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Description: Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth...
BOOKScience and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
Charlotte Klonk
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32180
This innovative book opens up a new route into the study of British landscape art in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Each chapter discusses an area in which art and science came into contact with one another: the role played by assumptions drawn from physiology in conditioning eighteenth-century aesthetic debates; Robert J. Thornton's grandly conceived book of botanical illustrations, The Temple of Flora; the interaction between artists and geologists in the exploration of the Scottish landscape; the influence of the artist-scientist Cornelius Varley on the circle of artists around his brother, John Varley, who were pioneers in the use of open-air sketching. Charlotte Klonk's deeply researched accounts of the complex and often ambiguous interactions that took place between artists and scientists challenge simplistic accounts of developments in art as mere by-products of scientific progress as well as reductive socio-economic interpretations.

For Klonk, the common thread running through the changes in both art and science is the emergence of a new phenomenalist conception of experience. Phenomenalism involved a commitment to the scrupulous observation of particular phenomena, without making prior assumptions about meaning or underlying causes, and this ideal was common to both artists and scientists. In this way, Klonk argues, the period represents a brief moment of balance before the concerns of science and art split apart into objectivity and subjectivity, respectively.

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Author
Charlotte Klonk
PublisherPaul Mellon Centre
Print publication date October 1996 (out of print)
Print ISBN 9780300069501
EISBN 9780300279030
Copyright© 1996 by Charlotte Klonk
Illustrations 111
Print Status out of print
Publisher (out of print)
WorldCat
Google Books

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List of illustrations

  • Wooded Landscape with a Peasant Resting
  • Flatford Mill
  • View near Wynnstay, the Seat of Sir Watkin Williams-Wynn, fourth Bt.
  • An Avalanche in the Alps
  • Country Lane with Gypsies Resting
  • Buildwas Abbey, Shropshire
  • Cetara on the Gulf of Salerno
  • Cupid Inspiring the Plants with Love
  • Flora Dispensing her Favours on the Earth
  • Hyacinths
  • The Night-Blowing Cereus
  • The Snowdrop
  • The Persian Cyclamen
  • Indian Reed
  • The White Lily
  • The Superb Lily
  • The Blue Passion Flower
  • The Winged Passion Flower
  • The Quadrangular Passion Flower
  • Tulips
  • A Group of Auriculas
  • A Group of Carnations
  • Roses
  • The Aloe
  • The Queen
  • The Nodding Renealmia
  • The China Limodoron
  • The Sacred Egyptian Bean
  • The Blue Egyptian Water Lily
  • The Dragon Arum
  • The Maggot-bearing Stapelia
  • Pitcher Plant
  • The Narrow-leaved Kalmia
  • The American Cowslip
  • Captain the Honourable Augustus Keppel, 1725–1786
  • Thomas Graham, Baron Lynedoch
  • Dr Forlenze
  • Large Flowering Sensitive Plant
  • American Bog-Plants
  • The Pontic Rhododendron
  • The Cave of Fingal
  • Entrance to Fingal's Cave, Staffa
  • South Prospect of Leith
  • Leith
  • Dumbarton
  • Fingal's Cave in Staffa
  • Vue de la Grotte de Fingal
  • Fingal's Cave
  • Fingal's Cave
  • View from Beinn, Na, Cailich in Skye
  • Columna Promontory of the Scure-Eigg
  • View of the Scuir of Egg
  • The Scuir of Egg from the East
  • Entrance of Fingal's Cave, Staffa
  • View of Staffa from the South West
  • The Island of Staffa from the South West
  • Staffa, Fingal's Cave
  • Fingal's Cave
  • View at the Storr in Sky
  • The Coolin Taken from Lach Slapin
  • Loch Coruisg near Lach Scavig
  • Loch Coruisk and the Cuchullin Mountains, Isle of Skye
  • Loch Coruisk, Isle of Skye
  • Loch Coruisk, Isle of Skye
  • Tantallon Castle with the Bass & the Isle of May
  • Tantallon Castle
  • The Bass Rock
  • Study of a Tree
  • Study from Nature at Twickenham
  • Study from Nature at Twickenham
  • The Market Place, Ross, Herefordshire
  • St Albans, Hertfordshire
  • The Rows at Chester
  • Looking down the High Street, Conway
  • Old Charlton, Kent
  • View of Polesden, Surrey
  • Lord Rous's Park
  • Lime Trees at Gillingham
  • Part of Cader Idris and Tal-y-Llyn
  • Mountain Landscape, North Wales
  • Sketchbook: Lime Rocks Llangollen
  • Evening at Llanberis
  • Mountain Landscape: View from Cader Idris
  • Barmouth Vale from Cader Idris
  • Kirkstall Abbey, Yorkshire
  • Beddgelert Bridge
  • Sketchbook: Wrekin Shopshire
  • The Traveller
  • Devil's Bridge
  • Devil's Bridge
  • Fields where Gower Street now Stands, Bedford Square
  • Bayswater
  • Kensington Gravel Pits
  • The Graphic Telescope
  • Camera Obscura
  • View from Ferry Bridge Yorkshire
  • Patshul Staffordshire
  • Ruins of Kerry Castle
  • View of a Farmyard
  • Blacksmith's Shop near Hingham, Norfolk
  • Study of Buildings
  • Cottage and Figures
  • Holland Street, Blackfriars Bridge
  • The Thames near the Penitentiary, Millbank, London
  • Pulling down Old Houses in Crooked Lane for Approach to London
  • Sawyers Clearing Timber from its Knots
  • River Wye
  • Stacking Hay
  • The River Kennet, near Newbury
  • Pegwell Bay, Kent - a Recollection of October 5th 1858
  • A Wooded Landscape Near Ross
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Acknowledgements
Charlotte Klonk
Description: Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth...
Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
During the work, first on my thesis, and then this book, I have accumulated an enormous number of debts, both to individuals and to institutions. My research for the thesis was made possible by the Studienstiftung des Deutschen Volkes, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst and the British Academy. During the year I spent after the completion of the thesis at the Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst...
Author
Charlotte Klonk
PublisherPaul Mellon Centre
Copyright© 1996 by Charlotte Klonk
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32182
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Introduction
Charlotte Klonk
Description: Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth...
Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
Two landscapes. One (plate 1) directs the gaze through a screen of trees into a brightly sunlit golden cornfield. The village and the white church in the background are thrown into even sharper relief by the horizontal line of a dark green wood. The sky is blue, although distinct rain clouds emerge from the...
Author
Charlotte Klonk
PublisherPaul Mellon Centre
Copyright© 1996 by Charlotte Klonk
Related print edition pages: pp.1-8
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32183
Chapter subject tags:Art and science--England--18th centuryLandscape painting, British--18th centuryFoucault, Michel, 1926-1984Art and philosophy--England--18th centuryPhenomenalism

