Sunshine
Last month, we did a special exhibition here at Art Every Day based on paintings of The Moon.
So I am sure it will come as no surprise to many of you that, ever since that article, I have been planning today’s follow up exhibition where our focus will be painting of The Sun.
_
But of course, Sunlight in general is a much more prevalent muse across art history in comparison to moonlight.
In fact, we could make a case that the vast majority of landscape paintings in all of art history (as long as they are set in the day time) are essentially a study of sunlight - i.e they are capturing the colours, details, and atmospheres of our world which only exist at all because we are “under the sun”.
So when we think of everything from the golden fields captured by van Gogh, to the gentle northern light seeping through the windows of a Vermeer painting, and the countless depictions of a rising or setting sun over so many different vistas . . . suffice to say, art history has been shaped by sunlight just as much as all the world around us.
But for the purposes of our exhibition here today, I want to try and focus us much more specifically on paintings where the sun itself is treated as the main character. (Or placed in the “Starring role” if you will excuse my pun!)
Across many cultures throughout history, the Sun has been revered and worshipped as a God. (Or at least as a ball of fire which the Gods would drag across the sky on a golden chariot!)
And while we generally have a much more scientific view of our home star nowadays (informed by high definition photographs and telescope images etc) . . . still, there is no getting away from the sheer sense of awe and power and magic to be found from observing the very thing which really does give life to us all.
So, wherever you are reading this now - whether it is morning, afternoon, evening, or the middle of a long, dark night . . . I hope we can all enjoy some time together here to bask in a bit of heavenly light, and to feel some much needed warmth.
Claude Monet - Impression, Sunrise - 1872
Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris
JMW Turner - Norham Castle, Sunrise - 1845
Tate Britain, London
Vincent van Gogh - The Sower - 1888
Kröller-Müller Museum, Netherlands
Marc Chagall - The Paris Sun - 1977
Private Collection
Paul Klee - Castle and Sun - 1928
Private Collection
Emile Claus - Sunglow - 1905
Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens te Deurle
Georgia O’Keeffe - Sunset, Long Island - 1939
Private Collection
William Blake - The Ancient of Days - 1794
Library of Congress
George Frederic Watts - The Sun (After the Deluge) - 1886
Watts Gallery, Guildford, England
Matthew Wong - The Journey Home (Part of a Triptych) - 2017
Private Collection
Great curation, George, and if I may, I will throw in another van Gogh (no surprise there, I hear you say 😉). It's probably my favourite of his, although it's much less well-known than his others. It's 'Landscape at Twilight', an evening tree-lined landscape in the fields near Auvers, with a view of the local castle, painted in June 1890. The contrast between the dark trees and the luminous golden sunlit sky blew me away when I first saw it at the Van Gogh Museum. I understand Jo, Vincent's sister-in-law (and arguably the woman who made Vincent famous), also loved the painting, and after the deaths of Vincent and her husband Theo, she kept it above her writing desk.
I was expecting another Matthew Wong painting! Excellent curation.