KONSTANTIN GORBATOV

 Post-209 by Gautam Shah

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Sunday Feature on ART of Architecture

Konstantin Ivanovich Gorbatov (1876-1945) was a Russian Architectural Landscape artist. He began studying the draftsmanship, moved to civil engineering and architecture before turning to painting. He was considered a post-impressionist painter. The artist himself defined his style as 'celebration'.

Gorbatov painted architectural landscapes that covered, urban, rural, marine, untouched nature and romantic fantasies. He repeatedly visited many countries including Palestine and Syria, and the terrains he painted are equally varied. Yet his impressions of his Russian homeland always dominated his style. He was a wanderlust artist.

Gorbatov loved the grey and porous snow of the late winter and captured its varied colours. His colour palette was white for the snow and browns for the warm arid countries. His skies with clouds somehow do not match his skill of dealing with the grounds.

Gorbatov left Russia permanently in 1922 after the Russian Revolution of 1917, and settled on the Italian island of Capri. He then moved to Berlin in 1926, where he remained until his death.

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JOAQUIN SOROLLA

 Post 208 -by Gautam Shah

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SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (1863-1923) was a Spanish painter. His forte was painting of portraits, human figures, landscapes and large works on social and historical themes. He studied art in Madrid. Sorolla's efforts in early part of the carrier were focussed on the execution of large canvases of orientalist, mythological, historical, and social subjects. These were used as wall-art in salons and international exhibitions in cities like Madrid, Paris, Venice, Munich, Berlin, and Chicago.

He worked on realistic art but moved to plein air Impressionism. He first employed darker tones of Browns but later began to use white shades and light colours, with impasto paint applied through bold brush strokes. He liked to capture the bright natural light of the South sea coast of Valencia, Spain. His human figures show natural dynamism and facial expressions that match the skills of his portraits.

He painted 14 large murals, for installation at the Hispanic Society of America building in Manhattan, USA. These were 12 to 14 feet in height, and total 227 feet in length. 

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WILLIAM EDWIN ATKINSON

 

Post 207 -by Gautam Shah

SUNDAY Feature on ART of Architecture

William Edwin Atkinson (1862 -1926), (also known as W.E. Atkinson), was a Canadian painter. His oeuvre consists of landscape, village streets, farms, beaches, boats and greens. He loved to draw atmospheric effects such as dawn, dusk and moonlight. He worked in ink, graphite, watercolour, gauche and oil.

Atkinson was influenced by many art manners of the day. He worked with realism, tonalism and impressionism. He was also inspired by the Barbizon school and the Hague School. He depicted women in the scene setting without any specific emotions.

One day, when Atkinson was painting the ‘old mill’, Gauguin who passing by told him “to use stronger colour. If the sky is blue, paint the roof red, and, If the roof is blue, paint the sky green’. Atkinson followed Gauguin’s advice and pitched the colour contrast scheme. ‘The light in his work might be hazy, but the forms are luminous and his use of colour was fairly brighter in comparison to others’.

Atkinson worked in Paris, Devon, England and in Holland before settling down in Toronto. 

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