British Landscapes: A Sense of Place shows how ideas of scenery have evolved across 300 years of art |
The new exhibition of British landscapes at Pallant House Gallery in Chichester features 160 works by some 60 artists. These span from Thomas Gainsborough and the local Smith brothers in the 18th century to the inner-city wastelands of Prunella Clough in the 1990s.
Yet, in an exhibition drawn entirely drawn from Pallant House’s own collections, there are inevitable emphases and gaps. Scottish and Welsh artists are probably better represented than Scottish and Welsh landscapes.
Apart from a collage of Bolton in 1937 by Julian Trevelyan, made while assisting the early work of Mass Observation – a social research initiative that documented everyday life in British towns through writing, photography and visual records – the north of England is largely represented by wintry views of Wharfedale. The Midlands and East Anglia are equally underrepresented.
This exhibition is not about British, or even English landscapes, but about how a broad range of British artists responded to the landscapes they chose to depict.
Entering the exhibition, I passed some striking works by Graham Sutherland and Edward Bawden. Bawden and Eric Ravilious are unsurprisingly well-represented in this show. Yet it jarred to be told that they moved into nearby Great Bardfield in 1932 “with their wives”. After all, Charlotte Bawden and Tirzah Garwood were themselves significant artists, albeit not of landscapes.
Happily, the same room includes Cumberland Landscape (Boothby) (1926) by Winifred Nicholson. She, alongside others including Barbara Hepworth and the Scottish artist Wilhelmina Barns-Graham, ensure that women’s contributions are represented.
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