Examining Representation Of Suburbs And Model Dwelling - Essay Example

Examining representation of Suburbs and Model dwelling/ mansions Examining representation of Suburbs and Model dwelling/ mansions Ancient artists represented different features in different ways. They had a unique way of selecting appropriate methods of displays and representing features existing naturally such as building, roads, streets, trees, fields, rivers, and valleys. In addition, they displayed their ideas, feelings, thoughts and perceptions through different ways. Instruments used to display and representation of ideas and thoughts are drawings, photographs and paintings. Difference artists mainly used paintings in the 19th and the 20th century. Art of paintings is one of the ancient practices carried out by various ancient painters for a number of reasons. Painting played a significant role in the society. It gained high appreciation from various people and even preserved in museums. Artists gained recognition all over the world from their quality of work and their ideas displayed inform of paintings. Camille Pissarro is one of the popular known artists that played a significant role in displaying and represent different features using paintings. Artists Pissarro lived during the period of Louveciennes in suburbs of Paris with his family. After the outbreak of Franco-Prussian war in France, Camille Pissarro and other artists escaped to setter in safe areas. In 1870, Pissarro and his family moved to London for safety from the war in France (Seaton, 2014). Moving to south London provided an opportunity for him to develop his painting skills through representation of various features. Several artists also lived in South London in the same time as Pissarro. Monet is among the 19th -20th century artists who also contributed greatly in the painting industry. A prominent writer, Emile Zola also lived in the same area in 1899 where he took several photographs of places and features represented by Pissarro through paintings. These photographs provided amazing visual comparison to Pissarro’s works of similar areas although not exactly (Collins, 2011). In 1870-1871, Pissarro spent most of his time drawing and painting dozens of paintings of different features of his new surroundings. In the summer, he went several times to central and west London where he viewed and painted some paintings (Design, 2014). However, he once found his home occupied by enemies who ransacked approximately 1500 paintings in which some were produced by his partner Monet. This forced him to move to Norwood where he focused on producing a number of painting about Crystal Palace and Norwood. Pissarro’s works consisted of mainly suburbs and model dwellings of late 19th century and early 20th century (Collins, 2011). According to Colin Stief (2013), suburbs are residential areas surrounding main cities that are mainly made up of single-family homes. Emergence of suburbs was dated back in 1850s. The origin of suburbs was mainly caused by the rapid rise of urban population and development of transport technology. As the urban population increased, cities were becoming densely populated and there was a high rate of pollution in the cities. In 1830s, cities like London were densely populated and most of the residential areas were heavily polluted (Stief, 2014). As a result, many people focused on alternative places to settle and live. According to Jaffe (2013), many wealthy people decided to move and settle in outskirt areas which were clean, spacious and convenient for settlement. The activity of settling in outskirts was facilitated by presence of developed transport systems mainly trains and buses. However, the poor could not afford the high fare charges thus opted to settle in areas surround cities since they could easily walk. Later, train charges reduced and most people started living in areas along the railway line. Eventually, suburbs developed as more people settled along the railway line (Jaffe, 2013). Development of suburbs was not only experienced in London by it was wide spread in many cities, in the western countries. Similar development was experienced in Rome, Canada, Chelsea and New Jersey. Suburbs consisted of people with similar backgrounds and similar socioeconomic status. Houses that made up suburbs were similar in sizes, layout designs, general appearance and blueprint (Jaffe, 2013). As suburbs emerged and developed in different parts of the world, artists became interested in their appearances, designs and sizes. Emergence of suburbs provided new ideas in production of drawing and paintings. Prominent artists like Pissarro and Monet focused on suburbs as they produced several paintings. For instance, there are many paintings of the French artist Pissarro showing different suburbs in London. For example, on his first visit to England, artist Pissarro produced a wonderful paint of one of the numerous London’s suburb known as Upper Norwood. His painting displayed wintery sky, a stark tree that cuts through the sky, road full of snow smoke emitted by a chimney (Stief, 2014). Most paintings