In the first of these two articles, I showed some of the series of Pre-Raphaelite landscapes painted by John Brett (1831–1902) prior to 1870. This article continues by looking at his paintings from 1871 onwards. By this time, Brett had the first of his yachts, enabling him to concentrate on painting the British coastline in a style that progressively departed from the Pre-Raphaelite.

In the summer of 1870, Brett sailed around the south-west coast of England making detailed notes, sketches, and studies as he went. The British Channel Seen from the Dorsetshire Cliffs (1871) is a large canvas apparently painted from those during the later part of that year. Although not geographically specific in any way, it’s thought to have been painted from the cliffs above Lulworth Cove in Dorset. When it was exhibited at the Royal Academy, debate was focussed on whether the azure colour used for the sea was appropriate.

A couple of years later, Brett painted another large maritime canvas of A North-West Gale off the Longships Lighthouse (1873), in which the lighthouse and rocks are the only clues as to its location. Again it was painted in his studio after notes and preparatory sketches, and was well-received when exhibited at the Royal Academy that year.

Southern Coast of Guernsey (1875) was the smaller of two substantial canvases painted after Brett’s cruise around the Channel Isles in the summer of 1874, and shows his returning interest in the coastline. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1875, Ruskin wrote a mixed comment, criticising its loss of subtlety and size, but complimented Brett on the atmosphere of its extreme distance, and his “science” in alternations of colour.

Brett’s superb view of Caernarvon (1875) does appear to have been completed in front of the motif, during his summer campaign around the Welsh coast that year, being significantly smaller and dated in October. It conforms more strongly to his earlier Pre-Raphaelite style, with intricate detail in the foreground waterfront, bright colours, and geological passages.

He continued to paint some pure seascapes, such as the highly successful Britannia’s Realm (1880), although by now these were products of his studio in Putney, London, and based on earlier notes and sketches. Exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1880, this was purchased ‘for the nation’ from the Chantry Bequest even before it had been seen by the public. As a result, he was able to order a larger yacht, and spent the summer painting the rugged coast of Cornwall in more Pre-Raphaelite style. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy the following year.

On the Welsh Coast (1882) is an example of one of his smaller oil sketches from this time: a fine painting, but by now quite divorced from his Pre-Raphaelite beginnings.

A few of his later paintings did hark back to his works showing the Italian coast: Man of War Rocks, Coast of Dorset (1884) is smaller than his large commercial canvases, and returns to Pre-Raphaelite characteristics of foreground detail, meticulous geology, and bright colours.

It isn’t as clear how much, if any, was painted in front of the motif. Much seems to have been based on notes and a watercolour sketch made back in 1870, before Brett had started producing his lucrative seascapes.

In his later years, Brett painted more coastal views, some of which were as good as earlier, but generally their quality declined with time. Like his Seascape (1887), they became more formulaic and less inspired, and were far from Pre-Raphaelite. However, Brett was probably the only artist to have built his reputation on Pre-Raphaelite landscape paintings, and was almost certainly the last of that rare breed who continued painting pure landscapes in Pre-Raphaelite style.

References

Barringer T (2012) Reading the Pre-Raphaelites, revised edn, Yale UP. ISBN 978 0 300 17733 6.
Newall C (2012) Review of Payne (2010), Burlington Mag. 154, July 2012, pp 498-499.
Payne C (2010) John Brett: Pre-Raphaelite Landscape Painter, Yale UP. ISBN 978 0 300 16575 3.
Prettejohn E (2000) The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, Tate Publishing. ISBN 978 1 854 37726 5.
Staley A (2001) The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape, 2nd edn, Yale UP. ISBN 978 0 300 08408 5.

By about 1862, most artists had abandoned trying to paint Pre-Raphaelite landscapes because of their impossible demands. To conform to the prescriptions of critic John Ruskin required long weeks painting painstaking details of a view in front of the motif, and an independent income. The only artist who proved able to sustain this was John Brett (1831–1902), who continued to produce paintings conforming to Ruskin’s ideals and keeping the same ‘look’ until at least 1870. This weekend’s two articles look at those exceptional landscapes, and how they changed later.

Brett was a relative latecomer to the Pre-Raphaelite circle. Although he and his older sister Rosa started painting professionally from about 1850, John Brett wasn’t admitted to the Royal Academy Schools for training until early 1853, by which time the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was dissolving. When in London, he made contact with artists of the Pre-Raphaelite movement, and discussed their art and techniques with Holman Hunt in particular. He read Ruskin, and admired the paintings of John Constable.

After painting portraits to bring in some income, he went to Switzerland in the summer of 1856, where he ascended to the glacier above the village of Rosenlaui, and painted his first real landscape work.

Glacier of Rosenlaui (1856) is an extraordinarily accomplished first landscape painting. Influenced by the fourth volume of Ruskin’s Modern Painters, and the nearby work of John William Inchbold, who was painting about ten kilometres away at the time, it appears to have been painted entirely en plein air, in front of the glacier. Despite its great detail, particularly in the foreground, as prescribed by Ruskin, he signed and dated it 23 August 1856.

He also painted a few impressive watercolours before returning to England. In December, this painting had impressed Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Holman Hunt, and had even received praise from Ruskin himself. But the painting didn’t sell.

