Art Museum opened in 1897. A selection of reproductions of paintings from the London Gallery

Tate Gallery - The State National Museum in London, which stores over sixty thousand works of art: painting, sculpture, drawings, engravings. It is divided into two parts: the British Tate Gallery (Tate Britain) or the old Tate Gallery, which is a collection of English paintings of the 16th-19th centuries. and foreign art of the 19th century, and Contemporary gallery Tate (Tate Modern) - European and American art from 1900 to the present.
The core of the Tate Gallery collection is Sir Henry Tate's (1819–1899) private collection of paintings by English artists. The gallery opened on July 21, 1897.

Albert Moore

Albert Moore

The gallery has been rebuilt several times. In 1926, a collection of foreign paintings was housed in the new building. In 1979 - the opening of rooms for a collection of contemporary art. In 1987 - the opening of the Clore Gallery, specially built for the works of Turner (1775-1851), who bequeathed his canvases to England on the condition that they all be preserved as a single exhibition. Sir Charles Clore (1904–1979) provided funds for the construction of the gallery.

Alphonse Legros - Cupid and Psyche

Arthur Hughes

During the Second World War, the gallery building was badly damaged as a result of air raids. The collection was previously evacuated. The museum fully opened to visitors in 1949.

assistants and George Frederic Watts

attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts II - Portrait of an Unknown Lady

The modern Tate Gallery was opened in May 2000. The building was converted from a power plant built in the 1930s in the city center, opposite St. Paul. While retaining the exterior of the power plant, the architects completely redesigned the interior and added a glass and steel roof.

Augustus Wall Callcott - Sheerness and the Isle of Sheppey (after J.M.W. Turner)

Benjamin West - Cleombrotus Ordered into Banishment by Leonidas II, King of Sparta

Benjamin West - Pylades and Orestes Brought as Victims before Iphigenia

Benjamin West

The modern Tate has moved away from the traditional placement of works in chronological order. The collection consists of four large sections: "Still life, object, real life”, “Landscape and Environment”, “Historical painting”, “Nude, action, body”. The authors of the exposition combine different directions: the works of old masters with modern ones, painting and sculpture with photographs and video films. The gallery hosts many temporary exhibitions. contemporary artists.

Benjamin West

British School 16th century - A Young Lady Aged 21, Possibly Helena Snakenborg, Later Marchioness of Northampton

British School 16th century - Sir Henry Unton

British School 17th century - Portrait of Anne Wortley, Later Lady Morton

British School 17th century - Portrait of a Lady, Called Elizabeth, Lady Tanfield

British School 17th century - The Cholmondeley Ladies

Chris Ofili - No Woman, No Cry

Cornelius Johnson - Portrait of Susanna Temple, Later Lady Lister

Daniel Mytens the Elder - Portrait of James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, Later 3rd Marquis and 1st Duke of Hamilton, Aged 17

Dante Gabriel Rossetti

David Des Granges - The Saltonstall Family

Edward Coley Sir, Burne-Jones - King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid

Ford Madox Brown

Francis Danby

Frank Cadogan Cowper - Lucretia Borgia Reigns in the Vatican in the Absence of Pope Alexander VI

Frederic George Stephens

Frederic Lord, Leighton - Lieder ohne Worte

Frederic Lord, Leighton - The Bath of Psyche

Frederick Walker

George Frederic Watts

George Gower

George Mason

George Romney

George Stubbs

Hans Eworth - Portrait of Elizabeth Roydon, Lady Golding

Henry Fuseli - Percival Delivering Belisane from the Enchantment of Urma

Henry Fuseli

Henry Herbert La Thangue

Henry Moore

Henry Scott Tuke

Henry Singleton - Ariel on a Bat's Back

Henry Wallis

Herbert Draper

Jacob More

James Barry

James Ward - Gordale Scar (A View of Gordale, in the Manor of East Malham in Craven, Yorkshire, the Property of Lord Ribblesdale)

Joesph Mallord William Turner

Johan Zoffany

John Bettes

John Brett

John Hamilton Mortimer - Sir Arthegal, the Knight of Justice, with Talus, the Iron Man (from Spenser's "Faerie Queene")

John Martin

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope - The Wine Press

John Roddam Spencer Stanhope

John Singer Sargent - Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose

John Singer Sargent

John William Waterhouse

Joseph Mallord William Turner Agrippina Landing with the Ashes of Germanicus

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Caligula's Palace and Bridge

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Cliveden on Thames

Joseph Mallord William Turner - England: Richmond Hill, on the Prince Regent's Birthday

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Fishing upon the Blythe-Sand, Tide Setting In

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Forum Romanum, for Mr Soane's Museum

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Italian Landscape with Bridge and Tower

Joseph Mallord William Turner - London from Greenwich Park exhibited

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Morning amongst the Coniston Fells, Cumberland

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Shipping at the Mouth of the Thames

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Bay of Baiae, with Apollo and the Sibyl

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Dogano, San Giorgio, Citella, from the Steps of the Europa

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Ponte Delle Torri, Spoleto

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Thames above Waterloo Bridge

Joseph Mallord William Turner - The Thames near Walton Bridges

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Tivoli, the Cascatelle

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Trees beside the River, with Bridge in the Middle Distance

