Who would have believed this would have been one of my last commissions of Spring and where the world would be right now! In early March I was invited to visit RHS Wisley on behalf of a client to enable me to write an article on the new sculpture exhibition and to take photographs of both the sculptures and my clients products in the gardens.
The Four Seasons is a collection of larger-than-life busts by contemporary American sculptor and filmmaker Philip Haas. Originally due to be open from March until the end of September these stunning sculptures depicting Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter were on display at RHS Garden Wisley. The exhibition was to give visitors the opportunity to see the sculptures on show in the UK for only the second time ever. I was invited to an exclusive launch party hosted by TV presenter Nicki Chapman.
Philip Haas - Sculptor
When I got the commission I jumped at the chance to be up close to these wonderful works of art. As with all projects I set about doing my research into why the sculptures were created and the artists inspiration. I also researched into the background of the sculptor Philip Haas. I warmed to him immediately because he is described as both a filmmaker and sculptor, two creative disciplines you would not normally put together, this made my own eclectic mix of creative services that I offer feel more normal!
I soon got immersed in the story behind the sculptures which were inspired by the Milanese master artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo. Acimboldo cemented his place in art history when, in the mid-16th century, he managed to fuse two of the most popular painting genres: portraiture and still life. He created elaborate paintings of every day people made from thematically appropriate objects. From a librarian made of books, to a chef composed of food and cookware, these remain as popular today as they were in his lifetime.
“I wanted to photograph the sculptures in portrait view as depicted in the original images by Giuseppe Arcimboldo and in the orientation they are on display in the Louvre.”
In 1563, as a court painter to soon-to-be Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian II, Arcimboldo offered his patron a series of figural paintings detailing the four seasons that he had created earlier in the decade. Of the originals, one has never been found, and only Winter and Summer have survived (they belong to the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna). iI would be nice to find the missing one in an antique shop or car boot sale is all I keep thinking!
Maximilian II liked them so much that he ordered a second set from Arcimboldo in 1573 as a gift for Augustus, the Elector of Saxony. This second set remains intact and belongs to the Louvre. This is the set the Four Seasons Sculptures by Philip Haas are based on.
The sculptures include a bearded figure for autumn made up of root vegetables, grapes, and apples; a grimacing winter formed chiefly from a knotty tree trunk with branches for hair; a blossoming spring figure with a leafy torso and flowery coif; and a grinning summer with ripe vegetables and fruit making up its face and hair, along with a shimmering wheat collar.
Giuseppe Arcimboldo found huge fame and success at the courts of Vienna and Prague for his unusual anthropomorphic paintings. Celebrated for their wit and artifice, the composite heads were much imitated in the artist’s lifetime and his idiosyncratic style arguably makes him the most modern sixteenth-century painter, whose work continued to resonate with artists well into the twentieth century, particularly with the Surrealists and Salvador Dalí.
“The weather always plays a part in an outdoor photographers life and for the opening of the Four Seasons the rain fell and the light levels could not have been worse but hopefully this adds to the drama of the sculptures.”
I loved the research into this project and I have had a deeper love of all art forms since starting on my journey as a photographer many years ago. I often comment that being an engineer by trade, I first started to study photography to understand the technicalities of photography. It was thanks to my first lecturer though, who at the time rarely taught F Stops, ISO and shutter speed, that opened up my eyes to the beauty of photography as an art form. I fondly remember studying the photography masters like Ansel Adams, Cartier-Bresson, Alferd Stieglitze, Robert Maplethorpe, etc. and I still draw inspiration from them to this day along with many of the worlds masters of art, Monet is a particular favourite who I draw inspiration from when photographing gardens and nature.
When working in the creative industry we should all look to the past for inspiration, after all nothing is completely new however much we would like to imagine it is. Artists are forever borrowing ideas from the past. In the words of Picasso “Good artists copy , great artists steal”
During the time I spent in the beautiful gardens at RHS Wisley the maquettes were hugely popular with people of all ages. they were perfectly positioned in the garden and as RHS Garden Wisley Curator Matthew Pottage commented “Wisley’s unique landscapes offer exciting new ways to view the works, and the sculpture will take on a different character as the garden moves through the seasons.” It is so sad that both the majesty of the gardens and the sculptures are now closed for the public to enjoy in our battle against Covid-19.
Winter was definitely my favourite sculpture maybe it just suited the mood of the day with the awful weather and the underlying worry of the quickly approaching pandemic that was about to happen.
During the evening and on a walk around the gardens to enjoy the sculpture first hand I got the opportunity to talk to the sculptor Philip Haas who explained he embarked upon the Four Seasons project wanting to re-contextualise Arcimboldo’s 16th-century nature imagery within the 21st-century physical world, through changes in scale, material and dimensionality. He was excited that with the exhibition taking place at Wisley over multiple seasons, another transformation will occur to alter and enrich the viewer's perspective – the passage of time, the play of light and weather on the sculptures.
Who knows in this new world we now live in whether the gardens will be open again for us to enjoy them and the sculptures. I hope in some way these images will give you a feel for them, I have tried to capture my own version and interpretation of the sculptures, I hope you enjoy them.