English Artists of the Waldensian Valleys 1823-1850
You may be familiar with Joseph Mallord William Turner, the English painter who inspired Monet and the French Impressionists. His major paintings are on permanent show at Tate Britain in London. A new film about Turner, called “Mr Turner” is about to be released and I would recommend seeing it since it will show many of his most famous paintings. Turner best known painting is:
“The Fighting Temeraire” (slide)
Turner was also a “maestro” of watercolour and engravings. In fact, at that time, England led Europe in both these arts. In Turner’s lifetime, before photography was invented, the only way that ordinary people could enjoy scenes of beauty was through engravings of watercolours, in black and white, printed in books such as these of England, by Turner ():
So landscape painting was the leading art form, in Britain. The English travelled just to locate and draw “picturesque scenery”. Everyone took pencils and watercolour paints, with them. They drew and wrote about what they had seen to share their findings with those who would never leave England. In fact, educated English still value cultural tourism above all their other pleasures, even above good food and wine. Travelling to Italy has always been a primary pleasure for the English who still see it as an “ideal” if not magical landscape.
One of reason for locating fine scenery was to draw it before it vanished. Active in doing this were many amateur women, who took drawing and painting lessons from professional artists. They were highly trained in the theories of landscapes, but there was also strong religious motivation for their work. The landscape artist was a kind of “preacher” helping to open the eyes of the blind to the beauty of God’s Creation, to see landscape as a temple of the divine, a reflection of their Architect, God. John Ruskin in his book “Modern Painters” aimed to show “eternal beauty of the works of God”.
This attitude was commonplace in highly religious England. In fact, intelligent people ‘read’ landscapes as expressions of God’s Creation, looking for messages and meanings. The tempest at sea was a parable about the frailty of mankind. The chasm through rocks was the narrow path to Heaven, escaping through the sorrows and refining trials of this treacherous world. We should also understand the engravings of the Waldensian Valleys in the same way. In these, artists were showing spiritual man and woman in their landscape, an approach usually reserved for illustrations of the Bible.
The father of landscape painting was Claude Lorrain (slide), a French artist who lived in the early 17th century. He specialised landscapes that were classical and idealised. Landscape art required certain elements which we will see in the prints of the Waldensian valleys, too.
Paintings like Claude’s “Landscape with the Marriage of Rebecca and Isaac” (1648) (slide) is typical. There are:
dancing peasants by a brook across a meadow with tame bulls
goats dipping into water
a line of marching soldiers
a distant ruined classical Temple near a mill and a weir
people fishing from punts
ancient Rome with towers, with further views of the Campagna
beyond that, mountains, the Apennines.
on the left, the cascades of Tivoli.
Of course, Claude’s ideal landscapes never existed, but, as you will see in the prints of the Waldensian valleys, which do exist, there are some similar elements. There are Waldensian believers in the foreground, possibly fishing or chatting, a river, a distant (Waldensian) church, rocky mountains with light coming through clouds, cascades or a narrow gorge. Turner said that “The sun is God”. In the prints of the Waldensian valleys, one knows that the light breaking through the clouds is the presence of God appearing in times of danger. By the way, in landscape art, there is often a blasted tree in the foreground. This looks very odd in some of the Waldensian prints.
There were fashionable English ideas about beauty, underpinned by the philosophy of Burke. One idea was that beauty is usually smooth, but landscapes require “ruggedness”. One kind of beauty is pastoral : verdant pastures and gentle hills. Another is dramatic scenery called “the sublime”. “Sublime scenery” creates fear about the power of Nature and about God, as Judge. Sublime places can kill you. The English crossing the Alps in coaches were awestruck by such sublime scenery, and also fascinated by drawing it.
I am going to share with you four sets of engravings based on watercolours of the Waldensian Valleys taken from English books printed between 1824 and 1838. These show the valleys before new buildings were erected. They are similar to a fascinating collection of old black and white photos, but nearly 200 years old.
The first two artists are men:
- a professional engraver, W H Bartlett (1809-1854) who illustrated a book, published in 1838;
- a young amateur called Hugh Dyke Acland (1791-1834), the son of one of the women artists, who illustrated a book on the Vaudois published in 1831.
The second two artists are women.
-noblewoman Henrietta Hoare (Mrs Fortescue) (1765-1841) who illustrated Rev William Gilly’s famous first book “Narrative of an Excursion to the Mountains of Piedmont” published in 1824
- Gilly’s second wife, Jane Colberg Gilly (1804-1899), who illustrated her husband, William Gilly’s second book “Waldensian Researches”, published in 1831.
I will also show some engravings by an unknown artist from Turin, which Gilly did not think good enough - but he had to print them in 1824.
I find the amateur women’s art superior to that of the men’s, possibly due to their spiritual insight. Indeed, I find Jane Colburg Gilly’s engravings more satisfying than some of Turner’s. Jane Colburg Gilly’s art speaks to me of :
- the loving provision and close presence of God all around us (if we have faith to see it)
- the living waters, flowing from Christ (if we come to Him)
- the protection of God - like the bastion of the Alps (if we run to it)
- a landscape made innocent, like that of the Golden Age, by its sacrificial history.
Her vision conveys purity, innocence and sanctity : a distinctly Christian vision. Jane suffused her scenes with her inner longings for the Divine, almost as a presentiment of a redeemed creation: a New Earth, directly ruled by God.
Even as young married woman of just twenty six, Jane courageously attempted to show something almost impossible : Christian man and woman in a real - and ideal - landscape.
Through great talent, surely a gift from God, I believe that she achieved it.
Select Bibliography
“Narrative of an excursion to the mountains of Piedmont and researches among the Vaudois” William Stephen Gilly with illustrations by Mrs Fortescue (Henrietta Hoare) (published 1824)
“Illustrations of the Vaudois”
Edward Finden with illustrations by Hugh Dyke Acland (published 1831)
Waldensian researches during a second visit to the Vaudois of Piedmont”
Rev William Gilly (1789-1855) with illustrations by his wife, Jane Colburg Gilly (published 1831)
“The Waldenses: or protestant valley of Piedmont, Dauphiny etc“
William Beattie, with illustrations by W H Bartlett (published 1838)
For more the British art of watercolour, please contact me for a further bibliography (baileyannis@gmail.com)
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