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Union of the Thames and Isis (Dorchester Mead, Oxfordshire)

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Venice, the Bridge of Sighs

Joseph Mallord William Turner - View of Richmond Hill and Bridge

Joseph Mallord William Turner - Walton Reach

Joseph Wright of Derby - Vesuvius in Eruption, with a View over the Islands in the Bay of Naples

Lord Leighton Frederic - And the Sea Gave Up the Dead Which Were in It

Marcus Gheeraerts II - Portrait of Captain Thomas Lee

Marcus Gheeraerts II - Portrait of Mary Rogers, Lady Harington

Marcus Gheeraerts II - Portrait of a Man in Classical Dress, possibly Philip Herbert, 4th Earl of Pembroke

Phillip James De Lutherbourg

Richard Dadd - The Fairy Feller's Master-Stroke

Richard Dadd

Richard Wilson - Distant View of Maecenas Villa, Tivoli

Richard Wilson - Llyn-y-Cau, Cader Idris

Richard Wilson - Meleager and Atalanta

Robert Peake

School 17th century - Portrait of William Style of Langley

Simeon Solomon - A Youth Relating Tales to Ladies

Sir Anthony Van Dyck - Portrait of Mary Hill, Lady Killigrew

Sir Anthony Van Dyck - Portrait of Sir William Killigrew

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones - The Golden Stairs

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones - Vespertina Quies

Sir Edwin Henry Landseer - Deer and Deer Hounds in a Mountain Torrent

Sir Frank Dicksee

Tate Britain (Tate Britain) is considered to be the National Gallery art United Kingdom Great Britain. This is a repository of the cultural heritage of English painting, dating back to the 16th century. Russian-speaking tourists know the gallery under a different, unofficial name - "London's Tretyakov Gallery".
The museum is located in Millbank, central London, 500 meters from Pimlico Underground Station and 800 meters from Vauxhall Station. Available for visits daily from 10 am to 6 pm, except for three days a year - from December 24 to 26. Admission is free, except for some thematic exhibitions.

Founding history

The gallery was first opened to visitors in July 1897 in a former prison building. It got its name from the name of the creator Sir Henry Tate. A major industrialist, the owner of sugar factories, he based the creation of the gallery on a personal collection of works by English painters. His passion for painting began with three works of art by Walter Dandy Sadler, master Victorian era.
A special position in this trio was occupied by the painting “Thursday”, with monks depicted on the canvas, busy catching fish on Friday, the fast day. And today, this canvas is presented for public viewing.
The building was partially destroyed during an air raid during the Second World War, but the collection was not damaged, as it had been evacuated in advance. After the restoration of the building, in 1949, the doors of the museum were reopened to grateful visitors. Initially, the idea of creating a museum was based on the desire to present works of art exclusively by English masters, but gradually other foreign authors began to exhibit here.

Museum today

Tate Britain is part of the Tate group of museums. There are four of them in the group: Tate Britain, Tate Modern, Clore Gallery, Tate Ives, located in Cornwall and a branch of the gallery, located in Liverpool.
The Tate Britain Museum has about 60 thousand exhibits, including paintings, prints, sculptures. The works of such English painters as William Hogarth, Richard Wheels, William Blake, Thomas Gainsborough, and the complete collection of paintings by the great William Turner are widely represented.
In addition to the British, foreign masters are also represented. For the most part, these are impressionists and post-impressionists: Kazemir Malevich, Claude Monet, Marc Chagall, Edgar Degas, Salvador Dali, Edvard Munch and many others. On weekends, the museum hosts free tours, there is a museum of souvenirs on the territory, where you can buy reproductions of exhibits.

The content of the article

TATE GALLERY(Tate Gallery) - State National Museum in London, which stores over sixty thousand works of art: painting, sculpture, drawings, engravings. It is divided into two parts: the British Tate Gallery (Tate Britain) or the old Tate Gallery, which is a collection of English paintings of the 16th-19th centuries. and foreign art of the 19th century, and the Tate Modern Gallery - European and American art from 1900 to the present.

The core of the Tate Gallery collection is Sir Henry Tate's (1819–1899) private collection of paintings by English artists. The gallery opened on July 21, 1897.

During the Second World War, the gallery building was badly damaged as a result of air raids. The collection was previously evacuated. The museum fully opened to visitors in 1949.

The modern Tate has moved away from the traditional arrangement of works in chronological order. The collection consists of four large sections: "Still life, object, real life", "Landscape and environment", "Historical painting", "Nude, action, body". The authors of the exposition combine different directions: the works of old masters with modern ones, painting and sculpture with photographs and video films. The gallery hosts many temporary exhibitions by contemporary artists.

MUSEUM COLLECTION

English painting.

In the halls old gallery Tate, you can get a complete picture of what English painting is, what are the main stages and directions of artistic life in the country.

The earliest work of the national school is Portrait of a man in a black hat(1545) John Betts (d. c. 1576), follower of the Northern Renaissance painter Hans Holbein the Younger (c. 1498–1543).

William Hogarth (1697–1764): Beggar's Opera (1729), Self portrait with dog (1745), wedding ball(c. 1745), Portrait of servants(1750s), Oh the roast beef of old England(Gate of Calais) (1748), numerous portraits.

Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792): Three graces adorn the herm of Hymen (1774), Portrait of Admiral Keppel (1780), Portrait of Dr. Samuel Johnson(1772), two self-portraits, children's portraits.

Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788): View of Dedham(c. 1760), Sunset. Horses harnessed in a cart, drinking water from a stream(c. 1760), Sir Benjamin Truman (1774), The artist's daughter Mary (1777), Giovanna Baccelli (1782).

Richard Wilson (1713–1782): Thames near Twickenhm (1762).

George Stubbs (1724–1806): Horses in nature (1762–1768), hay harvest (1785), Reapers (1785).

The work of William Blake (1757–1827), who illustrated his own works in watercolors and engravings, as well as Shakespeare, Dante, and the Bible, is fully shown: God creates Adam, newton, Death of Abel, Good and Evil Angels, A pity (1795–1804).

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851): Fishermen in the sea (1796), Thames Walton Bridge(c. 1807), Shipwreck(c. 1805), Frosty morning. Dawn (1813), Crossing the stream (1815), Funeral at sea(1842). Canvases with views of Venice: Bridge of Sighs, Doge's Palace and Customs, Venice: Canaletto at the easel(1833) and others. Impressionistic landscapes of the artist: Interior at Petworth(c.1837), Norem Castle. Sunrise(c. 1840). Blizzard. The steamer at the entrance to the harbor gives a distress signal, hitting the shallow water(1842) - a perfect depiction of a storm on the sea. The gallery exhibits hundreds of sketches and the only self-portrait Turner (1798).

John Constable (1776–1837): Malvern Hall (1809), flatford mill (1817), Hampstead Heath(c.1820), Hadley Castle(c. 1828–1829), Bridge opening waterloo (1832).

Pre-Raphaelites Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882): Beata Beatrix(c. 1863), Proserpina(1874); John Everett Millais (1829–1896): Ophelia(c. 1850); William Holman Hunt (1827–1910): Claudis and Isabella (1850).

Foreign Art Collection

began to form in 1917. This section chronologically begins with the painting of the French Impressionists and Post-Impressionists and has an extensive collection of masters of these areas.

Claude Monet (1840–1926): lady sitting on a bench(mid. 1870s), The Seine near Port Villeuse (1894), Poplars on the Epte (1890).

Camille Pissarro (1830–1903): Small maid (1882), self-portrait (1903), Pilots Jatt. Havre. cloudy morning (1903).

Alfred Sisley (1839–1899): Bridge on Sevres(c. 1877), Path along the river. Spring(1880) and others.

Sculptures by Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) Venus the victorious(1914) and Edgar Degas Fourteen year old dancer (1880).

Georges Seurat (1859–1891): Le Bec doo hoc (1885).

Paul Cezanne (1839–1906): Alley at Jas de Bouffan(c. 1874), Portrait of a gardener(1906); Paul Gauguin (1848–1903): Preparation for the holiday or Tahitian pastoral (1898), Harvest. Le Pouldu (1890).

Vincent van Gogh (1853–1890): Chair with tobacco pipe (1888), Gauguin's armchair at night (1888).

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864–1901): Portrait of the artist Emil Bernard(1885), Two friends(1890s).

Sculptures by masters of the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. Auguste Rodin (1840–1917): Kiss (1901–1904), Muse(1896) and Aristide Maillol (1861–1944): shackled movement (1906), Three nymphs (1930–1938).

Henri Matisse (1869–1954): Portrait of Andre Derain (1905), standing nude (1907), Snail(1953) - a large color application, as well as a series of four bronze reliefs - Nude co back (1909-1930).

Edvard Munch (1863–1944): sick girl(1907); Oskar Kokoschka (1886-1980): View of the Thames (1959).

Amedeo Modigliani (1884–1920): Little Peasant(1917), sculpture Head(c. 1913).

Pablo Picasso (1881–1973): Woman in a shirt(c. 1905) - refers to the "blue" period; seated nude(1909) - an example of cubism; Three dancers(1925) are written in a surrealist spirit. Sculpture on display: Still life (1914), big cock (1932).

Museum building

Dear reader, you probably do not even suspect that by drinking a cup of tea or coffee with a piece of sugar, you are touching ... the history of the creation of the Tate Gallery! You ask how? But how! The gallery is named after Henry Tait (1819–1899), its founder. It’s not customary for us to ask (except for the “competent authorities”) where this or that oligarch got his huge capital and, first of all, the very mysterious “initial”. In Europe, such a question is possible, and most importantly, the answer to it. Henry Tate, the son of a minister, entered the sugar business in the 1860s and set up a very profitable sugar dicing and packaging business. The entrepreneur became rich and took up patronage: he invested in hospitals, libraries, colleges, and finally founded an art gallery.

Museum interior

In the hall of the museum

Tate acquired paintings mainly at the annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy of Arts. He was interested in the works of contemporary artists, the industrialist was personally acquainted with many of them and supported them financially. He not only collected a large collection of paintings by English masters, but also built a building for it at his own expense. One could say that Tate was to British art what Tretyakov was to Russian.

