RSA Scottish Art
The Sabine Hills, Italy
 | Artist: Molly Langlands |
| Title: The Sabine Hills, Italy | |
| Year: 1953 | |
| Medium: gouache on paper | |
| Dimensions: | |
| Suggested topic: | |
| Source: RSA | |
| View full screen image of this work | |
| Open print version of this work | |
| © the artist | |
| Description: Molly Langlands studied at Edinburgh College of Art. On her graduation she won a travelling scholarship which enabled her to spent some months in Italy in the early 1950s alongside fellow students, David Michie and John Houston. This study of an Italian landscape, The Sabine Hills, Italy, is far removed from the images of travel brochures. It shows the rhythm of a line of hills in winter and, through the artist's loose brushstrokes and choice of colours, creates a feel of a blustery, winter's day. The brushstrokes are rough and vigorous, with harsh outlines and muted dabs of restrained colour. Patches of the underlying paper show through, suggesting a landscape with patches of frost or snow. The limited palette used in this sketch features mainly cold colours and although there are also deep maroons and russets, these warmer tone do not take away from the sense of wintertime, expressed by large areas of blue-blacks and pale greens.The composition of this sketch reflects a panoramic view of landscape. The image has a long horizontal dimension contrasting with the verticals.This choice may relate to cultural factors of the time, such as the use of Cinemascope in film-making to give a very elongated, wide-screen image which was often used by American film-makers to capture the massive landscapes of the American West. The simplicity of this composition lies in the relationship between the rugged skyline of the dark hills and the pale, cloudy sky.The mood of this painting reflects the fact that it was almost certainly painted outdoors at the scene, and not in the relative comfort of the studio. It may have been a cold and uncomfortable experience to reach this spot and to sit down there to paint. The scene looks unwelcoming, almost like the lunar surface. This image seems to express the loneliness and remoteness of these winter hills, and Langlands may have wished to capture this view precisely because it does not fit with our idea of the warm, rolling hills of Italy. As a Scottish painter, these hills may have held echoes of the landscape of her homeland. | |
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