In the exhibition "Somewhere Up Country", the genre of landscape painting is explored and celebrated using works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery collection.
Spanning the mid 17th century through to the early 20th century, this exhibition highlights the breadth and diversity of the gallery’s international and New Zealand holdings, and showcases the enduring influence the landscape has had on artists over centuries.
In this exhibition, Le Moulin de Poulfenc a Riec, by Lucien Pissarro (1863-1944), sits within a group of paintings by French Impressionists. Following in the footsteps of his father, and fellow painter, Camille Pissarro (1830-1903), Lucien Pissarro’s art practice strongly followed the principles of Impressionism.
These principles emphasised the importance of outdoor plein air painting, the use of pure colours applied directly to the canvas (rather than pre-mixing them on a palette), the appearance of small visible brushstrokes and the accurate depiction of natural light.
The landscape was often the subject of Pissarro’s paintings — scenes he would paint outdoors, directly responding to what he saw. Painted during a return trip to France (following his permanent move to London), Le Moulin de Poulfenc a Riec is one of a series of works that depict the beauty of the Brittany countryside.
His strong desire to paint emotively placed an emphasis on his ability to work instinctively and spontaneously, capturing the splendour of this flowering pasture in small brushstrokes and dabs of paint.
- Lauren Gutsell is an assistant curator at Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
See it
• "Somewhere Up Country: Landscapes from the Collection" runs from July 8-October 23 at Dunedin Public Art Gallery.