The Tate Gallery is a state national museum in London. This is the world's largest collection of English painting, consisting of three large sections: English art from 1550 to the present day; a collection of works by William Turner; art of the 20th century. The general art fund of the museum was distributed among several "subsidiary" galleries: Tate Britain, Clore Gallery and Tate Modern.

Tate Britain Gallery

The collection of the Tate Gallery could not be limited to the works of only those artists who were preferred by the entrepreneur himself. Over time, the collection was replenished with paintings by old English masters.

National painting of the 16th-17th centuries is dominated by formal portrait. The earliest work of this genre, The Man with the Black Hat by John Betts (1545), now in the museum, bears the imprint of the influence of Hans Holbein the Younger and at the same time gives an idea of English Renaissance art.

The next, XVIII, century includes the works of great masters - William Hogarth, Joshua Reynolds, Thomas Gainsborough, George Stubbs.

The art of the 19th century is presented in the Gallery even more fully. In addition to the works of the Pre-Raphaelites and William Turner, which will be discussed below, the works of William Blake, John Constable are stored here. Worthy of attention landscapes and other authors.

Years and decades have brought changes in the distribution of picturesque treasures among British museums. A number of Impressionist paintings, which were originally in the Tate Gallery, were transferred to the National Gallery in London. Nevertheless, the museum has a very impressive collection of paintings by masters of this direction, as well as the creations of almost everyone who stood at the origins of modern art: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Edgar Degas, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and others.

Tate Modern Gallery

Gallery Clore

The Clore Gallery exhibits the most complete collection of works by one of the most talented and famous British artists - William Turner, bequeathed by him to the state. The legacy was transferred in 1856, five years after his death: about 300 paintings and 30,000 drawings and sketches, as well as Turner's notebooks and works considered unfinished, a number of works by other authors. Nine paintings from this collection ended up in the National Gallery in London, they demonstrate the legacy of the great English master in the context of world art. The same piece that made up the Tate's treasure trove is currently on display at the Clore Gallery, which was specially created for it, opened in 1987.

Tate Modern

The Tate Modern, part of the Tate Gallery, is the largest national collection of the world's contemporary art, including English. It was created in 2000, its opening was timed to coincide with the celebration of the third millennium. The monumental building of the former power plant in the center of London, on the opposite bank of the Thames from St. Paul's Cathedral, was reconstructed for the museum. Keeping the exterior, the architects completely changed the building inside and added a glass and steel roof.

The exposition is located in four wings of the building. Three are intended for the main trends of art of the 20th century: surrealism, minimalism, abstractionism, and the fourth - for the closely related cubism and futurism. The works of many close ones are grouped around the named main currents.

The gallery features significant works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Here is one of the best collections of surrealism in the world, including paintings by Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte and Juan Miro, works of American abstract art, pop art.

The Tate Gallery is not only a museum collection, but also the center of cultural life. Here you can satisfy all your artistic interests. The rich and well-organized infrastructure of the Gallery provides the visitor with a lot of opportunities to study art at different levels of knowledge and involvement in it. It is also a wonderful place to relax, where it is pleasant to sit in a cafe after a walk through the exhibition halls, listen to a concert from the works of composers different eras or choose entertainment to your taste and age.

Art of the 17th–18th centuries

Johann Zoffany. Mrs Woodhull. Around 1770

British school. Ladies of the Holmondale family. 1600–1610

This painting by an unknown English master of the 17th century is extremely interesting in its idea and truly unique. If only because it illustrates a completely fantastic case, which is described by the inscription at the bottom left: "Two ladies from a family in Holmondale, born on the same day, married on the same day and gave birth on the same day."

Imagine the mentality of a medieval Englishman, you can be sure that although this coincidence seems implausible, but it took place, and was not a product of the artist's imagination. They, apparently, to a certain extent is the artistic embodiment of the images of ladies, whose names are not known for certain. This, one might say, is a formal portrait of the sisters with their children. As women in labor, they are shown in bed, the crumbs are wrapped in scarlet fabrics. The artist lived in Cheshire, not far from which is the named estate. The heroines could have been inhabitants of the Holmodel Castle, which still exists today.

At first glance, it seems that the women are wearing the same dresses, they are very similar, just like their babies. But it was here that the amazing skill of the artist was manifested. Literally, in all the identical details of this double (one might even say quadruple) portrait, he introduced the subtlest variety. It is worth comparing the lace of dresses, necklaces and so on. Moreover, it was a difficult task to prevent the viewer (with the obvious similarity of the status of the sisters) from the impression of a greater or lesser attractiveness of one or another. Probably, now, too, no one can prove that one of the two is more beautiful.

Aesthetically, the picture is extremely interesting: it shows a striking diversity within a certain unity. A complete analogy to this phenomenon in English painting is the first published collection of national virginal music - Parthenia, published at the same time, in 1611. Here and there, the principle of variation is at the heart of the artistic method. It is easy to imagine a continuation of the example of this diversity, enclosed in identity: two ladies, sitting down at two equally similar instruments, will play a piece by Jailis Farnaby "For two virginals", in which both parties are equivalent ...

William Hogarth (1697–1764). The artist and his pug. 1745

William Hogarth is a great English artist, engraver, art theorist.