on suburbs painted by artist Pissarro have a number of common features. First, Pissarro displayed suburbs as clean areas free from environmental pollution. Suburbs areas were always clean and free from pollution because they were located far apart from main cities. In addition, most of the suburb paintings contain empty fields that are unoccupied. The emptiness of the areas reveals that suburbs were less populated compared to urban areas inside cities. Another aspect of suburb painting produced by Pissarro is the presence of sunlight (Reed, 1997). This suggests that Pissarro painted most of his paintings about suburbs during the summer seasons. Suburbs represented in Pissarro’s paintings contains green grass. The green grass present in his suburb painting shows that the suburb areas were heavily productive in agricultural produce. These areas seemed to receive more rainfall than main cities as evidenced by the presence of green grass. Road and railway line are also common in most of paintings produced by Pissarro. Presence of roads and railway in paints reveal that there was a significant infrastructural development in the transport sector where people would use trains to move from suburbs to cities (Reed, 1997). Connection between people in the city and those in suburb areas was also displayed by the presence of transport systems like railway line or roads. Lastly, geographical layout is also an important aspect of suburb paintings of Pissarro. The French artist displayed a clear difference between urban centers mainly cities and their corresponding suburb areas (architecture, 2012). Suburb areas were displayed in a sloping geographical setting while urban areas represented by flat or gentle slope of the topography. This means that most cities and urban centers are located in lowlands while suburbs are located in highlands. An example of a suburb displayed by Pissarro is the Lordship Lane Station at Dulwich. Other artists also produced paintings displaying different aspects of suburb. For example, Pissarro’s counterpart Monet produced a number of painting displaying suburbs. During his visit to Argenteuil (a suburb in France), artists Claude Monet displayed the effect of autumn at Argenteuil inform of a painting. Crystal Palace is one of the major suburbs found in London. A number of artists have displayed Crystal Palace in painting works. Crystal Palace was a building erected in London’s Hyde Park found in London. The idea of building the Crystal Palace originated from Prince Albert who was the head of the Arts Society in Britain. His main aim was to impress the world with Great Britain’s achievement during the Industrial Revolution. The building was made of plate glass and cast iron for the purpose of housing the Great Exhibition of 1851 (BBC, 2008). According to statistic data about the Crystal Palace, a total of 14000 exhibitors converged to display most of their latest technologies that were developed during the Industrial Revolution. The Crystal Palace building was 564 metres long and 39 metres in internal height as designed by Sir Joseph Paxton. During the early and mid-19th century, the Crystal Palace was a magnificent building made up of large sheets of strong glass. Most visitors were astonished by its clear walls the unique ceiling that did not require light from the interior (Norwoodsociety, 2009). Exhibitions displayed in the Crystal Palace consisted of four main categories namely fine arts, raw materials, manufacturers and machinery. Countries that participated in the exhibition were mainly Turkey, Russia, United States and Egypt. Crystal Palace attracted many visitors from different parts of the world. For instance, six months after the Great Exhibition, a total of 6 million people had visited the great London’s building. After the completion of the Great Exhibition, Crystal Palace’s designer proposed to move the Palace to the Penge Place Estate located in Sydenham. His idea was to make the Palace a winter park made up of the garden under glass (BBC, 2008). After the rebuilding the Palace, Queen Victoria re-opened the Palace in June 1854. The palace consisted of two big towers, different fine species of trees, full size models of ancient animals like dinosaurs, collection of statuary and numerous fountains consisting of over 11000 water jets. Its features made it one of the important and most preferred destinations across the world. Records from the BBC show that the Crystal Palace attracted an average of 2 million visitors in each year. Crystal Palace held many activities and events. Some of these events and activities included cycle racing, motor racing, football competitions, ballooning and cricket tournaments. In addition, the Crystal Palace and its ground became the first worlds theme park to offer education facilities, entertainment, rollercoaster and cricket matches. Most important, it held 20 F. A. Cup Finals (Reed, 1997). Despite many benefits, a series of challenges faced the magnificent Crystal Palace. According to BBC records, the Palace was first destroyed by strong winds in 1861. Five years later, fire broke out in