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''Bigger Trees Near Warter'' or ''ou Peinture en Plein Air pour l'age Post-Photographique'' is a large
landscape A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes th ...
painting by British artist
David Hockney David Hockney (born 9 July 1937) is an English painter, draftsman, printmaker, stage designer, and photographer. As an important contributor to the pop art movement of the 1960s, he is considered one of the most influential British artists o ...
. Measuring , it depicts a
coppice Coppicing is a traditional method of woodland management which exploits the capacity of many species of trees to put out new shoots from their stump or roots if cut down. In a coppiced wood, which is called a copse, young tree stems are repea ...
near
Warter Warter is a small village and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is situated approximately east of Pocklington on the B1246 road and from the city of York. According to the 2011 UK census, Warter parish had a populati ...
,
Pocklington Pocklington is a market town and civil parish situated at the foot of the Yorkshire Wolds in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded its population as 8,337. It is east of York and northwest of Hull. The town's sky ...
in the
East Riding of Yorkshire The East Riding of Yorkshire, or simply East Riding or East Yorkshire, is a ceremonial county and unitary authority area in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and west, South Yorkshire t ...
and is the largest painting Hockney has completed. It was painted in the East Riding of Yorkshire between February and March 2007. The painting's alternative title alludes to the technique Hockney used to create the work, a combination of painting out of doors and in front of the subject (called in French ‘sur le motif’) whilst also using the techniques of digital photography.


Subject

The painting, a landscape near the village of Warter, between
Bridlington Bridlington is a coastal town and a civil parish on the Holderness Coast of the North Sea in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is about north of Hull and east of York. The Gypsey Race enters the North Sea at its harbour. The 2011 Cen ...
and
York York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...
, is set just before the arrival of spring when trees are coming into leaf. The painting is dominated by a large
sycamore Sycamore is a name which has been applied to several types of trees, but with somewhat similar leaf forms. The name derives from the ancient Greek ' (''sūkomoros'') meaning "fig-mulberry". Species of trees known as sycamore: * '' Acer pseudoplat ...
which features in 30 of the 50 panels. In the shallow foreground space a copse of tall trees and some
daffodils ''Narcissus'' is a genus of predominantly spring flowering perennial plants of the amaryllis family, Amaryllidaceae. Various common names including daffodil,The word "daffodil" is also applied to related genera such as '' Sternbergia'', ''Is ...
stand on slightly raised ground. Another, denser copse is visible in the background. A road to the extreme left and two buildings to the right and rear of the composition offer signs of human habitation. Much of the painting's extensive upper half is devoted to the intricate pattern of overlapping branches, clearly delineated against a pale winter sky.


Background

Although Hockney has lived in
Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the wor ...
since 1978, he always returned to spend Christmas at his mother's house in Bridlington. From 2004 onwards he spent increasing lengths of time in Yorkshire; the rolling chalk hills around Bridlington became the focus of his art. In 2006 he made a series of nine large landscapes of
Woldgate Woldgate is a minor road in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, which follows the line of a Roman road. It runs for a distance of from a junction with the A165 on the western edge of Bridlington, through the village of Kilham, to a junct ...
Woods, returning to the same spot between March and November to chart the changing seasons. Each of these works consisted of up to six panels. On a trip to Los Angeles in February 2007, looking at images of his Woldgate Woods paintings, Hockney had the idea of working up the same scene over a much bigger scale. He had to work out how to complete this project without a ladder and in the small space of his studio in Bridlington. "The enormous 19th-century oil paintings like ''
The Coronation of Napoleon ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things that are already or about to be mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in ...
'' in
the Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
were made in specially designed studios." Because of space considerations, Hockney had to avoid working on a ladder or on scaffolding: "The trouble is that with something like this you need to step back. Artists have been killed stepping back from ladders." "Then I realised it was possible to make a single picture that size," he says, "using computer technology to help you see what you are doing. I thought, my God, it would be enormous, but that it would be good on the end wall of the largest gallery at the
Royal Academy The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its purp ...
. I'd found a way to do an eye-catching landscape for the
Summer Exhibition The Summer Exhibition is an open art exhibition held annually by the Royal Academy in Burlington House, Piccadilly in central London, England, during the months of June, July, and August. The exhibition includes paintings, prints, drawings, s ...
. It was quite a challenge." Only six weeks after his idea in Los Angeles, the painting was completed. The first three weeks were spent organising the project, "The logistics were quite something." His usual procedure when working in the landscape is to load a pickup truck with paints and materials and drive to the location. In addition, a special rack had to be constructed capable of storing 50 wet canvases. The painting itself was essentially completed in a three-week period in March 2007. "The painting had to be done in one go. Once I started, I had to carry on until it was finished," says Hockney. "The deadline wasn't the Royal Academy. The deadline was the arrival of spring, which changes things. The motif is one thing in winter, but in summer it's one solid mass of foliage – so you can't see inside and it's not as interesting to me." The solution was to sketch a grid showing how the scene would fit together over 50 panels. Each individual panel was painted ''in situ'' and as they were completed his assistant, Jean-Pierre Gonçalves de Lima, would digitally photograph them and then make them into a computer mosaic. With this mosaic he could chart his progress, since he could have only six panels on the wall at any one time. Gradually, with the help of the constantly updated computer mosaic, Hockney built up the picture. Hockney also spent time just looking at the subject he was going to paint. "I'd sit there for three hours at a time just looking, lying down practically so I looked up."