The "official" title of the work is not entirely accurate, the correct one is "Self-portrait of the artist with his pug". This painting in a painting continues the Baroque tradition of self-portraits of this kind. In the foreground are objects that identify the model as an artist (palette) and a literary educated person (books with "Shakespeare", "Swift", "Milton" on their spines). And this is true, later, in 1753, Hogarth's own treatise "Analysis of Beauty" will be published, but his ideas were already reflected in this self-portrait. Let's take a closer look at the palette: it shows a curved line and an explanation is given: "The line of beauty and grace." This idea will become the main one in the treatise: the "line of beauty" according to the teachings of Hogarth is an S-shaped line, which is the border of two spaces that are most harmoniously combined with each other. Great skill is required to draw it in the most perfect way. Having drawn it, Hogarth likened himself to the ancient Greek artist Apelles, the personification of perfection in the art of painting, who drew such a thin and perfect line that no one could repeat it. But if Apelles, according to legend, it was a straight line, then Hogarth took a curved one as a standard. In the preface to the treatise, the artist admitted that "not a single Egyptian hieroglyph has occupied the minds for such a long time" as this line. “Painters and sculptors came to me to find out the meaning of these words, were puzzled by them no less than everyone else, until they received an explanation.”

The second important character in the picture is the author's favorite dog - pug Trump. If you look closely at both depicted, then, as is often the case, you can find some similarities in their appearances. In this case, the dog serves as the embodiment of the pugnacious nature of the owner.

William Hogarth (1697–1764). Six heads of Hogarth's servants. 1750–1755

William Hogarth had a negative attitude towards the stereotyped secular ceremonial portraits, which his contemporaries created in abundance. He usually wrote his relatives and close people. A group portrait of servants is one such work. It is remarkable not only from an aesthetic point of view as a work of a great master, but also from a social point of view - it conveys the human dignity of people who occupy low levels in the social hierarchy, but at the same time have undoubted spiritual nobility.

This unusual group portrait originally hung in Hogarth's studio. The patrons and customers of the artist could see him. The work served as proof of the author's unsurpassed skill in conveying the individual features of the model. She was not custom-made, the painter created her for his own pleasure, and perhaps his servants.

The picture consists of several unrelated heads. The artist achieved the unity of the composition with the help of their symmetrical arrangement and uniform illumination by a source located outside the picture, in the upper left corner. Unique was the idea of Hogarth to paint portraits of servants outside of them. daily work. The attitude of the master himself towards them is unambiguously read - full disposition. It encourages the viewer to imagine the calm, settled, moderate life of the artist in his well-groomed house.

A study of the work found that initially its size was larger and the author intended to place seven heads. But the latter was not worked out as carefully as the others, and then the artist had the idea to cut off the edge so that the six finished heads would look more integral in composition.

George Stubbs (1724–1806). Mares and foals in a landscape with a river. Around 1763–1768

George Stubbs is famous, first of all, for being one of the first outstanding English painters who devoted his work to horses. In the 1760s, Stubbs spent two years studying the anatomy of these animals. His numerous sketches were published in 1766 as a separate book, which was called Horse Anatomy. The artist worked for an unusually long time on each of his canvases, which was the result of his extreme scrupulousness and complete absorption in work. Such a great scientific interest could, in a sense, even become a hindrance to the realization of purely artistic goals, but this did not happen in the case of Stubbs. All his images of horses are unusually lively, beautiful, energetic.

The picture gives the viewer a real pleasure in composition, drawing and colorful palette. A distant and wide horizon, large expanses of land and water, a high place where horses graze, the absence of any barriers for them - all this creates a mood and a feeling of peace and will, so desired in communication with these animals and so rare in relationships. of people.

Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792). Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney. Archers. 1769

The English painter Joshua Reynolds was the first president of the Royal Academy of Arts.

The painting is a portrait of two English aristocrats - Colonel Acland (right) and Lord Sydney, an Irish politician and diplomat. Here they are still young, later the colonel will take part in the war of the United States of America for independence (on the side of the British crown), will be wounded in the legs (? 777), survive captivity and return to his homeland, where he will be elected a member of parliament. But until he proved himself a hero, and Reynolds portrays him as an ordinary aristocrat, carried away, along with Lord Sydney, by hunting - always considered a high-society entertainment. They have already succeeded: trophies lie at their feet.

Reynolds presented the scene with unusual vivacity. The excitement of the hunters and their tension are wonderfully conveyed. By the way, to a large extent, the latter is expressed by the elastically stretched bowstrings of archers' bows. By the time the picture was created, the bow was already a weapon of the past, hunting was carried out from guns. Reynolds idealized the moment and moved the time of the action to a romantically presented Renaissance. This is also hinted at by the fact that in the figure of Acland there is clearly a hint of another hunter, or rather, a huntress - Diana - a character in Titian's Renaissance painting "The Death of Actaeon" (1562. National Gallery, London).

Joshua Reynolds (1723–1792). Lady Bamfield. 1776–1777

This portrait was commissioned from the master Charles Warwick Bamfield on the occasion of his marriage to Catherine Moore, Lady Bamfield. The image of a charming young woman is a witty adaptation of the classic statue of Venus Medicea (from the Medici collection), always considered the epitome of female beauty. Reynolds' appeal to the aesthetic ideals of antiquity was quite organic: at one time, in 1749, he went to Europe, lived in Italy, visited Florence, where in the Uffizi Gallery he saw a marble copy of a lost ancient sculpture of a goddess. In the work, mature in skill, the talent of the great portrait painter was very fully manifested. The captivating image of the model is given, as usual with Reynolds, against the backdrop of nature.