the palace and destroyed the North End of the palace together with many valuable natural exhibits. Although the Palace received many visitors, in 1911, it was declared bankrupt and Henry James Buckland employed as the Manager. The Crystal Palace came to an end after the night of 30th November 1936. The entire building was brought down by the fire breakout. It is a historic day in which one of the main Britain’s achievement came down to ashes (BBC, 2008). In nineteenth and twentieth centuries, some artists became interested in the Crystal Palace and concentrated on displaying it inform of photos, drawings and paintings. For instance, Pissarro produced numerous painting displaying different views of the Crystal Palace. The French artist produced paintings of the Crystal in seventeen different viewpoints as illustrated in Nicholas Reed’s “Camille Pissarro at Crystal Palace." In his work, Pissarro focused on impressionist interpretation of different parts of the London’s Crystal Palace and other parts of Norwood (Reed, 1997). In the study of Pissarro painting that covered the Crystal Palace from a distance and the street heading to Palace, we can identify some representations displayed by the artist. First, the painting displays a large number of people moving towards the Crystal Palace building. The aspect of people moving towards the palace shows that Pissarro viewed the Palace as a major destination of visitors in London. His view later came to be true as the Palace received many visitors from different parts of the world. For example, about 2 million visitors visited the wonderful palace yearly until its destruction (Collins, 2011). Secondly, the painting displays a well-built road leading to the Palace. The presence of the place represents the infrastructural developments. The road reveals that the place will experience developments in transport systems as people visited the Crystal Palace. According to Crystal Palace records, the palace was connected by well-developed roads that facilitated easy movement of people to the Palace. In addition, the Crystal Palace Park is connected by a railway line that encourages movement of people. The painting also displays the ancient technology of transport. Chariots used by people heading to the palace shows that there will be technological development in transports system in the future. Later, Norwood experience rapid growth in transport system as electric trains and locomotives emerged in the 20th century. Pissarro was among the few artists who had a strong sense of underlying structures. In an analysis of his works, Pissarro concentrated in displaying and representing underlying structures such as cities, landscapes, suburbs, mansions and flats. Model dwelling was among Pissarro’s main areas of focus. The origin and development of model dwelling emerged as a result of vigorous campaigns by several philanthropic organizations in 1830s. The campaigns mainly focused on improvement of housing conditions of the working class groups of people. The movement of raising the housing standards originated in a small scale, in London. Later, a number of societies and companies were formed in order to meet the housing needs and standards of working people in Britain. Major societies and organizations that participated in the movement include the Metropolitan Association for improving the dwelling of the Industrial Classes, the Improved Industrial Dwellings Company, the Peabody Donation Fund, the General Society for Improving the Dwellings of the Working Classes and SICLC-Society for Improving the Condition of the Laboring Classes (Workhouse, 2014). Model dwelling companies promoted healthy conditions, low-cost of housing affordable by the poor and establishment of many model dwelling buildings. Buildings erected by these companies and societies consisted of family homes and lodging houses. Development of the model dwelling in cities like London resulted to abolishment and destruction of slums. In addition, the level of environmental pollution decreased since model dwelling areas were conserved and keep clean (Crowhurst, 2008). Model dwelling building also eliminated congestion of people in cities thus providing more spaces for development of other facilities like business buildings, roads, railway lines, schools and hospitals. A number of factors associated the success of model dwellings. First, there were many buildings abandoned by middle class workers who moved to suburbs in earlier days. These houses provided sufficient building spaces for the development of model dwelling. Secondly, spaces between old residential buildings in cities provide room for development of model dwellings. The high population pressure in cities also facilitated the development of model dwelling since there was high demand for family homes and lodging houses. Occurrence of the Great exhibition in the Crystal Palace advertised the idea of model dwellings thus most of the working people were willing to move to the newly built model dwelling in cities (Croot, 2004). The fast spreading famous and the rapid development of model dwelling buildings