George Stubbs (1724-1806)
March 23, 2009
I am learning art history by standing in front of the art of the last 2000 years. Such a long period is why it has taken me the last 30 years to learn the fraction of that history I know. My education took a huge step forward through my hours at the Tate and learning about 300 years of British painting from 1600 to 1900. That was the period when British artists affected the whole of Western art making.
The current “Van Dyck and Britain” show has been a key lesson. Before the 17th century Europe looked to Flanders (and Italy) for its artistic masters (for example Hans Holbein the Younger). Anthony van Dyck (1599-1641) was a young Flemish artist from Antwerp who came to England to stay, until his death nine years later, as the principal court-painter for Charles I. He changed the world forever - not because of his typical subject depicting rulers and nobility - but because of his skills as a painter. Never before had painters been so able to capture a spirit/personality in their subject. Van Dyck’s portraits have tremendous luminosity - from the sumptuous visual tactility of flowing satin robes to translucent skin colored by the bluish blush of subcutaneous vascularity.
The important 18th century British painters: Hogarth, Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Stubbs studied and were profoundly influenced by van Dyck. Gainsborough’s “Blue Boy” (in the collection of the Huntington in Pasadena) is taken from and is an homage to a painting by van Dyck. On his death bed, Gainsborough’s last uttered words were “van Dyck”.
The 19th century British painters Singer-Sargent, Constable, and Turner were similarly influenced. Even the late 19th century Symbolists and Pre-Raphaelites (Rosetti, Millais, Alma-Tadema) were in van Dyck’s sway.
Wow - my four hours standing before van Dyck and then the Tate’s permanent collection of British art was deeply educational.