It is noteworthy that at the same time as the creation of this portrait, another artist, Johann Zoffany, painted the famous picture"Tribune Uffizi galleries”, depicting on it the artistic treasures of the Gallery and this statue. The work was known in England because it was kept in Windsor, in the royal castle.

Henry Robert Morland (1716–1797). Maid ironing clothes. 1765–1782

Throughout his life, Henry Morland painted idealized images of servants, maids, bards. All these canvases, and this one, are executed in the style, so to speak, of "imaginary paintings (s)" - a very sweet, touching genre of painting of the era of sentimentalism. Everything in such works is charming, cozy, safe, calm, warms the soul. There has always been and, obviously, will be demand for such works in certain circles of society. A number of masters, and Morland among them, made this style the banner of their work. As in every artistic movement, there are luminaries here. A recognized masterpiece is the Dresden "Chocolate Girl" by J. E. Lyotard. Such painting has analogies in music (Carl Philipp Emmanuel Bach - one of the eldest sons of J.S. Bach), literature (early J.W. Goethe), architecture (urban "single-family" houses throughout Europe). The demand for such paintings was so great that the same story was replicated by painters many times. This image of a young maid busy ironing seems to exist in five versions, written during the period of time indicated in the date of creation of the work.

John Singleton Copley, American and English classicist, portrait and history painter, was born in Boston. His stepfather was a master of the brush and later helped his stepson. In 1774, on the eve of the American War of Independence, Copley left America and settled in London. Here he turned to the historical genre. The master was a member of the Royal Academy of Arts.

The picture is also known under the second name - "The Storming of Jersey". To understand battle painting, it is necessary to know the political and military alignment of forces, who fought and with whom. The Storming of Jersey was a French attempt to invade the island and remove the threat it posed to American shipping during the Revolutionary War. Jersey was used as a military base by the British, and France, the eternal enemy of England, entered the war as an ally of the United States, wanted to gain control of it.

The French landed in Jersey on January 5, 1781. The governor surrendered the island after the fall of its capital, St. Helier, but twenty-four-year-old Major Francis Pearson, head of the garrison, rejected the surrender and led a successful counterattack. In reality, the major was killed shortly before the battle, but Copley depicts him dying under the British flag at the moment of victory. Pearson's black servant shoots, avenging his master's death.

Francis Pearson became national hero Great Britain, the painting attracted crowds of onlookers when it was first exhibited. It is reproduced on the banknote of ten Jersey pounds.

Henry Fuseli (1741–1825). The Shepherd's Dream from Paradise Lost. 1793

Henry Fuseli is a Swiss and English painter, graphic artist, historian and art theorist. He served as a pastor, then studied painting in Berlin, worked in England from 1764, was friends with William Blake. The master's work is one of the earliest examples of romanticism in England.

John Milton's poems "Paradise Lost" and "Paradise Regained" attracted the attention of Fuseli in his youth, when he lived in Switzerland. Many romantic artists turned to them, wishing to illustrate individual episodes. This picture depicts the lines from the 1st book of the poem, which tells about the fabulous elves:

Little elves that in the midnight hour
On the banks of streams and forests
The edges are dancing; late pedestrian
He sees them awake, or maybe delirious,
When the moon reigns over him, to the earth
Lowering the pale flight - they are, frolicking,
Circling (...)
Instead of depicting the elves dancing, as was usually done, the author presents them holding hands and circling over the sleeping shepherd, who sees this in his fantasies. Fuseli mobilizes all his imagination to create the supernatural creatures that populate the painting. They are interesting to look at.

The work was written for the large gallery of images of Milton's poem created by the artist.

Philip James de Lotherbourg (1740–1812). Vision of a white horse. 1798

Philip James de Lotherbourg (known as Philippe-Jacques, as well as Philip Jacob the Younger) is an English painter of French origin. He studied in Strasbourg, his parents were preparing him to become a Lutheran priest, but the young man insisted on being an artist, went to Paris for this purpose and soon became famous there. In 1771, the master moved to London and accepted an invitation from the actor David Garik to work as a set designer for the oldest London theater Drury Lane. In this field, he had outstanding achievements.

The last decades of the 18th century (the era of the French Revolution, subsequent wars and the foretaste of the approaching relatively soon new millennium) gave impetus to another interpretation of the apocalyptic theme. Artists began to develop plots of the death of the world, the Last Judgment, the end of mankind. The picture of Lauterburg shows the first two of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse - “The Conqueror” (“I looked, and behold, a white horse and a rider on it, having a bow, and a crown was given to him; and he went out as victorious, and to win.” - Rev. , 6:2) and “War” (“And another horse, red, went out; and it was given to him that sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another; and a great sword was given to him.” - Rev. 6:4). In interpreting this plot, the author clearly relied on Durer's famous engraving "The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" from his series "Apocalypse".

