Landscape painting & William Gillies & the colour grey

Sir William G Gillies. Near Durisdeer. c1932

This painting is I think a fine example of what Ruskin meant when he wrote of, ‘conveying the impression of nature into the mind of the spectator.’ Gillies is also a fine colourist — a much rarer gift than is generally realised.I find it hard now to imagine a revival of landscape painting — to think that it will ever again occupy that vital and fecund place in art which it did from c.1800 to c.1947. And, if we think of Bonnard, Braque, Cezanne, Caspar David Friedrich, Monet, Paul Nash, Pissaro, Stanley Spencer, Turner, Van Gogh, then we may well ask, ‘What is there left to explore?’ It would seem that nature — in the form of landscape — has ceased to be a viable subject. What can painters now do that will not take some form of (inevitably weak) imitation of the masters listed above? This is a broad generalisation, but in looking at hundreds of contemporary landscape paintings I can find little that is not derivative. However, given that we live in a world which is ‘fluid and full of surprises’, it is probably unwise peremptorily to ‘write off’ landscape painting. And then we may well consider this passage from Karsten Harries’ The Meaning of Modern Art:

Kierkegaard … warns the artist not to get caught in a groove which robs him of his freedom … if you are a painter give up your abstract expressionism and turn neo–classical or whatever else may take your fancy. A strictly realistic painting by a known avant–garde artist is interesting for a change … The masters of the interesting will therefore never permit themselves to be caught in a particular way of doing things for too long. The foundation of their artistic progress is discontinuity, novelty. (p60)

If these words were taken to heart by every artist, it is impossible to gauge the extent of the originality which might follow. And if it resulted in some highly creative landscapes, then that would be fine. But deliberation to this end is, I think, impossible; and the extant riches are more than sufficient to content and inspire us for a lifetime.

     ~~~

The Scottish painter, Sir William Gillies (1898–1973) is one of those painters who are not well–known, but deserve I think to be more so. Far from being  a provincial artist, he travelled to Paris, where he studied under Andre Lhote, and subsequently travelled to Italy. He was much influenced by Braque, Cezanne, Paul Klee, and Picasso. If he was also inspired by Bonnard I would not be surprised. The harbour In Ardnamurchan. c.1936 suggests the structure of Klee and the colour of Bonnard.

Sir William Gillies. In Ardnamurchan. c.1936

Few people realise that grey is one of the most important colours on the artist’s palate. Not simply grey made by mixing black and white, but the wealth of coloured greys achievable by mixing (for example) the complementaries green and red. Here is a passage from Anton Ehrenzweig’s The Hidden Order of Art:

Harry Thubron liked to say that Van Gogh’s imitators simply went for his blue sky and yellow fields, and neglected his subtler colours in fences, paths, houses, etc., that kept the sky and the fields apart, paradoxically increasing their dynamic pull on each other. (pp161–2)

These ‘separating’ colours may have been greys, umbers, darkened alizarins, or any comparative ‘neutrals’ — without the presence of which the brightest cadmium reds and yellows would be dull. The flags in Monet’s painting consist mostly of greys, and that is why they are so colourful!

Claude Monet. La Terrace De Sainte-Adresse. 1867