Part 3 Project 5 Townscapes Research Point

Van Ruisdael, Jacob (mid. 1660s)

Village in Winter by Moonlight.

In studying works of John Virtue, I decided to look at one of the artists Tate Museum cites as being his inspiration, namely: Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/9?-82). (Taylor, 2003) Although I have never actually studied the works of Jacob van Ruisdael, I immediately recognized a number of his paintings as being famous Dutch works.

A sombre, expressive painting of Ruisdael’s is Village in Winter by Moonlight (fig. 1). As described by The National Gallery, he “… was able to create a poetic and sometimes brooding or tragic mood in his landscapes.” (Gallery, 2016) In Village in Winter By Moonlight, he created the foreboding mood through his use of stark contrast. Within the approaching thunderstorm, he has extreme dark hooded areas, contrasted with the moonlight reflecting off the crest of the clouds. The diagonal of the dark underside of the cloud directs your eye dramatically to the ramshackled cottage, which is receiving a fleeting illumination from the moonlight breaking through the looming, thunderous clouds. The dappled areas of light and shade add drama to the scene as two relatively insignificant figures hustle along the road, heading diagonally away from the viewer.

What I think contributes to the brooding nature of this artwork is that it is monochromatic, with strong contrast in the immediate foreground on the right-hand side, and then gradually reducing contrast as your eye follows the line of the road towards the left, into the far distance. His use of aerial perspective adds to the foreboding as you can envision that the man and boy have a long way to travel before they reach the safety of their home - and the storm is about to break.

Fig. 2. Virtue, John (2003) Landscape No. 664.

[oil, acrylic and shellac on canvas].

In a similar manner, John Virtue uses an achromatic color scheme with strong contrasts in his painting Landscape No. 664 (Fig. 2). In this painting he has alluded to a city scape with a cathedral dome and spire in the near distance. (I presume that it is Saint Paul’s cathedral, but as I could not find a discussion on this painting, this is merely my guess.) He has used slight aerial perspective in that the dome, plinth and drum is slightly lighter and less defined than the darker buildings in the foreground. His paint application appears fresh - the paint is caught dripping down the canvas - and yet masterfully belabored in that it has numerous layers that allude to man-made structures and buildings.

Illustrations

Figure 1

Van Ruisdael, Jacob (mid 1660s) Village in Winter by Moonlight. [oil on  canvas] 36 x 32 cm. At: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/jacob-van-ruisdael

Figure 2
Virtue, John (2003) Landscape No. 664. [oil, acrylic and shellac on canvas] height: 183.30 cm, width: 183.50 cm At: UK, London, Government Art Collection.

Works Cited

Gallery, T. N., 2016. Jacob van Ruisdael. [Online]
Available at: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/jacob-van-ruisdael
[Accessed 10 3 2016].

Taylor, R., 2003. Landscape No 624 1999–2000. [Online]
Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/virtue-landscape-no-624-t07915/text-summary
[Accessed 10 March 2016].