William Blake (1757–1827). Nebuchadnezzar. 1795–1805

English artist, poet, mystic, visionary William Blake studied in London at the Royal Academy of Arts. His formation was influenced by the tendencies of national romanticism. Descended from a very religious family, he is with early childhood brought up in himself reverence for the Bible, the images of which owned him throughout his life, created a large number of illustrations for it that were most original in ideas, composition and technique. Blake's world is inhabited by fantastic characters, presented in images and phenomena that are exceptional in the context of art at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries. Blake has no parallel in his era. In fact, only some of the creations of the surrealists can be compared with the riot of his imagination. The Tate Gallery houses 175 works by the artist.

You can understand Blake's picture if you know the story of Nebuchadnezzar in bible book Prophet Daniel (4:26-30): “After twelve months, walking around the royal halls in Babylon, the king said:“ Is this not majestic Babylon, which I built into the house of the kingdom by the power of my might and to the glory of my greatness! This speech was in the mouth of the king, as there was a voice from heaven: “They say to you, King Nebuchadnezzar: the kingdom has departed from you! And they will cut you off from people, and your dwelling place will be with the beasts of the field; grass will feed you like an ox, and seven times will pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules over the kingdom of man and gives it to whomever he wants! ” Immediately this word was fulfilled over Nebuchadnezzar, and he was excommunicated from people, ate grass, like an ox, and his body was watered with the dew of heaven, so that his hair grew like a lion's, and his claws like a bird's.

After seven years, he raised his eyes to the sky, praised the Almighty, and immediately returned to his former human state.

19th century art

Albert Moore. Bloom. 1881

John Constable (1776–1837). Scene on a navigable river. 1816–1817

This painting by the English landscape painter John Constable is known by its second name - "Fletford Mill". The mill was located in the very center of the region, where corn was grown in large quantities, which, by the way, during the war with France, when England, due to the blockade by Napoleon, could rely only on its own food resources, was a profitable business. The artist's father was prosperous, and this breadwinner of the family, standing on the banks of the River Stour, in the small village of East Bergholt, where the painter was born, appears more than once in his paintings. In his youth, Constable traveled extensively around the area, making sketches and sketches. According to the author himself, these scenes "made him an artist, for which he is very grateful."

A large log in the lower left corner of the picture is, of course, one of the pillars of the mill, which explains the revival of the inhabitants on the shore. The barge is detached from the horse as it now has to set off.

In one of his letters, the Constable admits that he associates carefree adolescence, first of all, with the river Stour, because it was thanks to her that he became a master. In this landscape artistic means this children's association is expressed. A rare calm reigns in the picture, almost the Arcadian serenity of being, accessible to everyone.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). Buttermere Lake, overlooking Cromacwater in Cumberland. Shower. 1798

Joseph Mallord William Turner - an unsurpassed master of the romantic landscape, in essence, in the spirit of his painting - an impressionist. In 1871, Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro, who saw his works in London, could not believe that the British artist, several decades before the Parisian Impressionists, had managed to anticipate their stylistic searches. The Tate Gallery has the largest collection of Turner's work, along with drawings, sketches and sketches - 4187.

The impetus for writing the picture was the poem of the Scottish poet James Thomson "Spring":

Leaning to the west, the sun appears
So resplendent - and quick radiance
Hits straight into the mountains - and from the yellow haze
Takes off, rushing to infinity
Air arc, blooming colors.
English painting and literature XVIII centuries give a lot of reasons for comparing the images sung in them. British philosophers have created a new, peculiar concept of the "sublime": it is heterogeneous. In landscapes, two types of it can be distinguished: the first is conditionally called "frighteningly sublime", associated with storms and disasters, the second - "natural sublime" - is turned to calmer states of nature. Here Turner changed some details and, in essence, altered the poetic image; in Thomson he is an example of the first, while in the painter he is very dramatic. The author liked to depict nature, obsessed with the elements. His preparatory drawing, made during a trip to the north of England a year earlier, reads: "Black". Turner will continue to supply his paintings with remarks, the purpose of which is to arouse in the viewer awe and fear of the greatness and forces of nature.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). Snowstorm Hannibal and his army crossing the Alps. 1812

The picture belongs to the beginning of Turner's career, it is one of the most daring and significant works of the young painter. The plot is based on the story of the ancient Roman historian Titus Livius about the battle of the Carthaginian Hannibal with local tribes during the crossing of the Alps to Italy in 218 BC. e. Turner chose the Aosta Valley as the scene of action, which he visited during his trip in 1802. The battle, shown with a certain high point, unfolds over the entire space of the canvas, it, struck by an incredible storm, goes into the distance, one of the legendary elephants of Hannibal's army is visible on the horizon. The painter is a master of depicting actions on a large scale. The uncertainty caused by the blurring of the outlines creates an unusually sublime image.

The first showing of the painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in London was accompanied by the publication of Turner's poem The Deceitfulness of Hope. It contains these lines:

<…>the leader looks
Looking forward to the fading sunset
Where is the edge of the Italian winds
Cut at the year on the edge.
What awaits them, blood-soaked rocks
And landslides, beyond the stone desert?
He imagined: Campania fat plains.
The wind howled: Capua temptations poison!
The "answer" of the wind refers to Livy's description of the subsequent fall of Hannibal's army due to the fact that the abundant life on the Italian plateau undermined the moral and physical strength of the soldiers.

