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  • Arundel Park

  • n.d.
  • Henry Charles Clifford (British 1861-1947)
  • Oil on canvas
  • 38.8 x 46.3 cm., 15-5/16 x 18-1/4"
  • Lent Courtesy of Private Collection through Catherine Carter Goebel, Paul A. Anderson Chair in the Arts

Essay by Beth Luebke, Class of 2005 and Catherine Carter Goebel, Editor

Impressionism in Great Britain followed behind France and continued well into the twentieth century. Henry Clifford captures a picturesque moment in Arundel Park on a lovely summer day. The lower center focuses on six figures, separated into two groups of three. Two women supporting a young child approach a boat in which two men sit with another child between them, highlighted in red and facing the approaching figures. The fashionable white dresses appear light blue as they reflect the water below.

The painting illustrates Clifford's interest in capturing the color, light and beauty of the English rural landscape. The people are secondary. Loose brushstrokes subtly depict the small figures as they emerge at the end of a very long pathway lined with trees in full bloom. The foreground opens onto the water with a cropped boat at right, as well as the center boat around which the activity takes place. The stream bends and inspires viewers to imagine a far-off point toward which the boaters will embark. The trees are subtly painted in the water. Judging from the length of the shadows, the time of day is either early morning or late afternoon.

The painting crops the edges of the trees, zooming into the scene like a close-up camera lens. The scene reflects the Impressionist quest for the good life: the promise of a day filled with conversation and leisure. The linear perspective seems to break into two directions. It leads viewers up the path to the right, through the trees, into a world with which they might be familiar. And it also follows to the left, where they might find themselves in a boat venturing through the bend in the brook, either on the popular Swanbourne Lake or the Arun River at Arundel Park, toward something yet unknown. The whole illustrates a world filled with opportunity and abundance. The atmospheric perspective, which recedes to cool, grayish-blue colors in the distance, reflects recent theories on the physics of light.

Clifford's Arundel Park resonates from its historic location at the turn of the century into our present day. The soft brushstrokes inspire the observer to seek out peaceful moments in the scene. As with most Impressionist paintings, this landscape suggests a consummate harmony between painter and viewer. It takes us around the river bend into a world still filled with Impressionist style and grace.