View on the Grounds of a Villa Near Florence, By Richard Parks Bonington

In the galleries of the Art Institute of Chicago stands the painting "View on the Grounds of a Villa near Florence" by the English artist Richard Parks Bonington. The painting is in oil on mill-board and mounted on canvas, painted in 1926.

In this lovely painting we have an Italian Landscape given to us with the eyes of an Englishman. As the title implies we are looking at the grounds near an Italian villa, which the viewer is standing upon. In the distance on top of the hills is either an abbey or church of good size for you can almost see a dome like structure on top of it. This structure is vocal point for the distant center ground of the painting just below the trees. The large cypress tree to the left center of the painting offers a cover to the structure, which is couched under the crown of the trees.

Below the image of the church we are brought into the foreground where we see things close up and in more detail. The most prominent object is the pheasant or turkey with reddish plumes and lovely blue crest looking to the viewer's right. Behind the bird and coming out from the left is the end section of a garden wall made of stone and brick, which comes to an end at the cypress trees. Coming out from the left is a peasant girl with a red blouse and earthen skirt and appears to be walking to the center along the bath out-of-the-way of the bird. Directly under the flowerpot is a pair of lovers almost hidden in the dark tones near the base of the wall. Further down the path can be seen figures of people and large animals. At the very end of the garden wall is a large stone flowerpot that acts as a support for the trees. This part of the painting brings us to the darkest tones of the work which lie directly below the tree and through the bushes, all of which are above the bird thus dividing the painting in two to accent the foreground that contains the bird from the background which hold the villa. To the right of the bird appears to be the remnant or ruins of an older garden wall of which only the bench and bottom section of the balustrade can be seen. On this wall section are tones of red paint strokes angling from the base towards the bench, what this is for is not clear.

What is the most striking feature of the work of art is its center, for in it there is nothing but space, only the glowing over-cast clouds making the sunset. The wonder of this glowing overcast is its ability to draw the viewer into the painting and then move us down to the foreground. The success of the painting is the juxtaposed sunset in the background against the bird in the foreground to bring the spaces together.

Stephen F. Condren ~ Artist

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