This post is about:
Every year a different organisation provides both the brief and budget for the commission.
I wrote about the Commission Challenge back in April 2024 in 10th Anniversary Prize Commission for Landscape Artist of the Year
Aix-en-Provence is celebrating Cezanne in 2025. I guess that means they got lots of co-operation in making the programme from the local tourist board!
I have to say I rather like the Commission Painting.
- the challenge of the Landscape Artist of the Year (Series 10) commission
- the Commission Programme
- the Commission Painting produced by the winner of Landscape Artist of the Year 2025
The Commission Challenge
For the 10th Anniversary, the production team were looking for a prestigious client and commission
I wrote about the Commission Challenge back in April 2024 in 10th Anniversary Prize Commission for Landscape Artist of the Year
Last week Sky Arts announced the organisation which will receive the commission and the location of the 10th Anniversary Prize Commission for the next series of Landscape Artist of the Year has been announced.
- The Courtauld Gallery will be the recipient of the £10,000 Prize Commission - meaning the winner will have their commission painting hung in the Courtauld. (You can see online versions of paintings in the Courtauld Collection - but always best to visit to see the real thing and appreciate its impact)
- The location for the Commission will be the South of France
Following in the footsteps of famous painters like Monet, Cezanne and Van Gogh, the winning artist will travel to the south of France to create a work inspired by one of the most famous coastlines in the word.
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| Ben visiting the Gallery holding the Permanent Collection of the Courtauld Gallery |
Ben Macgregor visited the Courtauld Gallery to meet Barnaby Wright, Deputy Head of The Courtauld Gallery and Curator of 20th Century Art.
He advised Ben of what the £10,000 Commission Challenge comprised and how it related to three important paintings in the Courtauld Collection (see below)
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| Ben Macgregor getting his briefing from Barnaby Wright |
What we would like you to do is to go to those different sites where those three artists painted and were so inspired and produce your own contemporary response to those three landscapes.Barnaby Wright
Wow - you've just given me goosebumps!Ben MacGregor
I thought it was a very challenging commission. I could see the rationale behind it but it would have had my stomach doing somersaults of it had been me!
The Commission Programme
There's nothing quite like actually visiting sites associated with artists to see and understand an artist rather better. Which I guess was the whole purpose of the visit for Ben.
It's what I've done in the past in relation to artists I like - which happen to include Monet, Cezanne and Van Gogh!
So far as the programme is concerned, I'm now very much used to the very organised way in which the production team has planned out in advance all the places it wants to the take the winning artist too. Given I've had to do such planning when visiting places associated with artists, I know the value of planning ahead.
However, I often wonder whether, at any stage, the artist gets a say in how long long they stay at one spot (eg if it's one which really resonates) and where else they might go besides the pre-determined list.
The programme focused on three paintings which are in the Courtauld Collection - which you can see below.
Monet at Antibes
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| Antibes (1888) by Claude Monet |
Antibes is the only place I've not visited - but that's not to say I haven't studied what he did there (see below)
It was also very much a place that Monet visited rather than lived there - unlike the places associated with Van Gogh and Cezanne.
From January to May 1888, Claude Monet spent four months in Antibes—a painting excursion in which he produced 39 compositions.
When I found this out I subsequently wrote 40 Antibes landscapes in 4 months by Claude Monet on my The Art of the Landscape blog.
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| Ben in Antibes - looking over to the mountains in the back of the "Antibes" painting by Monet |
The Van Gogh Route - Arles and St. Remy de Provence
Van Gogh had moved to the south of France hoping that the Provençal light and landscape would inspire his art.
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| Peach Trees in Blossom (1889) by Vincent Van Gogh |
I first did the Van Gogh Trail around the places he painted in the south of France in the late 80s. I started in Arles and then drove across the plain where the peach trees are and also visited Saint Remy de Provence - and then repeated the visit to all the places associated with Van Gogh in 2011.
This is the Van Gogh Trail
- in Arles - where he had a house and painted locations around central Arles and also in its vicinity eg Montmajour and the Crau
- in St Remy de Provence - where Van Gogh spent a year the Saint-Paul de Mausole psychiatric institution in Saint-Rémy de Provence and painted many of his most famous works there. It's still a working institution today and somehow they manage to allow people who are interested in Van Gogh to visit as well as provide mental health services. I'm guessing the income from visitors goes a long way to helping the budget for the facility. I found it a very peaceful place.
