From Dürer and Poussin to Cézanne and Hodler, reflections have been important in many landscape paintings.
Cézanne
Telling a story using shadows, and the nineteenth century controversy over the colour of shadows.
With its central role in visual art, light and its source plays a critical role in composition. It’s also one of the challenges to those painting in the studio or in front of the motif.
From conventional composition in the early days of Impressionism, landscapes have been reduced, eventually ending up as areas of colour and texture.
How trees came to invade Impressionist landscape paintings, in direct contravention to established principles.
Horizon, planes of foreground, middle distance and background, repoussoir and framing, rhythm, reflections and panoramas – examples of compositional techniques.
A parrot, coral, snuffed-out candles, human skulls, worn-out boots, a bottle of poison and a syringe: all objects in still life paintings.
There were few good reasons to blur what should be sharp edges in paintings. Aerial perspective and Vermeer’s unusual optical effects explored in paintings.
In myth and legend, apples have determined the future of civilisation twice. They’re also some of the most enduring objects to be seen in still life paintings.
From the earliest still life paintings, many were designed not just to look realistic, but to deceive the viewer. Examples from van Eyck to the 20th century.
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