FACT SHEET 1: Alexander Nasmyth – `Landscape Loch Katrine

FACT SHEET 1: Alexander Nasmyth – ‘Landscape Loch Katrine’ (Date unknown)
FACTS:
Alexander Nasmyth (1758-1840) is known as the
“father of Scottish landscape painting”. He was born
in Edinburgh and started off as an apprentice
painting coats of arms* onto horse-drawn carriages.
He soon became popular with the rich and famous as
a portrait painter. He painted a family portrait for
Patrick Miller of Dalswinton and in return Miller lent
Nasmyth £500 to go to Italy. Nasmyth spent two
years travelling around Italy and studying Italian art
from 1782-1784.
TASKS (one per learner):
1. Life and work
Describe three important things about the
life and work of Alexander Namsyth
2. Subject matter and composition
Title and date of painting.
Subject matter - What can you see in the
painting?
Composition – How are things set out? What
is in the foreground, mid-ground and
background?
When he came back to Edinburgh Nasmyth switched
from portraits to painting landscapes of Scotland,
which he produced in a very Italian style. Nasmyth
was a good friend of the famous poet Robert Burns,
whose portrait he painted. The two men would often
walk together through scenic* areas of central and
southern Scotland.
Nasmyth set up a landscape
painting school in Edinburgh and insisted his pupils
drew outside, from real life scenes, rather than just
working from other people’s drawings and paintings.
He is considered the first great Scottish landscape
painter.
3. Colour and mood
What effect does the use of colour have on
the painting? Does the use of colour make the
painting look dark, cold, warm, moody,
cheerful, relaxed?
What sort of mood do you think the painting
expresses?
4. Your opinion
What do you like or dislike about the
painting? Express your own opinion. Begin
sentences with ‘I think...’ ‘I like...’ ‘I believe...’
etc.
Tourists flocked to Loch Katrine after it was made
famous in the poem ‘The Lady of the Lake’ by Sir
Walter Scott in 1810. The poem sold 25,000 copies
in 8 months, breaking all publishing records. The Lady
of the Lake poem started a trend for sightseers to
visit beautiful areas like Loch Katrine to admire the
scenery and take in the fresh air.
*Coat of arms – a special logo specific to one family
or organisation, like a school badge.
*Scenic – somewhere with beautiful natural scenery
or landscapes.
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Art & Design: Fact Sheets
Fact Sheet 1: ‘Landscape Loch Katrine’ by Alexander Nasmyth © Culture and Sport Glasgow (Museums)
FACT SHEET 2: John Everett Millais – ‘John Ruskin’ (1853)
FACTS:
John Everett Millais (1829-1896) was known as an
artistic child prodigy*. At the age of 19 he helped to
found the Pre Raphaelite Brotherhood. This was a
group of artists who rebelled against the normal
rules of the art world on how paintings should be
constructed. They were inspired by the Victorian art
critic and author John Ruskin who emphasised the
truth and beauty found in nature.
The PreRaphaelites painted nature almost like a photograph,
paying close attention to detail in all objects, even
those not normally considered important.
TASKS (one per learner):
1. Life and work
Describe three important things about the
life and work of John Everett Millais.
2. Subject matter, composition and setting
Title and date of painting.
Subject matter - What can you see in the
painting?
Composition – How are things set out? What
is in the foreground, mid-ground and
background?
Setting - John Ruskin was an author and art
critic living in London. Why do you think
Millais decided to paint his portrait in a wild
place?
John Ruskin went on a trip to Scotland with his wife
in 1853 and invited the young Millais along. Millais
painted this portrait of Ruskin beside the Finglas
Water, part of Glen Finglas Estate in The Great
Trossachs Forest. Whilst he worked on this painting
Millais fell in love with Ruskin’s wife Effie. Effie left
Ruskin and married Millais soon after and they went
on to have 8 children together. Millais became one of
the best known Pre-Raphaelite painters, famous for
his portraits and later his pure landscape paintings.
