Not that this is an exhibition of conquest and hubris. Paintings such as George Lambert and Samuel Scott’s 1731 painting of Bombay harbour and John Montresor’s 1766 Plan of the City of New York are pictorial records of newly-won territories but also expressions of wonder at distant lands. Just such excitement underlies George Stubbs’s lovely painting of 1764-5, Cheetah and Stag with Two Indians. The cheetah was a gift to George III from the Governor General of Madras. Stubbs depicted her with her attendants letting her loose on a stag; in reality the stag, one of the Duke of Cumberland’s in Windsor Great Park, ended up chasing her. The humbled cheetah was sent to the menagerie at the Tower of London where she was known as “Miss Jenny” and became a tourist favourite. Characteristically, Stubbs’s focus was as much on the two Indians whom he saw as every bit as exotic as the animal.
There was interest too in the indigenous art of the colonies, not all of which had an anthropological bent. The East India Company, for example, was a sponsor of Mughal artists, encouraging them to adopt what became known as “Company style” that mixed traditional Indian miniaturism with Western watercolour technique and perspective. The resulting pictures were produced in their thousands for the British market.
If all of this makes for a rich and thought-provoking exhibition it is a pity the Tate succumbed to a modish instinct and included various contemporary artists whose work “reflects” on the legacy of empire. Reflections on empire are commonplace: most of the other exhibits are not.
There is a very welcome exhibition (until January 24) at the Hepworth Wakefield of the British sculptor and wood engraver Gertrude Hermes (1901-1983).
Hermes trained alongside Henry Moore and her future husband, Blair Hughes-Stanton, and was a leading figure of the mid-century revival of wood engraving. Her intricate and sinuous work, a mixture of the mystical and the natural, illustrated numerous books produced by private fine-art presses such as the Golden Cockerel Press and Gregynog Press. As well as stand-alone sculptures — in stone, wood and bronze — she also produced forms that were used as car mascots and door knockers.
Hermes has rather slipped from view — that she worked on a small scale didn’t help — but with her examination of natural forms she deserves to be seen as part of the mid-20th-century efflorescence of British art that also produced the likes of Moore, Hepworth, Ravilious and Bawden. She was more than a period piece and the 90 works in the exhibition reveal a distinctive artist of broad range and high skill.
There was interest too in the indigenous art of the colonies, not all of which had an anthropological bent. The East India Company, for example, was a sponsor of Mughal artists, encouraging them to adopt what became known as “Company style” that mixed traditional Indian miniaturism with Western watercolour technique and perspective. The resulting pictures were produced in their thousands for the British market.
If all of this makes for a rich and thought-provoking exhibition it is a pity the Tate succumbed to a modish instinct and included various contemporary artists whose work “reflects” on the legacy of empire. Reflections on empire are commonplace: most of the other exhibits are not.
There is a very welcome exhibition (until January 24) at the Hepworth Wakefield of the British sculptor and wood engraver Gertrude Hermes (1901-1983).
Hermes trained alongside Henry Moore and her future husband, Blair Hughes-Stanton, and was a leading figure of the mid-century revival of wood engraving. Her intricate and sinuous work, a mixture of the mystical and the natural, illustrated numerous books produced by private fine-art presses such as the Golden Cockerel Press and Gregynog Press. As well as stand-alone sculptures — in stone, wood and bronze — she also produced forms that were used as car mascots and door knockers.
Hermes has rather slipped from view — that she worked on a small scale didn’t help — but with her examination of natural forms she deserves to be seen as part of the mid-20th-century efflorescence of British art that also produced the likes of Moore, Hepworth, Ravilious and Bawden. She was more than a period piece and the 90 works in the exhibition reveal a distinctive artist of broad range and high skill.
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