While driving on Highway 29 just north of the City of Napa, one cannot help but notice the magnificent oak trees, many of them over 100 years old, that stand as sentinels next to the highway. In the autumn, especially at the bookends of the day (sunrise and sunset), the changing leaves look almost like they are glowing.
One afternoon, as I was driving up the valley, that glowing light struck me as particularly close to that of the painting California (1894) by the American painter George Inness (1825 – 1894). Currently in the permanent collection of the Oakland Museum of California (a must-add to your Northern California travel plans, but that is a topic for another blog!), California, a 60” x 48” oil on canvas painting by one of the most important landscape artists of the late 19th century.
George Inness is considered a transitional figure, bridging realism and impressionism, with a strong tonalist sense. His artistic career started at the tail end of the Hudson River School, and several trips to France brought in influences from the Barbizon School. California, a work from late in the artist’s life, is a prime example of the comingling of those influences.
While stately oaks are certainly a part of the local landscape, the image that most of us call to mind when we think of the Napa Valley is of the rows of grapes that define our region. While there is no shortage of paintings of vineyards, most of them are unremarkable, with garish color, clichéd composition and poor technique, resting solely on the emotional pull of the scenery, but adding little from the artist.
However, there are plenty of excellent paintings of vineyards, from Vincent Van Gogh’s 1890 oil on canvas Vineyards at Auvers, now part of the collection of the St. Louis Art Museum to some outstanding contemporary painters who have found inspiration in the rows of vines here in Napa, as well as in the famous wine growing regions of Europe.
Prior to the late renaissance/baroque era, it is tricky to find a painting of just a vineyard. Pure landscape painting was not as common, and if one finds a depiction of a vine, it usually was the background of a scene of winemaking. While there are many fantastic images of wine and wine consumption, those usually are not presented in the context of the vineyards themselves (and the Art of Wine is a topic for a future blog post!).
By the end of the Renaissance the landscape itself became an accepted subject of painting. However, the most virtuosic practitioners of landscape were located in the Netherlands (think, for instance, of Rembrandt’s stunning renditions of the Dutch lowlands). Netherlands, while being the birthplace of gin and the home of beautiful fields of tulips, is not known for vineyards, so there is a lag between the emergence of serious landscape painting and artistic depictions of vineyards.
As the impressionists moved into center stage in the art world, the center of gravity moved to France, and we start seeing some serious paintings of vineyards. Claude Monet notably turned his eye to our favorite fruit in his 1872 oil on canvas Lane in the Vineyards at Argenteuil.
A year later Monet depicted vineyards in the same region in the winter snow. Vineyards in the Snow, Looking Towards the Mill at Orgement uses the dormant vines to punctuate the dazzling white of the snow in the fore and middle ground and the high overcast grey of the sky above.
Van Gogh gave us a couple of great vineyard paintings from his time painting in southern France. In Red Vineyard at Arles, he magnified the feeling of heat with a crimson and cadmium palette, calling to mind the hot spells that drive the sugar production in the grapes. Painted in 1888, Red Vineyard in Arles is the only painting that Van Gogh sold in his lifetime.
Coming over to California and fast forwarding to the 20th century, we will focus on one of the premier painters of the local landscape, Gregory Kondos. This Sacramento native was a painter and art educator who, along with his good friend Wayne Thiebaud, combined the crisp lines of new realism with the thick paint application and lively brush strokes of the Bay Area Figurative Movement to perfectly capture the beauty of Northern California.
When Kondos tackled the Napa Valley, his line and color created a sense of place that can almost be felt. In Rutherford Vineyard, 1989, part of the collection of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento (also worthy of a day trip from the Napa Valley), he used cool blue and green hues on the underside of the vine canopy to contrast with the acid yellows used to make the top of the canopy pop. Like a well-made Chardonnay, Kondos balanced disparate elements to create a beautifully harmonized whole. His color was vibrant but never garish, with each color playing a crucial role in the whole.
Kondos was fond of the Napa Valley and often made painting trips to the area, along with explorations of the Sacramento River delta and Yosemite. With his thorough visual analysis, lively paint handling, and masterful color use, Kondos set a high standard for depictions of the region.
As an aside, R + D Kitchen, up the road from the Hill Family Estate tasting room in Yountville, proudly displays a painting by fellow Northern California realist Raimonds Staprans. This painting, while not depicting a vineyard, is a prime example of the style of painting associated with Kondos and Thiebaud. It hangs above a two top table next to the bar, and is worth contemplating over a glass of Hill Family Estate Albariño at the bar!