Arti­cle The Light that Illuminates the Darkness: Drawings of Italian Interiors

Focus on the Peck Feature

The con­trast between light and dark has cap­ti­vat­ed artists for cen­turies, pro­vid­ing a pow­er­ful means of expres­sion in any com­po­si­tion. This Focus on the Peck Col­lec­tion instal­la­tion fea­tures three artists that went south to Italy to expe­ri­ence its long his­to­ry, warm atmos­phere, and unique light. Although active dur­ing dif­fer­ent peri­ods, they each employed a sim­i­lar use of wash, or dilut­ed ink, to con­sid­er how light trans­forms a space, whether in the shad­ed inner con­fines of a large vault, a nar­row cor­ri­dor, or a grand pas­sage­way.

The con­trast between light and dark has cap­ti­vat­ed artists for cen­turies, pro­vid­ing a pow­er­ful means of expres­sion in any com­po­si­tion. This Focus on the Peck Col­lec­tion instal­la­tion fea­tures three artists who explored the theme of inte­ri­or spaces punc­tu­at­ed by bril­liant sun­light. Each draw­ing demon­strates the artists’ vary­ing use of wash, or dilut­ed ink, to depict their sub­jects, whether it be the shad­ed inner con­fines of a large vault, a nar­row cor­ri­dor, or a grand passageway. 

Although active dur­ing dif­fer­ent peri­ods of time, Dutch artist Bartholomeus Breen­bergh and French artists Vic­tor Jean Nicolle and Paul Émile Detouche all trav­eled from the north to Italy to expe­ri­ence its long his­to­ry, warm atmos­phere, and unique light. Attract­ed by the human-made struc­tures of the past, they employed sim­i­lar tech­niques in dif­fer­ent styles to con­sid­er the ways in which light trans­forms archi­tec­tur­al spaces, pre­sent­ing con­tem­pla­tive, yet evoca­tive scenes.

View Under an Arch­way or Inside a Vault

Bartholomeus Breen­bergh, Dutch, 1595 – 1657, View from Inside a Vault­ed Cham­ber, Pos­si­bly the Villa of Mae­ce­nas in Tivoli, 1657, pen and brown ink, brown wash, and black chalk. The Peck Col­lec­tion, 2017.1.13

See View from Inside a Vault­ed Cham­ber, Pos­si­bly the Villa of Mae­ce­nas in Tivoli in more detail here. 

Land­scape painter Bartholomeus Breen­bergh found inspi­ra­tion in the nat­ur­al and human-made tun­nels, cav­erns, and vaults he encoun­tered while liv­ing in Italy dur­ing the 1620s. He, like other Dutch artists, con­tin­ued to depict the Roman coun­try­side and gold­en light of the Mediter­ranean after his return to the Nether­lands. Bold in its exe­cu­tion, this draw­ing was pro­duced almost entire­ly with vary­ing shades of wash, or dilut­ed ink. The dark, cool atmos­phere of the inte­ri­or space encom­pass­es most of the com­po­si­tion, yet the focus of the work rests on the sun­shine and warmth just beyond the large entry­way. Although the date is cut off at the lower edge, the draw­ing like­ly dates to the last year of Breenbergh’s life, sug­gest­ing Italy’s endur­ing influ­ence on the artist. 

Scene in Italy

Vic­tor Jean Nicolle, French, 1754 – 1826, Scene in Italy, 1787-99 or 1806-11, brown wash over graphite. The William A. Whitak­er Foun­da­tion Art Fund, 81.18.1

See Scene in Italy in more detail here.

Vic­tor Jean Nicolle trav­elled twice to Italy dur­ing his career and became known for his archi­tec­tur­al views of Rome. This draw­ing illus­trates his study of light as it strikes the inner wall of a shad­ed cor­ri­dor. Like Bartholomeus Breen­bergh (above) and Paul Émile Detouche (below), Nicolle cre­at­ed form through vary­ing shades of brown wash to invoke a still and quiet atmos­phere. Sprout­ing plants, flow­er­pots, and a lad­der acti­vate the oth­er­wise empty space while the woman stand­ing at the end of the pas­sage­way sig­nals the ordi­nary rou­tine of daily life. 

View of Rome

Paul Émile Detouche, French, 1794 – 1874, View of Rome, 1820, water­col­or over graphite. Gift of the Ack­land Asso­ciates, 79.57.5

See View of Rome in more detail here. 

Paul Émile Detouche trav­eled to Italy as a young man and like­ly pro­duced this draw­ing while on a study trip. It depicts a stone vault­ed walk­way that leads to an inner court­yard where sun­light casts a long shad­ow on a dis­tant build­ing, sug­gest­ing mid­day. With con­trolled pre­ci­sion, Detouche described the archi­tec­tur­al ele­ments and used grad­u­al­ly lighter appli­ca­tions of wash to imply dis­tance. The grand, empty spaces evoke the his­tor­i­cal past while the empha­sis on sym­me­try, geom­e­try, and pro­por­tion recall the ideals of Renais­sance clas­si­cism, an artis­tic style that inspired many French artists at this time.

25 Octo­ber 2019 — 19 Jan­u­ary 2020