3. Colour and detail
What effect does the use of colour have on
the painting? Does the painting look dark,
sunny, cheerful, moody, thoughtful, open or
closed?
Why did Millais paint such a detailed portrait
of Ruskin?
This portrait shows a very detailed and truthful
representation* of man and landscape, which is what
Ruskin argued for. Millais very carefully shows the
exact details of Ruskin’s facial features and clothing,
as well as every moss, fern and boulder in the burn
behind him. Ruskin seems caught in a moment of quiet
reflection in nature.
4. Your opinion
What do you like or dislike about the
painting? Express you own opinion. Begin
sentences with ‘I think...’ ‘I like...’ ‘I believe...’
etc.
*Child prodigy – someone whose great talent is
recognised whilst they are still a child
*Representation – the way something is portrayed
or pictured
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Art & Design: Fact Sheets
Fact Sheet 2: ‘John Ruskin’ by Sir John Everett Millais 1853
Private Collection; photograph © National Portrait Gallery, London.
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Art & Design: Fact Sheets
FACT SHEET 3: Horatio McCulloch – ‘Loch Katrine’ (1866)
FACTS:
Horatio McCulloch (1805-1867) was born in Glasgow
and was named after Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson
who won the Battle of Trafalgar. McCulloch worked
as a teenager decorating snuff boxes* and painting
scenes in the Theatre Royal, Glasgow. He started
off painting landscapes in the style of Alexander
Namsyth (who is featured on one of the other
factsheets) but soon developed his own style. During
his lifetime he became the best known and most
successful landscape painter in Scotland.
TASKS (one per learner):
1. Life and work
Describe three important things about the
life and work of Horatio McCulloch
2. Subject matter and composition
Title and date of painting.
Subject matter - What can you see in the
painting?
Composition – How are things set out? What
is in the foreground, mid-ground and
background?
McCulloch aimed to paint ‘the silence of the Highland
wilderness where the wild deer roam’. His landscapes
celebrate the romantic scenery of Scotland and
evoke* a grand sense of scale and wilderness. During
the Victorian period when he lived, many communities
in the Scottish Highlands were cleared from the land
to make room for large sheep farms and sporting
estates for deer and grouse shooting, McCulloch’s
paintings helped to define the Highlands as a
wilderness rather than as a place where people lived
and worked on the land. His huge dramatic landscape
paintings were very popular with the Victorians and
he helped to create a romantic view of Scottish
scenery that still comes through today.
3. Colour and mood
What effect does the use of colour have on
the painting? How does the use of colour
make the painting dramatic and romantic?
What sort of mood do you think the painting
expresses? What do you think the painting is
about?
4. Your opinion
What do you like or dislike about the
painting? Express your own opinion. Begin
sentences with ‘I think...’ ‘I like...’ ‘I believe...’
etc.
*Evoke – create particular feelings
*Snuff box – airtight box to keep ground tobacco
The Glasgow Boys were a group of artists working in
Glasgow in the late 1800s and early 1900s. They
thought McCulloch and other similar painters were
overly sentimental and romantic. The Glasgow Boys
chose to paint more gritty real life scenes instead –
real people in real places.
that was sniffed up the nose not smoked
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Art & Design: Fact Sheets
Fact Sheet 3: Loch Katrine by Horatio McCulloch 1866
© Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Perth & Kinross Council. Licensor www.scran.ac.uk
FACT SHEET 4: Rob Mulholland – ‘Vestiges’ (2009)
FACTS:
Rob Mulholland lives and works in the Trossachs
making public art and sculpture. Much of his work is
inspired by the local environment. His recent work
includes a major public art commission for Alloa town
centre and a sculpture trail at Loch Ard in Loch
Lomond and Trossachs National Park based on the
wildlife found in the area.
TASKS (one per learner):
1. Life and work
Describe three things about the life and work
of Rob Mulholland.
2. Subject matter
Title and date of the work
Subject matter - What does the work consist
of? Where are the sculptures placed?