I've written a huge number of blog posts about Van Gogh since 2006!
See also my blog posts about
See also my blog posts about
Plus Golden Oldie #4: Van Gogh and Drawing - art media and techniques (2023) - which includes a drawing of a tree at the Asylum.
Cezanne and Aix en Provence
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| Montagne Saint Victoire with Large Pine (1887) by Paul Cezanne |
Looking back now, the slate quarry LAOTY visited in North Wales makes sense in the context of the paintings Cezanne made of the quarries at Bibemus. Note also that Bibemus is being celebrated in 2025
However I don't think the Courtauld has any of those paintings - so the focus in the programme was on the house and studio that Cezanne built so that he could paint Montagne Saint Victoire.
Of which more below.....
Cezanne's Studio
Cezanne built an atelier des Lauves now known as "Cezanne's Studio". |
| The website for the Atelier de Cezanne |
I have visited Cezanne's house in Aix-en-Provence and have been inside the studio - so it was quite a shock to see it had been cleared of all of his painting paraphernalia since I visited towards the end of the 80s. I remember seeing both his palette and the plaster bust and apples left where he would have had them when painting. So sad to see they're now kept in an archive.
HOWEVER, having visited the website, it looks as if the room might have been cleared because they were doing works in readiness for the celebration of Cezanne in 2025. So Ben will have been visiting while they were doing the "facelift"
From 1 April 2024, the atelier de Cezanne will be closed for renovation until spring 2025. The studio will be getting a facelift to welcome you back in 2025
If you would like to visit see Visit the Atelier de Cezanne. It's definitely well worth a visit and appears to be reopening this year.
What is new since I last visited is the Cezanne App which allows you to visit the places he knew on your phone
The Commission Painting
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| As always, the unveiling takes place at the client's site |
I thought it was a devilishly difficult commission in the sense of getting a sense of the south of France, of the artists and at the same time making it "his own piece" as a response to three giants of impressionism and post impressionism.
I thought the idea of looking out a window at a scene which included the motifs used by the three artists during their time painting in the south of France was ingenious - although the painting itself leaned towards Cezanne in terms of the hatching.
I particularly like Montagne Saint Victoire in the background - although I'd have liked to see some stronger blues in it. All three artists were very partial to a good strong light blue - particularly in relation to sky colours.
The only thing which slightly unsettled me was the rather large path going nowhere.
You could compare it, for example, to Cezanne's own painting of the garden at Les Lauves - who's taken his hatching to the next level!
I was aiming to go and see the commission painting before I wrote this review - but I'm chocka with medical appointments of one sort or another right now after seeing my consultant last week.
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The commission being hung in the Gallery at the Courtauld
Gallery. (see video below) |
You could compare it, for example, to Cezanne's own painting of the garden at Les Lauves - who's taken his hatching to the next level!
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The Garden at Les Lauves, c. 1906 Paul Cezanne oil on canvas The Phillips Collection, Washington, DC |
However, that should not stop you viewing it - if you can - at the Courtauld
Institute.
The painting is now on display in the LVMH Great Room at The Courtauld
Gallery
and
this is how to visit the painting.
This is the commission painting being hung in the Courtauld Gallery and Ben
Macgregor talking about how Cezanne influenced his approach and style.
and finally - a thought for all future LAOTY participants
I am 100% certain that when choosing the winner each year, the Judges are very clear that they need to pick an artist who will deliver an excellent commission.
It goes without saying therefore that there are two paintings which are of particular importance as a reference point for the Judges.
These two paintings are:
These two paintings are:
- the submission painting - done in your own time with no time restraints. For me it should always be commission standard. This effectively sets the scene and allows the Judges to speculate on whether or not you might be a good fit with the the Client, the prize money and the Commission
- the Commission painting in the Final- where you need to really knock the Judges socks off - because you are in effect auditioning properly for the Final Commission. The artist has a constraint in terms of the time deadlines to produce it by - but has much more latitutde in terms of what to paint, how big and why. For me it's always this painting which actually decides the winner.
So if you're entering this year - you might want to give some very careful thought to your entry submission.
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| Ben and his submission - which got him into a pod! |
Previous Commissions
I've not done dedicated posts for every commission
However, the posts I have written associated with previous paintings for the Landscape Artist of the Year are listed below.
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