Oil painting entitled 'Landscape: Sir Philip Sidney's Oak' by Patrick Nasmyth. Great Britain, ca. 1820s.

A large oak tree on the left grows beside a small pond in the immediate foreground bordered by broken fencing. The oak dominates the painting, its crown almost reaching the top of the canvas, and is paired with a smaller oak in the middle ground, centre-right, at the foot of which is a seated figure. A cottage with a chimney stack, background right, is visible behind two smaller oaks; a sandy path leads from in front of the cottage and curves around to its right and to a clearing where animals graze. A darkening sky is visible overhead with stratocumulus cloud through which sun light breaks through.

Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857

Given by John Sheepshanks, 1857

John Sheepshanks (1784-1863) was the son of a wealthy cloth manufacturer. He entered the family business, but his early enthusiasms were for gardening and the collecting of Dutch and Flemish prints. He retired from business at the age of 40, by which time he had begun collecting predominantly in the field of modern British art. He told Richard Redgrave RA, then a curator in the South Kensington Museum (later the V&A) of his intention to give his collection to the nation. The gallery built to house the collection was the first permanent structure on the V&A site, and all concerned saw the Sheepshanks Gift as forming the nucleus of a National Gallery of British Art. Sheepshanks commissioned works from contemporary artists, bought from the annual RA summer exhibitions, but also bought paintings by artists working before Queen Victoria ascended the throne in 1837. The Sheepshanks Gift is the bedrock of the V&A's collection of British oil paintings, and served to encourage many other collectors to make donations and bequests.

Provenance : This painting was lent to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1834/5 by the Rev. Robt. Fennell (no.73)

This is probably the painting exhibited after Nasmyth’s death as The Oak at Penshurst, at the Society of British Artists, Suffolk Street, in 1834 (Peter Johnson and Ernle Money, The Nasmyth Family of Painters, see ‘Appendix 1’, 1977). The large oak tree on the left of the picture was believed in the early-19th century to have been planted in Penshurst Park in Kent in 1554. Large and ancient trees often became landmarks of historical and legendary events and this particular tree was seen as a memorial to the famous poet and soldier, Sir Philip Sidney. His family lived at Penshurst Park and the oak tree was said to have been planted to mark his birth there in 1554 (although in fact it is now known to be much older).

As a young man, Sir Philip Sidney was part of Queen Elizabeth I’s court circle. It was at court that he made his reputation as a poet, writing a series of sonnets, poems and a romance on the theme of love. His death in battle in 1586 occasioned much mourning in England as the Queen and her subjects grieved for the man who had come to exemplify the ideal courtier. It is said that Londoners cried out at his funeral “Farewell, the worthiest knight that lived.” Nasmyth’s painting of the oak reflects a growing fascination with romantic national heroes which increased steadily through the 19th century.

The large motif of the giant oak in FA.165, with its vast crown spreading across the canvas, is a common feature of Nasmyth’s work and recalls his debt to 17th-century Dutch landscape art, in particular Jacob van Ruisdael (1628/9-82) and Meindert Hobbema (1638-1709). Nasmyth pairs the large oak with a smaller one creating vistas between and either side. Light pierces the central clearing and pathways and lightens the dark foliage of the trees. In both these respects it is worth noting the resemblance to, for example, Ruisdael’s The Great Oak in the Los Angeles County Museum (no.M.91.164.1). Nasmyth may have had access to this painting when it appeared briefly for sale in London in 1834, and to similar Ruisdael works through prints. Nonetheless, the meticulous rendering of the sky, tree foliage and scrub undergrowth edging the pond, reflects Nasmyth’s naturalistic approach, making studies directly from nature, and later working them up as oil paintings in his studio.

This painting of the celebrated oak at Penshurst, planted to celebrate the birth of Sir Philip Sidney, reflects the developing Victorian fascination with national heroes. Nasmyth favoured oaks in his paintings, as well as mixed-wooded effects, and looked to Ruisdael and Hobbema for inspiration in painting them.

FA.165[O]