Taking up another recommendation from my tutor to look at for part 3 of the course, I made a quick Google image search on Paul Nash, John Piper and Eric Ravilious. I was very perplexed by the similarity of the images that turned up. My first impression were that they were all depicting landscape in muddy green-grey-brown tones and created a depressed atmosphere, which could not be further away from my idea of “the joy of nature”. Having researched Eric Ravilious earlier for my drawing course, I remembered that he lived in the early 20th century and was a contemporary of two world wars. I thought, maybe the choice of colours reflected how he felt about the world: An unfriendly place full of enemies. And maybe the other two painters made their works at around the same time?
Paul Nash, The Menin Road (1919)
John Piper, A Cotswold River Valley (1946)
Eric Ravilious, Beachy Head (1939)
And indeed. Paul Nash (1889 – 1946) was almost an exact contemporary of Eric Ravilious (1903 – 1942). John Piper was born at the same time, but lived into his late eighties (1903-1992). All three had been official war artists of British Ministries, and experienced both World Wars.
They painted landscape entirely different from the romantic ideal of healthy, protective nature, and this is very apparent in their choice of colour and elements they chose to depict.
Sources
Paul Nash, The Menin Road (1919): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nash,_Paul_-_The_Menin_Road_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg
John Piper, A Cotswold River Valley (1946): http://www.lucy-johnson.com/available-pieces/d/a-cotswold-river-valley-the-coln-at-coln-st-aldwyns-1946/54251
Blog Article on Eric Ravilious, including the painting Beachy Head (1939): http://jamesrussellontheweb.blogspot.com/2011/09/eric-ravilious-at-belle-tout-lighthouse.html