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Course: Tate > Unit 5
Lesson 2: 16th to 18th century: Dynasty, revolution, and the Classical AgeRoom: 1650-1730
This video brought to you by Tate.org.uk
Curator Tim Batchelor explores the period 1650-1730.
Learn more about the art featured in this video:
- Jan Siberechts, View of a House and its Estate in Belsize, Middlesex, 1696
- Mary Beale, Portrait of a Young Girl, 1681
- Mary Beale, Sketch of the Artist's Son, Bartholomew Beale, in Profile, 1660. Created by Tate.
Curator Tim Batchelor explores the period 1650-1730.
Learn more about the art featured in this video:
- Jan Siberechts, View of a House and its Estate in Belsize, Middlesex, 1696
- Mary Beale, Portrait of a Young Girl, 1681
- Mary Beale, Sketch of the Artist's Son, Bartholomew Beale, in Profile, 1660. Created by Tate.
Want to join the conversation?
- Landscape painting only came in at this period of time?(6 votes)
- No, landscape painting was being done long before then.
Here is a brief history that is really interesting!
http://www.getty.edu/education/teachers/classroom_resources/curricula/landscapes/background1.html(7 votes)
- The dark backgrounds and color palette in Mary Beale's works shown at1:55seem similar in many ways to Dutch masterworks by Rembrandt or Vermeer. Was British art of this time influenced by these Dutch painters?(4 votes)
- That's a great observation. This was a time when British art was heavily influenced by international artists -- in fact, up until the 18th century, most English court painters were international talents, many of them from Flanders. Anthony van Dyck (http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sir-anthony-van-dyck-565) was among them, and he set the tone for national portraiture for many years to come.
Landscape and maritime painting were popular in Holland and brought over to England during this time as well. In fact, some British artists included Dutch ships in their sea paintings as a kind of tribute to the Dutch artists who inspired them.(6 votes)
- Are the landscapes depictions of specific properties in Antwerp? Were they commissioned by the landowners or were they created according to Siberechts' own volition?(2 votes)
- Siberechts' landscapes were meant to be careful depictions of real houses and estates. They would have been commissioned by the owner of the house as a kind of "portrait" of his possessions, hence the carefully rendered details and bird's-eye view.(4 votes)
- Specifically, how do we know Mary Beale "touched up" her portrait paintings after attempting to do a quick rendering of them? Was she ever successful at the quick rendering of portraits? Were these her only attempts at this technique?(3 votes)
- I want to learn about Van Acke(2 votes)
- I soul de like to know about the Pantone of Joseph Van Aken , "An English Family at tea"(2 votes)
Video transcript
We’re now in the second room of the walk through British art, covering the period of 1650 to around 1730 a period of dramatic change. Of the restoration of the monarch in 1660, the plague, fire, a glorious revolution and the creation of the United Kingdom in 1707. The earlier period of British art is really dominated by portraiture and it's during the restoration period that we have the introduction of new genres. Genres such as landscape painting arrive in Britain during this period through the activities of incoming artists from the Netherlands and the low countries. Other genres, such as still life were also produced as well as decorative interior painting and the introduction of the conversation piece. Landscape painting is considered a quintessentially English, or British, genre of painting but it is in fact introduced into Britain in this period through artists such as Jan Siberechts who arrives from Antwerp in the 1670s, the founding father of British landscape painting. Siberechts concentrated in views of country house scenes and country house portraits birds-eye views of the English landscape. This painting shows the country house and estate of an English banker and goldsmith called John Coggs. We can see here a birds-eye view of a house and an estate north of London. Mary Beale can be considered as the first professional female artist active in Britain. This is a real family affair. Her husband Charles primed the canvases, mixed the pigments and took care of all the accounts. Her children, Charles and Bartholomew also acted as assistants. This painting of a young girl was an attempt to paint quickly and to paint in a fashion that would be all in one go and dry quickly and be a resolved picture. The attempt didn’t quite work and we can see from the painting here that she had to go back and retouch the painting. These two small sketches on paper are Mary Beale's children, who she often painted. We don’t know if they were produced as studies for a larger, more finished, painting or if they were just simply studies for her own pleasure. The two paintings emerged on the French art market fairly recently and were previously unknown. The paintings were subsequently acquired by the Tate and are shown here for the first time to the public.