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Lot Essay
Redgrave began exhibiting landscapes during the mid-1840s, alongside his regular genre pictures. His explorations of the countryside and of nature with friends like Charles West Cope and James Clarke Hook had formed an integral part of his art and his philosophy of painting. From 1842, he frequently accompanied his exhibited excerpts from James Thomson's Seasons, the Bible, Coleridge and Milton.
Redgrave's landscapes were carefully and delicately drawn and accurately represented the smallest details in nature. However, to Redgrave, a painter must also use his memory and creative will in order to capture the passing sensations that were so important to his understanding of the landscape. 'The most poetical phases of landscape are of all the most fleeting', he wrote, and he emphisised the importance of imagination in the painting process: 'it is the office of the imaginative painter to lift men out of this prosaic world, to open their eyes to the poetry that surrounds them'. Two notable paintings by Redgrave that deal with the theme of transition are The Harvest-Field of 1857 and The Valleys also stand Thick with Corn of 1864, which both capture the contrasting moods of nature.
The present work shows the artist's skillful depiction of trees and the subtle play of light on foliage, while also conveying the imperceptible moments of change as autumn eases into winter.
Redgrave's landscapes were carefully and delicately drawn and accurately represented the smallest details in nature. However, to Redgrave, a painter must also use his memory and creative will in order to capture the passing sensations that were so important to his understanding of the landscape. 'The most poetical phases of landscape are of all the most fleeting', he wrote, and he emphisised the importance of imagination in the painting process: 'it is the office of the imaginative painter to lift men out of this prosaic world, to open their eyes to the poetry that surrounds them'. Two notable paintings by Redgrave that deal with the theme of transition are The Harvest-Field of 1857 and The Valleys also stand Thick with Corn of 1864, which both capture the contrasting moods of nature.
The present work shows the artist's skillful depiction of trees and the subtle play of light on foliage, while also conveying the imperceptible moments of change as autumn eases into winter.