In 1914 Ginner and Harold Gilman broke away from Sickert and his followers, and called themselves Neo-Realists.

They believed in a close study of nature (rather than of other art) which was then translated into paint via the artist's emotional response to the subject and to the tactile qualities of the paint itself. Both artists looked for form and pattern in their surroundings. Ginner had by this time turned almost exclusively to landscape and extended to his treatment of the natural world his system of building an image from small dabs of thick paint. His first step, however, was 'finding the view' and for most of his life he used a simple viewfinder frame. A high viewpoint was particularly characteristic of his work and can be seen in Malvern Hills, where the pattern of fields and foliage stretches out at the spectator's feet, finding a natural geometry which is balanced by the manmade geometry of the ribbon of buildings in the middle distance.

Provenance

Dr E Wightman Ginner.


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