Olive Orchard
Roger Eliot Fry (London 1866 - London 1934)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1909 - 1911
Materials
Oil on board
Measurements
280 x 360 mm
Order this imageCollection
Mottisfont, Hampshire
NT 769792
Caption
Roger Fry was a theorist, critic and painter, and member of the Bloomsbury Group. He was an advocate of modern French painting, for which he coined the name ‘Post-Impressionist.’ He organised two major exhibitions of ther work in London in 1910 and 1912, which brought Post-Impressionism into the public eye. In his writings he emphasised the formal properties of paintings over the ‘associated ideas’ in the mind of the viewer. Kenneth Clark, art historian and Director of the National Gallery, described him as “incomparably the greatest influence on taste since Ruskin … in so far as taste can be changed by one man, it was changed by Roger Fry.” This painting shows his fascination with shape and mass: the pattern of dark branches contrasts with the simple blocked form of the house.
Summary
Oil painting on board, Olive Orchard, by Roger Eliot Fry (London 1866 - London 1934), 1909-1911. This painting shows Fry's fascination with shape and mass: the pattern of dark branches contrasts with the simple blocked form of the house. Percy Wyndham Lewis had written of the London Group: ‘Our object is to bewilder. We want to shock the senses.’ Fellow member Roger Fry thought that was rarely the case, writing: ‘Except for Gertler we are fearfully tasteful’. Fry became a member in 1917, attracted by what he felt was the ‘freest and least academic group in England’. A theorist, critic and painter, Fry was seen as the apostle of modern art. He organised two major Post-Impressionist exhibitions in London in 1910 and 1912, which brought the British public up to date with recent developments in France. His books and essays urged confused viewers simply to look at and appreciate form.
Provenance
Presented by Derek Hill (1916 - 2000) through The National Art Collections Fund (Art Fund), 1996
Credit line
Mottisfont Abbey,The Derek Hill Collection (presented to the National Trust through the National Art-Collections Fund in 1996)
Makers and roles
Roger Eliot Fry (London 1866 - London 1934), artist