120

  • Durham

  • 1892
  • Albert Goodwin (English/British 1845-1932)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 65.5 x 141.5 cm., 25-3/4 x 55-5/8"
  • Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts Purchase with Gift through Paul Arnell, A Friend of Augustana College, Paul A. Anderson Art History Collection, Augustana College 2002.15

Essay by Adam Kaul, Associate Professor of Anthropology

This is a painting of light and shadows.

It is often said that Albert Goodwin, the artist of this piece, lived in the shadows of the Romantic artistic legacies of Joseph Mallord Turner and John Constable as well as more popular artistic voices of his day such as John Ruskin and James McNeill Whistler. He was indeed influenced by the Impressionists and Pre-Raphaelites, but he also broke somewhat from their aesthetics and ethos. For example, he disliked the "flinging about of crude paints" that he often saw in others' works (Barker 8), and instead of celebrating bright colors like many Impressionists, spent a career exploring the depths of the interplay between shadow and light. Indeed, as his aesthetic evolved, the most important color in his palette became grey (Barker8).

This painting, simply entitled Durham, is typical Goodwin. He often painted landscapes and dramatic architecture, and "his chief interest was the mood of clouds and the sinking sun" (Barker 9). Although Goodwin is known more for his use of watercolors, he occasionally dabbled in oils (Smith 14). In this painting, the city of Durham, with its thousand-year-old castle and cathedral at its center, is draped in mist, fog and smoke. However, the shadows are penetrated by the sunset on the horizon. The orange and red light reflects off the River Wear and provides the last moments of daylight for the fieldworkers in the foreground.

I happen to know this place well. As a student at the University of Durham, I walked along this same path to attend classes. My wife learned to row crew along this bend in the river. I walked through the cobbled streets of Durham on my way to the library where the Norman cathedral and castle loomed overhead, and it was in the Cathedral where I graduated. So, while much more could be said about this painting and Goodwin himself, sometimes art thrills us because of the way it throws light onto the shadows of memory.