Room with a view

Wadsworth's town and country scenes

by Leon Nigrosh

CANALETTO TO CONSTABLE: PAINTINGS OF TOWN AND COUNTRY FROM THE YALE CENTER FOR BRITISH ART At the Wadsworth Atheneum, 600 Main Street, Hartford, Connecticut, through April 26.

When we look at 18th-century English landscape paintings today, we think of them as quaint, picturesque, and romantic, but when they were painted 150 years ago, they were social and political bombshells. It was a turbulent epoch, turf wars continually rumbled on the Continent, and there was trouble on the distant shores of North America. However, the greatest immediate concern for the British was the growing urbanization of their culture. The entire social structure was slowly crumbling as the mercantile class began to grow richer and more powerful. Aristocrats and peasants alike longed for the early days when everyone knew his place. Sensing this national wish to return to simpler times, artists and writers did their best to accommodate their expanding public.

Forty-three examples of English town and country paintings which embody these ideals are currently on display at the Wadsworth Atheneum. Painted by some of England's foremost artists of the time (whose names are almost totally unfamiliar today), these works are but a small part of the debate that raged in England throughout the 18th century and carried well into the 19th century. By placing these works in the proper historical context the Wadsworth lays bare the dichotomy faced by Georgian England and, by extension, all blossoming nations, as they attempted to resist the inevitable by holding on to the comfortable.

Indicative of early works in this genre, Richard Wilson's sprawling 1770 landscape View Near Wynnstay, the Seat of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, Bt. was commissioned less for its technically masterful panoramic vista than as visual proof of Baronet Williams-Wynn's power and wealth. His stately mansion is central to the composition. It sits just below the walls of an ancient fortress, which is meant to suggest the continuity of hereditary rule. Idle peasants happily populate the foreground, suggesting peace and harmony. And the meandering river acts as a metaphor for the landowner's "natural" right to rule his minions.

As London grew from an agrarian town into a powerful and worldly mercantile metropolis, many artists attempted to capture its glory on canvas. One of the most successful in this venture was Antonio Canal (1697-1768), a transplanted Venetian, known as Canaletto. With his inimitable painting style, Canaletto brought the beauty and grace of his hometown to the Thames River. In his artfully expanded panorama, The Thames from the Terrace of Somerset House, Looking Towards St. Paul's, Canaletto shows us the bustling river trade, a majestic view of the cathedral, and manages to squeeze in 34 spires of the more than 50 churches designed by Sir Christopher Wren.

In reaction to this perceived glorification of the city, artists like Thomas Gainsborough (1727-1788) and George Moreland (1762- 1804) created "decidedly antiurban" and often imaginary, rustic landscapes populated with honest, hardworking woodsmen, haymakers, and milkmaids. Writers also took up this call and produced essays and guidebooks exhorting members of British society to travel and admire their own countryside. Although there was a surge in country travel, in truth, most of the travelers were less interested in the natural surroundings than in the strong ale available in the many pubs that dotted the coach roads. Philip James de Loutherbourg (1740-1812) took these folks to task with his painting The Rainbow, in which a group of gauche travelers totally ignore a magnificent rainbow in favor of quaffing a pint.

A small painting by Joseph Wright of Derby (1734-1797) best personifies the simple fact that regardless of how hard we may try to prevent it, change is inevitable. Cottage on Fire at Night is a dark canvas harshly illuminated by uncontrollable white-orange flames that engulf a tiny shanty as the dwellers watch impassively. The fire is so bright that it outshines a full moon and casts an eerie glow on a nearby fortress in ruins. Together, all of these elements explicitly portray the transience of human life, as well as the continual and mindless shifting of nature. In the exhibition catalogue, a reprint of this painting juxtaposed with a riveting quotation of the cabin burning scene from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein serves as an exclamation point for the entire exhibit.

The Wadsworth Atheneum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Call (860) 278-2670.