The Evolution of Trees In Western Painting

When I reach back to shallow relief images of  ancient Assyrians
to see how they  represented trees symbolically and pictographically, I notice that by
14th Century Italy depicting trees has not changed much.  They are still iconic, still pictographic, still not in scale with other elements of the picture. They do not  recede proportionately in space. They retain their unrealistic itemized leaves but, the representation of trees in the 15th century are about to undergo evolutionary
development. Here is an image before the paradigm shift begins.

example 1: At this moment at the dawn of the 15th century Albrecht Altdorfer and Albrecht Durer start their experimental transmutation of personal observation of trees onto paper in watercolor. They observe them as having volume, variegated textures, ambiguous territories of  unfocused complexity. They bring these experiments into etching and oils like this one by Altdorfer in 1510. It’s small about 13×10 inches.

example 2:
Meanwhile in Italy, trees are receiving more observation but,  remain stylized and iconic as you can see in this small painting by Raphael.

example3:
DaVinci further advanced the depiction of flora in painting with his scrupulous
observations of trees. If we turn the clock forward to the mid 1600s and,
return  North to Holland, we see trees becoming
more naturalized as  in  the work of artists like Isaac van Ostade. Now
depicted trees enjoy the sustained  observation by artists. They are
fist rendered in separate sketches called etudes before being placed later in
larger exhibition paintings. Here is an example by van Ostade. First a detail
then, the painting.

examples 3 and 4:   In Italy, Claude Gellee and Nicholas Poussin are redefining the role of landscape as a vehicle for emotion and narrative by using trees as central tools of their compositions. This is an example by  Claude Lorrain (original name, Claude Gellee).

example 5:

If we travel forward into the mid 1800s we  see  trees have become more volumetric shapes whose role continues to support a dramatic narrative or mood but, no longer require finicky attention to details. The artists gist the psychological feeling of a copse of trees. Here is an example from Narcisse Virgile Diaz de la Pena, a French Barbizon
painter.

example 6:

The next big change comes with Impressionism. Artists from Scotland to Canada fall under the spell of  Renoir and Monet’s broken spontaneous
brushwork. J.Alden Weir, an American Impressionist,  is charmed as well as you can see in his example. Now the foliage seems to be moving in unitary harmony and eluding
focal acuity because of its movement and the method of applying  paint.

example 7 :

Even the trunk seems  writhe with paint. The psychological effect is naturalizing and alive.
Raphael, Altdorfer,  and Claude were unable to experience trees moving from a platform of great speed as  artists of the last 150 years have been able to do. J. Alden Weir might have seen how foliage blurs from the vantage point of a fast
moving train if the foliage were pressed close to his whooshing train window.
He also noticed how imagery blurred in the new medium of photography when
the camera or subject moved. These are modern observations which I explored in
this painting of  the Roman countryside as seen from a moving train and slowly exposing camera. The foreground fails to find focal acuity as the background fades in morning
light.

example 8:

I  have also continued to be seduced by the observations of  Durer and Altdorfer and see how the composition of a scene can imply a unitary motion.

example 9:

German artist David Schnell explores another feature of  contemporary trees in this forest painting. He maps out his trees in the pattern of  managed modern forest, an industrial forest.

example 10:
I want to thank the North Carolina Museum of art for allowing me to take photos of a some of the paintings you see here and, my friends (incl. Paul, Gena, Betsy, Stephanie and others) who attended my workshops at Art of The Carolinas for inspiring this blog. I recommend you visit the North Carolina Museum of art in Raleigh Durham, N.C.  to
see the temporary Rembrandt exhibition there now.