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I. Aesthetics, Philosophy and Physiology: The Road to Phenomenalism
Charlotte Klonk
Description: Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth...
Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
During the eighteenth century there was a remarkable expansion in the production and appreciation of landscape art in Britain. A central part of the explanation for this is social and economic: the rise of an increasingly prosperous and self-confident landed gentry. It was the gentry who sustained the demand for depictions of the English countryside (much of which they owned) and it was their...
Author
Charlotte Klonk
PublisherPaul Mellon Centre
Copyright© 1996 by Charlotte Klonk
Related print edition pages: pp.9-36
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32184
Chapter subject tags:Landscape painting, British--18th centuryPicturesque, The, in artSublime, The, in artGilpin, William, 1724-1804Art and science--England--18th centuryPhenomenalismArt and philosophy--England--18th centuryBurke, Edmund, 1753-1820Hartley, David, approximately 1731-1813Priestley, Joseph, 1733-1804Scotland--Intellectual life--18th centuryGreat Britain--Intellectual life--18th century

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II. The Temple of Flora
Charlotte Klonk
Description: Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth...
Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
Dr Robert John Thornton’s A New Illustration of the Sexual System of Carolus von Linnaeus was produced between the years 1797 and 1807. It consisted of three parts, the first two being Thornton’s account of Linnaeus’ system. The third...
Author
Charlotte Klonk
PublisherPaul Mellon Centre
Copyright© 1996 by Charlotte Klonk
Related print edition pages: pp.37-66
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32185
Chapter subject tags:Thornton, Robert John, 1768?-1837Botanical illustration--England--18th centuryBotanical illustration--England--19th centuryLinné, Carl von, 1707-1778Darwin, Erasmus, 1731-1802. Loves of the plantsReinagle, Philip, 1749-1833Portrait painting, British--18th century

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III. From Picturesque Travel to Scientific Observation
Charlotte Klonk
Description: Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth...
Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
By the time Thornton’s Temple of Flora was completed in 1807, striking changes had begun to appear in the depiction of British landscape. Between 1790 and 1830 pictorial formulae like the sublime, the beautiful and the picturesque lost their privileged place in the perception of nature and were gradually displaced by a...
Author
Charlotte Klonk
PublisherPaul Mellon Centre
Copyright© 1996 by Charlotte Klonk
Related print edition pages: pp.67-100
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32186
Chapter subject tags:Geology in art--Britain--19th centuryDaniell, William, 1769-1837Naturalists--ScotlandSandby, Paul, 1731-1809Landscape painting, British--18th centuryLandscape prints, British--18th centuryGilpin, William, 1724-1804Macculloch, John, 1773-1835Turner, J. M. W. (Joseph Mallord William), 1775-1851

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IV. Sketching from Nature: John and Cornelius Varley and Their Circle
Charlotte Klonk
Description: Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth...
Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
As we have seen, artists’ tours changed their character after the turn of the nineteenth century and the search for picturesque views was modified in important respects. William Daniell’s Voyage round Great Britain continued to treat...
Author
Charlotte Klonk
PublisherPaul Mellon Centre
Copyright© 1996 by Charlotte Klonk
Related print edition pages: pp.101-147
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32187
Chapter subject tags:Varley, Cornelius, 1781-1873Varley, John, 1778-1842Watercolor painting, British--19th centuryHunt, William Henry, 1790-1864Linnell, John, 1792-1882Constable, John, 1776-1837Landscape painting, British--19th centuryArt and science--England--19th centuryMeteorology in artCamera obscurasMulready, William, 1786-1863Phenomenalism

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Conclusion
Charlotte Klonk
Description: Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth...
Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
There is no simple explanation for the emergence of phenomenalism. Phenomenalism was not a single, coordinated movement; it was adopted variously by philosophers, scientists and artists for different reasons in different contexts and locations,...
Author
Charlotte Klonk
PublisherPaul Mellon Centre
Copyright© 1996 by Charlotte Klonk
Related print edition pages: pp.149-153
Stable URL: https://aaeportal.com/?id=-32188
Chapter subject tags:PhenomenalismLandscape painting, British--18th centuryLandscape painting, British--19th centuryArt and science--England--19th century

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Science and the Perception of Nature: British Landscape Art in the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries
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