{"id":283770,"date":"2024-03-17T07:44:38","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T07:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=283770"},"modified":"2024-03-19T08:04:41","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T08:04:41","slug":"british-countryside-can-evoke-dark-nationalist-feelings-in-paintings-warns-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=283770","title":{"rendered":"British countryside can evoke \u2018dark nationalist\u2019 feelings in paintings, warns museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Above, Hampstead Heath by John Constable. Is this an example of art that is racially inflammatory? Or are privileged, and largely white liberals, just getting a little paranoid again?<\/p>\n

Craig Simpson \u2013 The Telegraph.co.uk March 14, 2024<\/strong><\/h1>\n

The Fitzwilliam Museum has suggested that paintings of the British countryside evoke dark \u201cnationalist feelings\u201d.<\/p>\n

The museum, owned by the University of Cambridge, has undertaken an overhaul of its displays, in a move that its director insisted was not \u201cwoke\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Luke Syson said last week: \u201cI would love to think that there\u2019s a way of telling these larger, more inclusive histories that doesn\u2019t feel as if it requires a push-back from those who try to suggest that any interest at all in [this work is] what would now be called \u2018woke\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new signage states that pictures of \u201crolling English hills\u201d can stir feelings of \u201cpride towards a homeland\u201d.<\/p>\n

However, in a gallery displaying a bucolic work by Constable, visitors are informed that \u201cthere is a darker side\u201d to the \u201cnationalist feeling\u201d evoked by images of the British countryside.<\/p>\n

It states that this national sentiment comes with \u201cthe implication that only those with a historical tie to the land have a right to belong\u201d.<\/p>\n

Paintings at the Fitzwilliam have been reordered into themed categories, in a shake-up the museum\u2019s director hopes will make the gallery\u2019s displays \u201cinclusive and representative\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Categories include Men Looking at Women, Identity, Migration and Movement, and Nature, which includes English landscapes by Constable, Gainsborough and Palmer, and French scenes by Pissarro, Renoir, Monet and C\u00e9zanne.<\/p>\n

A sign for the Nature gallery states: \u201cLandscape paintings were also always entangled with national identity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe countryside was seen as a direct link to the past, and therefore a true reflection of the essence of a nation.<\/p>\n

\u201cPaintings showing rolling English hills or lush French fields reinforced loyalty and pride towards a homeland.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe darker side of evoking this nationalist feeling is the implication that only those with a historical tie to the land have a right to belong.\u201d<\/p>\n

The claims about the depiction of landscapes comes after the charity umbrella group Wildlife and Countryside Link submitted a report to MPs which claimed that the British countryside was seen as a \u201cracist colonial\u201d white space<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, Mr Syson has insisted the shake-up of the museum is not \u201cwoke\u201d or \u201cradical chic\u201d, saying: \u201cBeing inclusive and representative shouldn\u2019t be controversial; it should be enriching.\u201d<\/p>\n

A sign for the new Identity gallery informs visitors that portraits of uniformed and wealthy sitters \u201cbecame vital tools in reinforcing the social order of a white ruling class, leaving very little room for representations of people of colour, the working classes or other marginalised people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018Portraits entangled with imperialism\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

It adds that \u201cportraits were often entangled, in complex ways, with British imperialism and the institution of transatlantic slavery\u201d.<\/p>\n

Paintings in this space include Joseph Wright\u2019s (1734-97) portrait of Richard FitzWilliam, who bequeathed \u00a3100,000 to fund what is now the Fitzwilliam Museum.<\/p>\n

Labelling for the portrait points out that FitzWilliam\u2019s wealth \u201ccame from his grandfather, Sir Matthew Decker, who had amassed it in part through the transatlantic trade of enslaved African people\u201d.<\/p>\n

The gallery also displays paintings intended to broaden representation with works by John Singer Sargent, the subject of \u201cspeculation he led a secret, queer life\u201d, and works by artists in the Jewish diaspora, and a modern work by Joy Labinjo, the British-Nigerian artist.<\/p>\n

The Migration and Movement gallery display notes that \u201cwhile some people chose to leave their homes, global conflict, discrimination and European colonialism meant others fled or were exiled by force\u201d.<\/p>\n

Here visitors can see works by Jewish artists who fled the Nazis, such as Motesiczky, along with works specifically focused on the Roma gypsies and travellers, including Turner\u2019s A Beech Wood with Gypsies Around a Fire.<\/p>\n

In the Men Looking at Women gallery the different ways in which male artists have portrayed female subjects is explored, until women\u2019s more equal status in society altered how they were depicted.<\/p>\n

Specific themes from the \u201cmythologising\u201d of violence in paintings, to \u201cwomen reading\u201d, to the emergence of outdoor painting, are now covered following the rehang.<\/p>\n

Wildlife and Countryside Link, an umbrella group for nature charities, drew up a report on perceived barriers to ethnic minorities enjoying the countryside.<\/p>\n

The report, submitted to MPs in an all-party parliamentary group for Race and Community, claimed that the British countryside has been influenced by \u201cracist colonial legacies\u201d which have created an environment some fear is \u201cdominated by white people\u201d.<\/p>\n

The report added that Britain\u2019s green spaces were seen to be influenced by \u201cwhite British cultural values\u201d, and that the idea of such a \u201cwhite space\u201d prevents people from other ethnic backgrounds from enjoying the outdoors.<\/p>\n

The claims, disclosed by The Telegraph, prompted Suella Braverman, the former home secretary to say that \u201cno, the countryside is not racist\u201d.<\/p>\n

Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Liberal intellectuals are forever looking for new manifestations of racism and now they\u2019ve found a prime example: in depictions of country life from the 18th and 19th centuries. Seriously. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":283771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283770","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Race"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283770","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=283770"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283770\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":283772,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283770\/revisions\/283772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/283771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=283770"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=283770"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=283770"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}