Listen "Constable and the Pursuit of Nature"
Episode Synopsis
This year's Reith lecturer is Dr Nikolaus Pevsner, the German-born British scholar of history of art and architecture, and author of the county guide series, The Buildings of England (1951–74). In this series, Pevsner explores the qualities of art which he regards as particularly English, as illustrated in the works of several English artists, and what they say about the English national character.In his sixth and penultimate Reith lecture, Dr Pevsner describes the attitude of the English Romantic painter John Constable (1776-1837) and some of his contemporaries to Italian art, and compares his Englishness with that of Blake and Hogarth. He examines the sudden flowering of English landscape painting which began with Richard Wilson (1714–1782) and his Welsh landscapes, and argues that this concentration on landscape is a direct result of the temperate English climate.
More episodes of the podcast The Reith Lectures: Archive 1948-1975
The Birth of Exploration
12/11/1975
On Difference
04/12/1974
Justice Without Bondage
27/11/1974
The Liberal Option
20/11/1974
From Expansion to Improvement
13/11/1974
The Search For A New Order
19/12/1973
The Troubled Giant
28/11/1973
Wanted: An Instrument For Crisis Management
12/12/1972
From Technocracy to Democracy
05/12/1972