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拍品专文
Painted in 1936, Welsh Landscape with Roads closely relates to the Tate Gallery's painting of the same title. Sutherland painted only two oils of this subject, and with the exception of the addition of an animal skull in the foreground of the Tate's version, their compositions are very similar. The location of the paintings is derived from a site near the inlet and village of Porth Clais, south-west of St David's, Pembrokeshire. Sutherland continued to visit this part of Wales until 1946, and after twenty years he returned in 1967, visiting from then on every year. Sutherland was drawn to the Welsh landscape for its sense of both difference and familiarity: ‘I was visiting a country, a part of which, at least, spoke a foreign tongue, and it certainly seemed very foreign to me, though sufficiently accessible for me to feel that I could claim it as my own’ (Sutherland in a letter to Colin Anderson, 1934, published as ‘A Welsh Sketchbook’, Horizon, Vol. 5, no. 28, 28 April 1942, pp. 225-236).
Sutherland's interpretation of this landscape in the 1930s established his use of the motifs and concepts which his work would become synonymous with: a road winding through a valley; the distinctive and unnaturalistic yellows, oranges and reds used to describe the landscape; and man's relationship with the landscape. The sense of the human presence within this landscape is indicated not only by the figure in the upper part of the composition, but also by the road running through the valley. He wrote, 'The roads form strong and mysterious arabesques as they rise in terraces, in sight, hidden, turning and splitting as they finally disappear into the sky. To see a solitary human figure descending such a road at the solemn moment of sunset is to realise the enveloping quality of the earth, which can create, as it does here, a mysterious space limit - a womb-like enclosure - which gives the human form an extraordinary focus and significance' (Sutherland in a letter to Colin Anderson, 1934, ibid). The distinct ochre yellows of this painting are lighter than the Tate's version, which is dominated by maroons and oranges. This, and the absence of the animal skull, make the present work a brighter and less melancholic interpretation of the subject. Nevertheless, the colours in both paintings are redolent of the 'womb-like enclosure' and the 'moment of sunset' that he describes. Two years after Welsh Landscape with Roads was painted, Raymond Mortimer described the ‘over-lapping and scrambling of opulent colours’ and suggested that ‘the artist’s vision has extracted from Welsh landscapes oranges and pinks as sumptuous as those that forced themselves upon Gauguin in tropical Tahiti’ (R. Mortimer, ‘An Arrival’, New Statesman and Nation, Vol. 16, no. 397, 1 October 1938, p. 490).
In the upper part of the painting, Sutherland includes conical forms which are evocative of both sheafs of corn as well as standing stones, the latter being in existence in this part of Pembrokeshire. This reference to standing stones in the landscape echoes a preoccupation found within the art of Sutherland's peers: the megaliths in Paul Nash's paintings of this period; Barbara Hepworth's Neolithic menhirs; and John Piper's 1937 article on 'Prehistory from the Air' (Axis, no. 8, early winter 1937, pp. 4-9). This intrigue in Britain's prehistoric past was fundamental to neo-romanticism, and is evident in Welsh Landscape with Roads. As Britain approached an impending war, the desire to protect the country's heritage, and to look back to its pastoral history, dominated the images created by this generation of artists.
Sutherland's interpretation of this landscape in the 1930s established his use of the motifs and concepts which his work would become synonymous with: a road winding through a valley; the distinctive and unnaturalistic yellows, oranges and reds used to describe the landscape; and man's relationship with the landscape. The sense of the human presence within this landscape is indicated not only by the figure in the upper part of the composition, but also by the road running through the valley. He wrote, 'The roads form strong and mysterious arabesques as they rise in terraces, in sight, hidden, turning and splitting as they finally disappear into the sky. To see a solitary human figure descending such a road at the solemn moment of sunset is to realise the enveloping quality of the earth, which can create, as it does here, a mysterious space limit - a womb-like enclosure - which gives the human form an extraordinary focus and significance' (Sutherland in a letter to Colin Anderson, 1934, ibid). The distinct ochre yellows of this painting are lighter than the Tate's version, which is dominated by maroons and oranges. This, and the absence of the animal skull, make the present work a brighter and less melancholic interpretation of the subject. Nevertheless, the colours in both paintings are redolent of the 'womb-like enclosure' and the 'moment of sunset' that he describes. Two years after Welsh Landscape with Roads was painted, Raymond Mortimer described the ‘over-lapping and scrambling of opulent colours’ and suggested that ‘the artist’s vision has extracted from Welsh landscapes oranges and pinks as sumptuous as those that forced themselves upon Gauguin in tropical Tahiti’ (R. Mortimer, ‘An Arrival’, New Statesman and Nation, Vol. 16, no. 397, 1 October 1938, p. 490).
In the upper part of the painting, Sutherland includes conical forms which are evocative of both sheafs of corn as well as standing stones, the latter being in existence in this part of Pembrokeshire. This reference to standing stones in the landscape echoes a preoccupation found within the art of Sutherland's peers: the megaliths in Paul Nash's paintings of this period; Barbara Hepworth's Neolithic menhirs; and John Piper's 1937 article on 'Prehistory from the Air' (Axis, no. 8, early winter 1937, pp. 4-9). This intrigue in Britain's prehistoric past was fundamental to neo-romanticism, and is evident in Welsh Landscape with Roads. As Britain approached an impending war, the desire to protect the country's heritage, and to look back to its pastoral history, dominated the images created by this generation of artists.