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Another study visit for Scotland - The Open College of the Arts

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Another study visit for Scotland

Currently on at The Scottish National Gallery, is an exhibition travelling from Amsterdam called Dreams of Nature: Symbolism from Van Gogh To Kandinsky which was at the Van Gogh Museum. It isn’t coming to England at all, so if you are not already in Scotland and want to see it you will have to travel to Edinburgh! We will be running a study visit to it on 1st October which will run from 11.30am till 3pm. Please email enquiries@oca-uk.com if you would like to go.
Jim Cowan recently visited the show and reports on it here. Emma Drye also visited the exhibition and her take on it is remarkably different and will be published in a couple of days, so do look at both posts!

Arnold Böcklin

In Arnold Bocklin’s ‘Island of the Dead’ 1886 was the first picture in the show. Thinking that it looked smaller than when I saw the painting last, I discovered that it was the fifth version that the artist had painted of this subject.
Subsequent research revealed that this painting was exceedingly popular in its day and according to the writer Nabokov there was a print ‘to be found in every home in Berlin’. Indeed the third version was at one time owned by Adolf Hitler and was hung in the Berghof, his Bavarian mountain retreat. The popularity of this painting accounts for its many versions, which were commissioned by collectors.
Edvard Munch, Melancholie, 1894-96, Bergen Kunstmuseum, Rasmus Meyers Samlinger, Munch Museum - Munch Ellingsen Group c-o Pictoright Amsterdam 2011

Included also in the show was the second version of Edvard Munch’s painting ‘Melancholy’ 1894-96. The original idea started life as a pastel before he painted the first version in 1891. Subsequent woodcut prints of the same subject followed. The first version Munch cut in Paris in 1896 got lost in the post when he sent it back to Norway, so he cut another version. The last woodcut of the series was probably ‘Melancholy 3’ 1902, of which there are three versions.
Munch was a shrewd businessman and knew what would sell, but he also was concerned to keep all his key pictures together and wanted to exhibit them together as a ‘Frieze of Life’, which in part explains why he painted other versions when the originals had been sold. It would be interesting to know what Munch would have thought of the fifth version of the ‘Scream’ being sold recently for £74 million pounds. I think he would have painted another one.
Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931), Het Meer van Keitele - Lake Keitele, 1905, Lahti Art Museum, Viipuri Foundation

Also in the show was a painting by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1865-1931) of Lake Keitele shows the wake left by the Finnish mythical folk hero Vainamoinen as his copper boat passes across the water. There seem to be three versions, the third of which is currently on display at London’s National Gallery. The version in the Van Gogh Gallery exhibition, dated 1905, is moodier in tone and better depicts the spirit of the story. Gallen-Kallela is considered to be Finland’s national painter, and was a friend and compatriot of the composer Sibelius.
Van Gogh painted 6 versions of the Sunflowers, as well as two versions of ‘The Bedroom’. He painted these with no sale in mind but simply for the love of the subject and to welcome Gauguin to the Yellow House in Arles.
Of course many artists like to work in series, and so we have Monet’s Hay Stacks, Poplars and Cathedrals, Cézannes’s Bathers and Card players as well as his many depictions of Mont Sainte- Victoire.
Midtown Deco

If you have a good idea why not explore its possibilities. Later this has lead to artists being known mostly for a signature style of work with Rothko, among others, painting many variations in the same format. The artist of course who has taken painting replicas to new heights is Damian Hirst with his 1500 (and rising) spot paintings.
Not to be outdone, I decided to paint a second version of a painting of which I had already done an etching. The reason was I had for some time thought that the first version was too small and realised that it would look better painted a larger size. So with a lot of effort and trying not to copy the original too closely a second version now exists ready to take its place in the world – but rest assured I won’t be doing another one.


Posted by author: Jim

2 thoughts on “Another study visit for Scotland

  • I’m really looking forward to co- running the study trip. I haven’t seen the exhibition yet but have had a look at the catalogue. The painting of Lake Keitele really stood out for me- it looks so contemporary. It’s inteesting that you highlight the fact that many of the artists made several versions of their work, and for different reasons. I have occassionally revisited themes, but have only once done a second version of a painting. The painting was one I did of my daughter and her friends on a magic flying carpet. Apparently, I said I would give it to her, but later sold it to a woman who wanted it for her daughter. So, I painted another one and someone else wanted it, so now I will have to paint a third or I will nevfer hear the end of it from my daughter!

  • I attended this exhibition and was privilaged to sit in the gallery drawing my favourite pieces. The signature pieces for me were Kandinski’s Cossacks and Woods near Oele by Mondrian. The Mondrian landscape is unlike the style he is famous for.These pieces introduced to me notions that colours can have other meanings including spiritual significance in Mondrian’s case being influenced by the theosophical writings of Rudolph Steiner. Kandinski’s use of colours certainly influence mood like music and taken to a logical conclusion could create a scale for the artist to literally compose with.An idea I am eager to pursue in later studies with OCA. £10 admission reduced to £7 with my student card.

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