Main entry:

Klonk, Charlotte, author.

Title & Author:

Science and the perception of nature : British landscape art in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries / Charlotte Klonk.

Publication:

Description:

vii, 198 pages : illustrations (some color) ; 28 cm

Notes:
Includes bibliographical references (pages 182-192) and index.
I. Aesthetics, Philosophy and Physiology: The Road to Phenomenalism. London: The Body and Society. Scotland: The Culture of Sensibility. The Development of a Critique of Efficient Causality. The Rise of Phenomenalism. The Picturesque Controversy -- II. The Temple of Flora. Robert John Thornton. Thornton and Erasmus Darwin. 'All the Most Eminent English Artists'. The Plants and their Backgrounds. Ordered Continuity: The Arrangement of the Pictures. The Failure of A New Illustration -- III. From Picturesque Travel to Scientific Observation. The Wonders of Nature. The Picturesque Tour in Scotland. Naturalist Travellers in Scotland and the Geological Controversy. The Western Isles. The East Coast: Tantallon Castle and the Bass Rock. Artists and Geologists -- IV. Sketching from Nature: John and Cornelius Varley and their Circle. The New Role of Sketching. Cornelius Varley. The Scientific Outlook. The Proto-Photographic Gaze. Phenomenalism and the Retreat from Social Conflict.

Summary:

This striking and 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, 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 around the turn of the century. 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.
Lavishly illustrated, and drawing on a wealth of unfamiliar material, both written and pictorial, this is a book that will make a distinctive contribution to art history. Its bold interpretation and interdisciplinary approach will also make it of great interest to anyone concerned with this crucial period in British cultural and intellectual history.

ISBN:

0300069502
9780300069501

Subject:

Landscape painting, British 18th century.
Landscape painting, British 19th century.
Landscapes in art.
Landscape painting Great Britain 19th century
Watercolor painting 18th century
Peinture de paysages britannique 18e siècle.
Peinture de paysages britannique 19e siècle.
Paysages dans l'art.
Landscape painting, British
Landschapschilderkunst.
Aquarelleerkunst.
United Kingdom
Landscapes History
Great Britain

Added entries:

Paul Mellon Centre for Studies in British Art.

Holdings:

Location: Library main 117529
Call No.: ID ND1354.4.K56; ID:96-B3276
Status: Available