Art lovers heading to Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum this spring can discover how the Dutch master influenced Britain’s most important living artist when a major exhibition showcases a collection of over 120 works by David Hockney.
A must-see exhibition for 2019, the Van Gogh Museum plays host to Hockney – Van Gogh: The Joy of Naturefrom 1 March to 26 May, with one of the highlights being the British pop artist’s famous large-scale landscape paintings.
For those who admire Hockney’s artwork, East Yorkshire offers a chance to follow in the artist’s footsteps and discover the inspiration behind some of those most celebrated landscapes.
The Yorkshire Wolds provided the inspiration for a series of paintings that span 50 years of Hockney’s fascination with the area – including some of those being exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum.
While much of Hockney’s work reflects the influence of Van Gogh, such as a shared fascination with nature, bold use of colour and experimentation with perspective, it is perhaps best illustrated in these landscapes.
And a self-guided ‘David Hockney Trail’ around East Yorkshire offers the chance to discover some of the sites that feature in his collection of vivid paintings, including a favourite location, Woldgate, an old Roman route only a few minutes drive from his Bridlington home where he lived at the time.
It was here that in 2011 he drew a large series of landscapes on an iPad, depicting ‘The Arrival of Spring’, which will be a feature of the Van Gogh Museum exhibition.
Among other trail highlights are the countryside around the village of Warter – the site of ‘Bigger Trees’, Hockney’s largest work made up of 50 canvases showing a group of skeletal trees high up on the Yorkshire Wolds; and Thixendale, where he created ‘The Three Trees at Thixendale’, a series of paintings at different time of the year to reflect the changing seasons.
These paintings – the so-called Yorkshire landscapes – reveal thorough observations of the changing four seasons, and how light, space and nature are constantly in flux, offering a vivid insight into Hockney’s love of nature, and show a clear link with Van Gogh’s landscapes, such as The Harvest (1888), Field with Irises near Arles (1888) and The Garden of Saint Paul’s Hospital (‘Leaf-Fall’) (1889).
More connections with Dutch Masters can be found in Hull. With its strong maritime heritage, the city has been at the centre of links to the North European continent for centuries, something that is reflected in many of the paintings in the award-winning Ferens Art Gallery, including fine examples of Dutch 17th Century art. (www.hcandl.co.uk/museums-and-galleries/ferens/ferens-art-gallery)
The Van Gogh Museum’s ‘The Joy of Nature’ features some 120 works, including Hockney’s intimate sketchbooks and his iPad drawings as well as the large-scale landscapes.
Meanwhile, to discover more about how Van Gogh’s work was influenced by artists from across the North Sea, Tate Britain will bring together 45 of the artist’s works in “Van Gogh and Britain”,revealing how he was inspired by Britain and inspired British artists (27 March – 11 August 2019).
Links to the Hockney Pocket Guide, as well as Yorkshire Wolds accommodation, are available at www.visithullandeastyorkshire.com/events/hockney.aspx
And tourist information about the area is available at www.visithullandeastyorkshire.com