Museum Hosts Art of The Sky from History’s Most Celebrated Artists
Celebrating 500 years of artists’ fascination with the sky, Skyscape: The limitless art of the sky, is the River & Rowing Museum’s autumn exhibition for 2021, opening its doors today (30 September).
The exhibition features some amazing masterpieces in a variety of media from some of history’s most celebrated artists including Albrecht Dürer, Rembrandt, J M W Turner, Samuel Palmer, John Ruskin and Paul Nash.
Showcasing over 30 masterpieces from the Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford, Skyscape: The limitless art of the sky explores aerial landscapes as a symbol of the divine, as a subject of scientific interest and as means of emotional escape and expression for both artist and viewer.
Inspired by Constable’s famous statement of 23 October 1821 that ‘It will be difficult to name a class of landscape in which the sky is not the key note, the standard of scale and the chief organ of sentiment’, Skyscape is an exciting opportunity to view the popular art of landscape from a new perspective.
The exhibition begins with depictions of the sky as the dominion of the divine. Stories of revelation, redemption and judgement from Classical and Christian traditions are represented, including Dürer’s famous and minutely detailed engraving Nemesis and Rembrandt’s most celebrated landscape etching, The Three Trees. Another highlight is a striking renaissance Limoges enamel of the Crucifixion with a backdrop of gilded cumulus clouds.
Our favourite was the striking Sunset off the Morea painted in watercolour by Alfred William Hunt pictured above with Henley Mayor, Councillor Sarah Miller. Four sketchbooks from the Ashmolean Museum give glimpses of this voyage to the Mediterranean however none showed the identical cloud formations to this view in the artwork. It is thought that he incorporated sunset from his Kensington studio into the painting.
With the recognition of landscape as a distinct artistic genre during the seventeenth century, and the emergence of meteorology as a scientific discipline in the late eighteenth century, the sky became a subject in its own right. Artists such as J. R. Cozens and J. M. W. Turner, as well as Constable, developed innovative techniques, particularly using watercolour, oil sketches, and mezzotint to capture fleeting effects of light and weather with greater precision and apparent spontaneity. The majestic watercolour, Sepulchral Remains in the Campagna by J. R. Cozens, where the sky rather than the Roman countryside dominates the composition, reveals his influential genius for conveying shifting weather through delicately blended watercolour washes. Yet the sky retained its capacity for heavenly symbolism and increasingly became a vehicle for emotional expression. Clouds could suggest fleeting moments or magnificence, storms might embody threat or drama, while sunrises and sunsets could reflect death and renewal.
The spiritual and emotive aspect of skies persisted in the work of British twentieth-century artists including Paul Nash and the local artist to whom River & Rowing Museum has the UK’s only dedicated gallery, John Piper. Commissioned by Queen Elizabeth in 1941 to make a series of topographical records of Windsor Castle, Piper’s stormy skies over the royal residence represented imminent threat of the War and the Luftwaffe. However, this sombre symbolism was ignored or deplored by King George VI who wryly remarked, ‘you seem to have very bad luck with your weather, Mr Piper’.
Jon O’Donoghue, the Museum’s Head of Public Engagement said “At a time of deep reflection for us all, it’s going to be fascinating to look into artists’ use of the sky throughout such a long time period. The sky belongs to us all and yet how much time do we really spend looking at it? I hope that this new exhibition will take us to the blues, clouds, stars and storms as we all reflect on our relationship with what looms above.”
Henley Mayor, Sarah said, “I was really chuffed to be invited to this exhibition as I had planned to head down to the River & Rowing Museum to see it, so an early preview was lovely. And what an amazing exhibition it was, with famous names like Constable, Turner, Rembrandt and of course our own John Piper, and many more. I would urge everybody to head down to the River & Rowing Museum – you won’t be disappointed, the sketches and paintings were amazing. We are so incredibly lucky to have the River and Rowing Museum so exhibitions like this can be hosted. Why go to London when you have the R&RM on your doorstep. I look forward to going back with the children – and would urge everybody to pop down and take a look. It really is a must see exhibition.”
Details of activities inspired by the exhibition can be found at rrm.co.uk