The following summer, Brett started work on a less technically-challenging and hopefully more marketable painting, which was possibly inspired by Gustave Courbet’s now-lost painting of stonebreakers, first shown in 1851.

The Stonebreaker (1857-58) was painted closer to home, at a popular beauty spot in the south of England, near Box Hill, which dominates the distance. The milestone at the left shows the distance to London as 23 miles, and David Cordingly considers this places it along a historic track known as Druid’s Walk, leading from the Pilgrim’s Way over the Leatherhead Downs to Epsom and London.

This time, perhaps following his experience in Switzerland, Brett made extensive sketches and studies of the motif, worked on the final oil painting for at least twenty days en plein air, but then completed it in the studio during the following autumn and winter. The painting was shown at the Royal Academy in 1858, where it aroused considerable critical interest.

In the summer of 1858, Brett set off again to the Alps, where he ended up painting a second remarkable mountain view, this time at Val d’Aosta in north-west Italy.

Val d’Aosta (1858) was painted from a hill about a kilometre north-east of where Brett was lodging, according to Christopher Newall. In contrast to Glacier of Rosenlaui, Brett augments the geological details in the foreground with a sleeping woman and a brilliant white goat. Surprisingly, it omits the fortress of Châtel Argent and the Château de Saint-Pierre, although they appear in sketches he made at the time. The only buildings shown are smaller rustic farms and dwellings, set among finely detailed orchards, vineyards, and pastures.

Probably started in a series of studies and sketches, Brett seems to have worked on the oil version in front of the motif, then brought it back to England for completion during the late autumn of that year. He considered it finished by Christmas, and it was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1859. Ruskin’s remarks were uncommitted, and the artist wasn’t made a single offer for its purchase.

Brett then tried for success with figurative and genre painting, and it wasn’t until 1861 that he returned to attempt any more proper Pre-Raphaelite landscapes. He first visited Florence in November 1861, and a year later left England to work on his next major work, a view encompassing almost the whole of the city that had been the cradle of much of the southern Renaissance.

He probably started on Florence from Bellosguardo (1863) in January 1863, and painted without the aid of significant preparatory studies, working entirely from the motif. Even with Brett’s apparent eye for fine detail at a distance, much of it must have been painted with the aid of a telescope, and it has been suggested that he may also have used a camera lucida and/or photographs. Regardless of how he managed to paint such great detail, it’s a triumph of painting, both technically and artistically, and it came as a shock when it was rejected by the Royal Academy in 1863.

Thankfully for Brett, the painting was purchased in May that year by the National Gallery, and he was acclaimed in the press as “head of the Pre-Raphaelite landscape school”, although by that time he must have been the last of its practitioners. Brett had also intended the painting as homage to the Brownings, as he had enjoyed the support of Robert Browning through that difficult period.

Brett didn’t hang around in England after this, but later that summer was back in Italy working again.

Near Sorrento (1863) is a watercolour that Christopher Newall believes to have been painted from the Via del Capo, and shows the coastline at least five kilometres from that point, making it almost certain that its fine foreground detail was painted with the aid of a telescope. It still conforms to the basic requirements of a Pre-Raphaelite landscape, with fine detail, bright colours, and its careful rendering of geology.

Massa, Bay of Naples (1863-64) is perhaps the most spectacular of the oil paintings Brett completed during this Mediterranean campaign, and appears to have been painted from a vessel on the water.

He had travelled there on board the SS Scotia, although it’s unclear whether that ship served as his floating studio, or he transferred to another vessel. The Scotia arrived in the Bay of Naples by 9 September, following which he went to stay in Sorrento, then on to Capri by November. It’s therefore probable that he continued to work on this canvas during the following winter.

To his delight, Alfred Morrison bought this painting on 6 May 1864, for the substantial sum of £250, although Morrison may actually have paid in guineas. Brett was to benefit further from Morrison’s generous patronage, and by August in 1865 could afford to buy his own yacht. That enabled him to concentrate on painting in British waters.

During the winter of 1865-66, Morrison remained on or near the Isle of Wight, where Brett’s new boat had been built. He painted two watercolour landscapes of the Island, of which only February in the Isle of Wight (1866) has been traced. Although a superb painting, its style is starting to drift away from the principles laid down by the Pre-Raphaelites.

References

Barringer T (2012) Reading the Pre-Raphaelites, revised edn, Yale UP. ISBN 978 0 300 17733 6.
Cordingly D (1982) ‘The Stonebreaker’: an examination of the landscape in a painting by John Brett, Burlington Mag. 129, March 1982, pp 141-145.
Newall C (2007) ‘Val d’Aosta’: John Brett and John Ruskin in the Alps, 1858, Burlington Mag. 149, March 2007, pp 165-172.
Newall C (2012) Review of Payne (2010), Burlington Mag. 154, July 2012, pp 498-499.
Payne C (2010) John Brett: Pre-Raphaelite Landscape Painter, Yale UP. ISBN 978 0 300 16575 3.
Prettejohn E (2000) The Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, Tate Publishing. ISBN 978 1 854 37726 5.
Staley A (2001) The Pre-Raphaelite Landscape, 2nd edn, Yale UP. ISBN 978 0 300 08408 5.