, with only the
occasional furnishing item in focus. Ostade
however etched a few delightful tavern and domestic
interiors, and even the interior of a barn. Dutch etchers,
and Abraham Bosse in France, enlivened abstract themes
such as The Five Senses, or series of depictions of trades
and professions with the settings and minutiae of daily
life.
Concomitantly
Bible stories were given reality and relevance by setting
them in the contemporary domestic scene. Jan and Raphael
Sadeler engraved Christ in the House of Mary & Martha,
The Rich Man and the poor Lazarus and The
Supper at Emmaus,
all after paintings by Jacopo Bassano; three prints which
are known collectively as the ‘Sadeler Kitchens’.
Kitchens in general became a popular theme.
Just
as the kitchen , with its prospect of the pleasure
of food and drink to be enjoyed socially, and perhaps
with musical accompaniment, is at the heart of the home,
the artist’s studio is the centre of his working
life and identity. The technical requirements of printmaking,
copper, wood and stone, acid baths, dampened paper, ink
preparation, and printing press, determine that most
printmaking takes place inside the studio and that there
are many objects of interest to engage the eye. With
all their picturesque trappings, studios are the settings
for many portraits and self-portraits – both with
and without the actual physical presence of the artist.
The
two promotional engravings of his Academy commissioned
by Baccio Bandinelli in 1531 and 1552 are amongst the
earliest printed secular interiors, closely followed
by Jost Amman’s woodcut illustrations of artists,
printmakers and printers at work, 1568. Together with
Hans Collaert’s celebrated image of an engraving
studio among the series of trades delineated in
Stradanus’ Nova Reperta from the same period, they
are the precursors of what proved to be a perennially
popular theme, the interior of the artist’s studio.
In
the 18th century prints of mores, moral (or more literally
immoral) behaviour, took the viewer inside the boudoir
and the theatre. With the dawn of the 19th century
the domestic interior becomes more prevalent. By the
end of the century and the early decades of the 20th
century, new ‘inside’ subjects are found
in factories, and the preparations for and results of
War; countered by those of cafés, musical entertainment
and games, and nostalgic interiors of smithies, and the
workshops of other rural craftsmen, disappearing in the
onward march of industry and mechanisation.
Very
few of the prints offered in this collection are ‘straight’ interiors.
With a few exceptions only, their raison d’être
is not first and foremost as a representation of a specific
interior. They are dialogues with the exterior; sometimes
views through windows from the outside looking into a
room; more generally interiors with views through windows
and open doors to the outside world of gardens, streets
or landscape. They are atmospheric studies of light,
sometimes lamp or candlelight, more often sunlight flooding
through windows, perhaps with figures silhouetted contre
jour. Above all they are settings that portray people
in their natural or personal environment, contributing
to the expression of the character of the sitter, with
favourite objects revealing their personal leanings.
Though
pure still lives are an even rarer printed genre than
interiors, interiors are themselves an extension of
still life, just as still lives are adjuncts of portraits.
It is interesting that in English and German the term
is Still '’Life’ while in French it is Nature ‘morte’.
The prints offered here, whatever their nationality,
are full of life and I hope life-enhancing.
Published
2006
64 pages, 142 items described and illustrated in black and white, with four in
colour on the back cover.
(UK
Price: £7, International orders: £10)
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Artists
included in the catalogue:
- Abbé S
van
- American
School
- Anderson
S
- Austin
R
- Baptiste
S
- Bartolozzi
F
- Bassano
J
- Belleroche
A
- Blampied
E
- Bonfils
R
- Bosse
A
- Bostock
J
- Bowles
J
- Bracquemond
F
- Brangwyn
F
- Brouet
A
- Burnley
C
- Butcher
E
- Callot
J
- Cameron
D Y
- Chinnery
G
- Clarke
J
- Clausen
G
- Cowern
R T
- Cranach
L
- Dodd
F
- Drury
P
- Duez
E
- Dürer
A
- Dusart
C
- Duvivier
G
- Fagioli
G
- Fantin-Latour
H
- Flax
Z
- Fontainebleau
School
- Freeth
H A
- Fürst
E
- Gabain
E
- Godden
C E V
- Goffey
H
- Grant
D
- Hall
C
- Hartrick
A S
- Heath
J C W
- Heuvel
van den
- Hockney
D
- Hogarth
W
- Hopfer
D
- Hopfer
H
- Hudson
E E
- Hummel
W
- Ilsted
P
- Israels
J
- Jacquemart
J
- Journet
E
- Kayser
E
- Kollwitz
K
- Laboureur
J E
- Lamy
P A
- Laurie & Whittle
- Lautensack
H
- Lavieille
A
- Lawless
M J
- Le
Breton C
- Lepère
A
- Macbeth-Raeburn
H
- Marchant
L
- McBey
J
- Meryon
C
- Millet
J F
- Monzies
- Morley
H
- Nash
J
- Newton
Edith
- Newton
Eric
- Osborne
M
- Ostade
A van
- Philipp
M E
- Platt
R
- Possoz
M
- Primaticcio
- Rayner
H
- Robbe
M
- Sadeler
J
- Sadeler
R
- Salter
A
- Sartorius
M
- Schauffelein
H
- Schmutzer
F
- Sickert
W
- Simon
T F
- Smith
C W
- Smith
R S
- Spruyt
E P
- Stevens
A
- Stevenson
B T W
- Still
S G H
- Tanner
R
- Verpilleux
E
- Villon J
- Vos
M de
- Hall
C
- Wedgewood
G
- Welti
A
- Whistler
J M
- Wierix
A
- Winghe
van
- Wolff
H
- Zorn
A
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