The picture gives another allusion - to Napoleon Bonaparte: two years before the creation of the canvas, Turner saw the work of Jacques-Louis David "Napoleon at the St. Bernard Pass", in which the First Consul is presented in the form of a modern Hannibal. So, Turner's work refers to Napoleon's invasion of the Tyrolean Alps, it was written at the height of the war with France. Together with a poetic warning, the depicted snow storm can be perceived as a symbol and an omen of the collapse of the ambitions of both Carthage and Napoleonic France.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). Bay Bay with Apollo and the Sibyl. 1823

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). Bay Bay with Apollo and the Sibyl. 1823 (detail)

Turner showed this painting at the Royal Academy of Arts in London the same year he finished it. Meanwhile, work on it, apparently, was carried out earlier, and the canvas became a kind of result of the author’s first trip to Italy in the autumn of 1819. Then he visited Venice, Naples, Florence and Rome, where, under the patronage of Canova, he was elected an honorary member of the Academy of St. Luke.

Turner was captivated by the views of Italy. This is evidenced not only by the picture itself, but also by the Latin motto inscribed on it from Horace's ode “To Calliope”: “Seu liquidae placuere Baiae” (“il Baiy seashore attracts me”).

Although, according to the title of the work and the statements of art historians, it is the Baisky Bay that is depicted here, it is quite obvious that the picture is a romantic idealized landscape and resembles similar landscapes by C. Lorrain. A funny story is known: Turner's younger contemporary, the artist George Jones, talked about the painting with a traveler who had recently visited the shores of Baisky Bay. He stated that "half of the scene was just fictional." Then the indignant colleague wrote on the frame: "Splendide mendax" (from Latin - "brilliant lie"). Turner had fun and did not delete this inscription for a long time.

On this canvas, the Baisky Bay became the backdrop for the story of Apollo and the Kuma Sibyl. The plot goes back to Ovid's Metamorphoses. It tells how Apollo fell in love with a Sibyl from Cum, in northern Italy. God deceived her, promising to prolong her life for as many years as there are grains of dust in a handful of dust. And although she refused him, Apollo kept his word and endowed her with longevity, but did not give eternal youth. Thus, she was doomed to centuries of existence in the form of a decrepit old woman. The Sibyl, a young woman, is depicted seated in front of Apollo. Her cupped hands are filled with dust. God sits in front of her on a stone, one of his hands is on a lyre. This plot is rather late, it first appeared in the 17th century.

Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851). Storm on the sea. Around 1840

Although Turner was certainly a city dweller, he was always drawn to the sea. From the early 1830s, he constantly visited Margate, a town on the coast in Kent. Here the artist made many sketches of the views of the sea at different times: calm, waves, storms, in the daytime, at sunset ...

In the paintings of the author, both the idea itself and the skill of its implementation amaze and delight. As for the idea, the viewer always “hears” in his landscapes, especially seascapes, a certain romantic motif that seems to pour out from the deepest and most intimate corners. human soul. It seems that the Turner landscape literally says something, inspires ... It captures the viewer, makes him an accomplice, listening to the call of nature.

The painter's fascination with landscapes depicting stormy weather is explained by his interest in the subject of the sublime. He again and again recalls the power of nature, depicting the sea as a beautiful and at the same time frightening element. For Turner, the ocean was the backdrop against which action unfolded, drama played out. This is especially clear when the human factor is really introduced into the picture, for example, in the form of a shipwreck. But even on this canvas, where only the elements are conveyed, the possibility of such a catastrophe is felt.

With an almost monochrome range of dark tones, the master depicts a dense curtain of storm clouds. It seems that here he uses the same method that he used when creating similar drawings on paper: he draws the crests of storm waves and removes a small amount of paint with his fingertips to more clearly convey the bends of the wave.

End of the first part

The Tate Gallery in London is the largest complex art museums. Within their walls are masterpieces of British art from 1500 to the present.

By the end of the last century, the museum's collection had become so huge that there was no longer enough space to store it (not to mention display it). As a result, the collection was divided into two parts: modern painting(in the understanding of the curators this is the 20th century), it became a separate gallery "Tate Modern" and the British "Tate Britain".

The Tate Britain Gallery is the English equivalent of ours.

The gallery was founded in 1897 by Sir Henry Tate.(he is the inventor of refined sugar and cotton candy). The museum's collection was formed thanks to the South Kensington Museum, and private collections of paintings. Their owners decided to donate the collection of paintings to the state.

Peculiarities

The collection of paintings in the gallery "Tate Britain" is strictly ordered. Each time period has its own thematic sections. Once a year, the set of topics changes, which creates interest and intrigue. The main exhibits of the museum are the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelites (a trend in English painting in the second half of the 19th century) and Turner's aerial canvases, which, unfortunately, are not presented in our country.

"Tate Modern" occupies the premises of a former power plant, its building is a full-fledged art object. Within its walls you can look at paintings by Dali, Matisse, Kandinsky and Picasso. Here, too, the exhibits are hung according to themes, only not historical, but more abstract: “Things in motion”, “Poetry and dreams”, “Significant changes”.