ERIC RAVILIOUS

 

Post 184 -Gautam Shah

SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture

Eric Ravilious (1903-1942) was a British watercolour painter, print maker, and designer. His portfolio of works was varied. It included illustrations, book-jackets, and designs for furniture, glass, textiles, pottery, etc. He was extraordinarily a skilled wood engraver.

He was an official war Artist, and he produced some memorable water-colours of naval scenes off Norway.

Ravilious, in spite of the water colour as medium, uses striking bold and tonal contrasts, complex patterning. His trees and the nature are immortal, frozen in time. His landscapes are empty of people or life. His drawings give a sense of monochrome.

Ravilious was highly an individualistic painter, unaffected by the current styles and ‘isms. He was so consistent and distinct that his work can be easily recognized.

.

ALBERTO PASINI

 

Post 183  -By Gautam Shah 

SUNDAY feature on ART of Architecture  

.

Alberto Pasini (1826-1899) was an Italian painter, known for his middle-east scenes of extreme realist quality. But, he was called, by the westerners, as ‘romanticist as well as orientalist’. He, at the age of 17 enrolled at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Parma.

He was commissioned (1850-1851), for a series of lithographs ‘Thirty Views of Castles around Piacenza, Lunigiana and Parma’. Pasini was an ardent traveller and visited places like, Tehran, North of Persia, Armenia, port of Trabzon, Paris, Mediterranean, Middle East, Cairo, Arabian desert of Sinai, Lebanese coasts, Athens, Venice, Spain, Cannes, Constantinople and Turkey. He painted about one thousand works.

Pasini paintings were produced from his on site plein-air sketches as he was a follower of the Barbizon school. His capacity to capture the architectural details, draw micro size figures in detail, excellent facial expressions, and the space proportions were excellent. His atmospheric details were sober but pleasant. He worked in an age where other painters were dabbing into diverse styles and trying to find footing, but Pasini captured non exotic urban locations with ease and simplicity. His such works do not show the decadence or the related symbolism of the industrial age.

 

.