Showing

Hockney produced ''Bigger Trees Near Warter'' for the Royal Academy summer exhibition in London, where it was first shown in May 2007, occupying the end wall of Gallery III. Following the close of the exhibition, once the rest of the works had been removed this painting remained in place. Two digital photographic renderings of the work on exactly the same scale as the original were then hung on the two walls flanking it. From 12 February 2011 to 12 June 2011, the painting was on display at
York Art Gallery York Art Gallery is a public art gallery in York, England, with a collection of paintings from 14th-century to contemporary, prints, watercolours, drawings, and ceramics. It closed for major redevelopment in 2013, reopening in summer of 2015. T ...
. From 25 June 2011 to 18 September 2011, the painting was on display at the
Ferens Art Gallery The Ferens Art Gallery is an art gallery in the English city of Kingston upon Hull. The site and money for the gallery were donated to the city by Thomas Ferens, after whom it is named. The architects were S. N. Cooke and E. C. Dav ...
in
Hull Hull may refer to: Structures * Chassis, of an armored fighting vehicle * Fuselage, of an aircraft * Hull (botany), the outer covering of seeds * Hull (watercraft), the body or frame of a ship * Submarine hull Mathematics * Affine hull, in affi ...
. From 1 October 2011 to 4 March 2012, the painting was on display at the
Cartwright Hall Cartwright Hall is the civic art gallery in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England, situated about a mile from the city centre in the Manningham district. It was built on the former site of Manningham Hall using a gift of £40,000 donated by Sam ...
Art Gallery in Bradford, the artist's birthplace.


Donation

In April 2008 Hockney donated the painting to the
Tate Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...
, saying, "I thought if I'm going to give something to the Tate I want to give them something really good. It's going to be here for a while. I don't want to give things I'm not too proud of." He also said, "I feel loyal to the Tate. More artists should donate. They should think about it. You can’t quite trust collectors who say they’ll give to the Tate and often don’t." The Tate's director,
Nicholas Serota Sir Nicholas Andrew Serota, (born 27 April 1946) is an English art historian and curator, who served as the Director of the Tate from 1988 to 2017. He is currently Chair of Arts Council England, a role which he has held since February 2017. S ...
, said, "It is an astonishing gift. Notwithstanding its size, this painting could have been sold to many buyers around the world. Simply to give with no tax benefit to himself is a remarkable gesture." The painting found a permanent home at
Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in E ...
in November 2009, where it was displayed along with a pair of digital renderings of the painting. The copse can be found approximately 3/4 mile south of Warter. A group of trees near Warter which had been painted by Hockney was cut down in March 2009, but these were not the trees in the painting described in this article.


References


External links


Official Tate catalogue
{{David Hockney 2007 paintings Collection of the Tate galleries Landscape paintings Paintings by David Hockney Pocklington Yorkshire in art