attracted attentions from many artists in the world. Writers, photographers, painters and designers, started displaying articles, photographs, drawings and paintings of various model dwelling building in different cities. Artists such as Pissarro, Renoir and Monet produced numerous painting of model dwellings in Paris and London. These artists visited a number of places in these cities and produced several paintings of model dwellings present (Robert Chester, Nicholas Awde, 2003). Many paintings of model dwelling building have some identifiable traits. First, these paintings display buildings inform of storey buildings with more than one floor. This show that model dwellings accommodated more than one family especially those built in cities. According to Pamela Lofthouse (2012), model dwelling houses built in 19th and 20th century would accommodate many people depending on their sizes (Design, 2014). Secondly, different paintings of model dwelling buildings displayed buildings that were connected by good roads. For instance, most of the model dwellings were located in streets with good roads and railway lines. These paintings reflected the development of infrastructures such as road and railway in cities. Model dwelling paintings had a common view. In a close examination of Pissarro’s paintings on model dwellings, the French artist mainly used aired view in representing model dwelling (Dennis, 2008). The painting “Bath road” is a significant work of Camille Pissarro that displays clear view of London’s model dwellings. Pissarro’s son, Lucien Pissarro, lived in England since 1890. He originally settled in Essex but later to Bedford Park after marrying Esther Bensusan. After moving to Bedford Park, Lucien was attacked by a mild stroke. As a caring parent, Camille Pissarro travelled from Eragny to Bedford Park to visit his ill son. He spent several days in Bedford Park as Lucien recovered. As part of his activities, Pissarro painted several paintings while in Bedford Park. One of the prominent paintings is the “Bath road." (Seaton, 2014). The painting “Bed road” displays several features found in Bedford Park. The painting displays a woman and child outside a house in flowerbed. The woman displayed in the painting is Lucien’s wife, Esther Bensusan, with her three- year old child called Orovida. The painting showed that Esther is a hardworking woman who makes the flowerbed outside the house. Like her mother, Orovida is also busy in the flowerbed. From a distance, there is a large house on the other side of the road. The house is well fenced with a stone field. The painting shows that Pissarro had visited Bedford Park during the summer in 1987 (Seaton, 2014). Several qualities of model dwellings or mansions in late nineteenth century and early twentieth century are displayed in Camille Pissarro’s work. First, mansion displayed on the other side of Lucien’s house is a modern building with special features. For instance, the entire building is made up of three buildings that are joined together. This design reveals that there is technological development in structural designs of model dwellings or mansions. Secondly, mansions or model dwellings in London are well connected by good transport systems like roads. Pissarro’s painting “Bed road” displays presence of a well-developed road passing between model dwellings. The colorful painting of the mansions in the “Bed road” displays the high quality of the building and the wise selection of colors by ancient house designers. In comparison to the recent picture of the Bed road, Bedford Park in 1995, there are similarities in the house design and the colorful painting on the walls. These similarities depict that Pissarro’s ideas on his work would come true in the future. In conclusion, the two paintings discussed above reveal that the 19th century and 20th century artists had unique skills and capabilities of representing different structures in different places using oil paintings. In his two paintings, Camille Pissarro was able to display the ancient structures developed using high technology. Structures like model dwelling built during the industrial revolution in were characterized by colorful paintings and good transport system as displayed by Pissarro’s paintwork. Reference List Architecture, a. a., 2012. The Suburbs. [Online] Available at: http://www.artandarchitecture.org.uk/insight/virag_leisure_city/virag_leisure_city02.html [Accessed 22 April 2014]. BBC, 2008. Crystal Palace: A History. [Online] Available at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/help/web/mothballing/ [Accessed 22 April 2014]. Collins, A., 2011. On the trail of Pissarro in South Lond. [Online] Available at: http://www.raphael-samuel.org.uk/history-trails/trail-pissarro-south-london [Accessed 23 April 2014]. Croot, P., 2004. Settlement and building: From 1865 to 1900. 12 ed. chelsea: British Online. Crowhurst, P., 2008. A Mid-Victorian housing development. [Online] Available at: http://www.nlcaonline.org.uk/page_id__176_path__0p18p66p.aspx [Accessed 23 April 2014]. 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