The artist as naturalist and experimenter : landscape painting and science 1740-1850
File(s)
Thesis File Two
Thesis File One
Author(s)
Hartley, Beryl
Type
Thesis
Abstract
This thesis discusses the relationship of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century British naturalistic landscape painting to the fieldwork and experimental practices of contemporary scientific endeavour. It argues that close study was essential to a naturalistic treatment and traces what this entailed in practical terms. Part I assesses some eighteenth-century field collaborations between artists and naturalists engaged in a variety of investigations from the 1740s, and the value of sketching to fieldwork. The significant effect of the naturalists' rigour and methodology on the artists' practice is revealed. Part II deals with the knowledge and representation of trees; of obvious importance in nature and landscape painting, they have been little discussed by historians of science or art. It demonstrates the unique role of landscape painters in the study of living trees. A survey of works on trees dating from midseventeenth century, resulting from a wide range of economic, aesthetic and scientific concerns, reveals an increasing demand for naturalistic drawings. The neglect of whole trees by botanists and their artists is explained and major changes in British botany around 1830 are shown to have ended it; the expertise of certain landscape painters was essential in providing depictions of living trees. In Part III an examination of eighty years of tree-drawing manuals by landscape painters helps to clarify the practical aspects of close study. The special and often innovative visual and manual skills acquired in the activity of tree drawing from nature, including the creation of a device - "the touch" - to express the characters of different foliage, are analysed in depth. The exploratory nature of this practice, and its embedded craft and tacit skills, are shown to be analagous to aspects of laboratory experimentation.
Version
Imperial Users only
Date Awarded
1995
Advisor
Secord, Jim
Publisher Department
Centre for History of Science, Technology and Medicine.
Publisher Institution
Imperial College London
Qualification Level
Doctoral
Qualification Name
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Author Permission
Permission not granted