Gower and Art

 

Rhosilli, Gower, there are fields of beautiful sunflowers.  The sunflowers are planted with background of Worm’s Head.  Previous years, the plants have been planted by the National Trust.  This year, however, due to the Coronavirus Pandemic, without the National Trust staff, local farmer Robert Morgan planted the sunflowers in fields used by the Trust and also buying himself an extra two fields. The sunflowers do vary in a variety of colours.

Self-Portrait 
1889
Musee d'Orsay

Sunflowers
1888
Vincent van Gogh

The famous piece of art, that features sunflowers, is Vincent van Gogh Sunflowers, 1888.  This still life painting was his fourth version.

Vincent van Gogh, the Dutch post-impressionist artist. During his life, van Gogh, created 2,100 works, of which 860 were produced in the last two years of his life.   His works included landscapes, still life, portraits and self-portraits.  He wasn’t commercially successful in his life and during 1890, aged 37 van Gogh committed suicide, following years of depression and poverty.  After his death, van Gogh became one of the most famous painters and influential figures in Western art.

Sunflowers (F453)

Sunflowers (F459)    

The other version of the Sunflowers, version one, Three Sunflowers in a Vase, August 1888.  This shows the sunflowers in a vase, with a turquoise background.  The painting only features three flowers.  The second version, Sunflowers, August 1888,  the flowers are still in vase and there is a royal blue backdrop.  There are still three flowers, with additional two flowers, that fallen in front of the vase.  This version was destroyed during the US raids on Japan during the later months of the Second World War. 

Sunflowers (F456)

Sunflowers (F454)

The third version, Sunflowers, 1888 there are several flowers, displayed in a yellow vase, with a blue green backdrop.  This version is only display at Neue Pinakothek, Poland.  The final version, which is what we see today, is on display at the National Gallery, London.

Seven artists, who were inspired by van Gogh, to paint their own sunflowers.  Who are these artist?

Frank Brangwyn

Firstly, an admirer of van Gogh’s work, Frank Brangwyn.  Titled Sunflowers painted early 20^th century.  The piece shows the sunflowers in bloom, and clustered in the open air, set against a bold blue sky.

Sunflowers
Frank Brangwyn
photo credit Royal Academy of Arts

Sir Matthew Smith
1952
Cathleen Sabine Mann

Matthew Smith.  A British artist, who studied Slade School (1905-7) and then for a short time in Paris (1911).  Smith was strongly influenced by French art, during the interwar years.  His works uses colour in a bold, unnaturalistic manner echoing the art movement Fauves.  Smith works include landscapes and still life.

Smith Sunflower, 1912, shows a solo flower in a pot with huge leaves.  Smith was an admirer of van Gogh.

Sunflowers
1912
Matthew Smith
photo credit Birmingham Museum Trust

Edward McKnight Kauffer

Edward McKnight Kauffer.  An American, who settled in England prior 1914.  Kauffer was a member of the Wyndham Lewis’s Group X, founded during 1919.  Kauffer who gave up art during 1921, to turn his attention to his brilliant and witty posters designs.  He returned back to the USA during 1940, where he included further posters.

Kauffer’s  Sunflowers, 1917 is in the Vorticist arrangement, and is three blooms stand in a tall pot.

Sunflowers
1917
Edward McKnight Kauffer
photo credit Government Art Collection

Charles Ginner.  British artist, who grow up in France before settling in London.  Becoming friends with Harold Gilman and Spencer Gore,  it was through them that Ginner became a member of Walter Sicket’s movement.  Ginner was a respected figure, who’s work primarily was of townscapes and landscapes.

Ginner’s Dwarf Sunflowers, 1929 composition includes seven sunflowers in a pot, a few pink flowers, a book and a small oriental bowl.

Dwarf Sunflowers
1929
Charles Ginner
photo credit Salford Museum & Art Gallery

Paul Nash

Paul Nash, English painter, book illustrator, writer, photographer and designer.  Nash saw himself the successor of William Blake and Turner, after being wounded during the First World War, Nash became an Official War Artist.

Nash’s Eclipse of the Sunflower, 1945.  Nash used van Gogh’s work in a symbolic way.  The sunflower was inspired by various sources, including the horrors of the Second World War.

Eclipse of the Sunflower
1945
Paul Nash
photo credit British Council Collection 

Margaret Sidney Davies

Margaret Sidney Davies  was a Welsh an amateur artist, she was an early collector of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism.

Davies’s Sunflowers are set outside, partly in homage to van Gogh’s Rain, Auvers, 1890.

Sunflowers
Margaret Sidney Davies
photo credit Gregynog Hall

Finally James Manson, the British artist, director of the Tate.

Manson painted Sunflowers, 1939.  He got his inspiration van Gogh’s painting

photo credit black and white photo from the Witt Library 
The Courtauld Institute of Art