‘Vestiges’ is a piece of public art created in 2009 and
installed in beautiful native woodland within the
Trossachs. It is a series of life-size human figures
made out of stainless steel polished to a mirror
finish. The surface of each figure is intentionally
slightly distorted*, creating a slightly altered image
of the surroundings. The reflections change all the
time depending on the light and weather conditions.
3. Mood and meaning
How do you think the artist wants people to
feel when they are walking through the woods
and come across the sculptures? How would
you feel seeing these sculptures?
What do you think the sculptures are about?
4. Your opinion
What do you like or dislike about the
sculptures? Express your own opinion. Begin
sentences with ‘I think...’ ‘I like...’ ‘I believe...’
etc.
Rob says “The essence* of who we are as individuals
in relationship to others and our environment is
important to me as an artist. In ‘Vestiges’ I wanted
to explore this relationship further by creating a
group, a community, within the woods, reflecting the
past inhabitants of the space.”
For more on Rob’s work visit www.robmulholland.co.uk
*Distorted – misshapen or twisted
*Essence – the basic, unchanging
something
The dictionary definition of a vestige is a mark,
trace, or visible evidence of something that is no
longer present or in existence. The sculptures are
ghost-like reminders of the people who used to live
and work in the area. They also help encourage
visitors to look at their environment differently.
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key feature of
Art & Design: Fact Sheets
Fact Sheet 4: ‘Vestiges’ by Rob Mulholland 2009
All photographs © Rob Mulholland
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Art & Design: Fact Sheets
FACT SHEET 5: Alexander Hamilton‘The Glenfinlas Cyanotypes’ (2008)
FACTS:
Alexander Hamilton was born in 1950 in Caithness,
Scotland. He studied drawing and painting at
Edinburgh College of Art, before spending 6 months
recording the plants on the uninhabited island of
Stroma. It was here he created his first Cyanotype
image, and began a 40 year journey exploring
connections to plants and landscape.
A Cyanotype image is similar to a photographic print
but is made without using a camera or film. Objects
are placed onto light sensitive paper and left in the
sun to leave their shadow. Hamilton says, “I am drawn
to this technique* because of its ability to create
unique images, each made by the plant’s natural
materials. The final result contains the essence* of
each plant.”
TASKS (one per learner):
1. Life and work
Describe three things about the life and work
of Alexander Hamilton
2. Subject matter
Title and date of the work
Subject matter - What does the work consist
of? How is the work made?
Hamilton is very interested in a particular site at
Glenfinlas in the Great Trossachs Forest – the
setting for a famous portrait of art critic John
Ruskin by John Everett Millais in 1853 (the subject
of another group’s fact sheet). Ruskin encouraged
artists to portray* nature as honestly and accurately
as possible, something Alexander also feels strongly
about.
3. Meaning
Why do you think the artist used this
technique* instead of a regular drawing or
painting? (Refer to paragraph three).
4. Your opinion
What do you like or dislike about the work?
Express your own opinion. Begin sentences
with ‘I think...’ ‘I like...’ ‘I believe...’ etc.
First Hamilton braved the midgies to track down the
exact place Ruskin had stood for his portrait. Then
he carried out a survey of all the flowers growing
within 20 metres of that site, with help from
scientists at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh. He
then created cyanotype images of all the flowers
that he found. This series of images was exhibited
as The Glenfinlas Cyanotypes in 2008. Some of the
titles of the cyanotypes are taken from Ruskin’s
diary that he wrote whilst he was at Glen Finglas. For
more
on
Alexander’s
work
visit
www.alexanderhamilton.co.uk.
*Essence – the basic, unchanging key feature of
something
*Portray – to make a likeness of something for
example by drawing or painting
*Technique – the particular method used, often
involving technical skills
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Art & Design: Fact Sheets
Fact Sheet 5: Two of ‘The Glenfinlas Cyanotypes’ by Alexander Hamilton 2008
Top: July 28 Fine Weather; Bottom: August 22 Walking with Mrs Ruskin
Images © Alexander Hamilton
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Art & Design: Fact Sheets